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18 n e w h a v e n B I Z | A p r i l 2 0 2 2 | n e w h a v e n b i z . c o m A r t s & B u s i n e s s By Frank Rizzo F inancial realities — not just artistic re-envisioning — triggered the Tony Award-winning Long Wharf eatre's announcement in March that it will leave the physical complex it has called home for the past 57 years for a nomadic existence within the community. With years of six-digit deficits, declining endowment and audience numbers, and capital needs of its physical complex, Long Wharf 's leadership is changing the theater's business and artistic structure. "is is a step in that direction," said Managing Director Kit Ingui of the move. "It's acknowledging our income stream, and right-sizing the model to that reality. We have to break the practice of operating at a deficit that has been part of our life and that cannot continue." e theater's endowment — currently at $11 million, down from a high of $17 million seven years ago — credit lines and philanthropic funds have kept things running despite years of red ink. Following the close of the current season in June, the organization will take a year off to regroup, seek local input, deal with its physical inventory and plan for an itinerant existence in yet-to-be determined spaces throughout New Haven. Long Wharf is not alone in its fiscal dilemma. Other Connecticut theaters and not-for-profit producing venues across the country live perilously close to an economic precipice, theater executives said. "e business model [among America's regional theaters] is not strong," said Cynthia Ryder, managing director of Hartford Stage. "e year-to-year survival of Connecticut institutions should not be taken for granted." The big move As any homeowner knows, moving costs plenty. But Long Wharf has the resources to make the physical and other transitions over the next two years through more than $2 million it raised from a pre- pandemic "stabilization initiative." It will also fundraise for additional dollars as it prepares for the 2022-23 year with a single production, play readings and community conversations. A full season of productions won't happen until 2023-24. Ingui said the new business model will lead to a smaller budget and staff as the theater goes from a roughly $5.5 million to $6.5 million organization to a nonprofit that spends approximately $3.5 million to $4.5 million annually. "We also know that we will have to supplement what exists in those new spaces to produce theater that people have come to expect from Long Wharf," she said of the nationally-recognized theater whose new and classic works have won Pulitzer Prizes, Tony Awards and have regularly transferred to Broadway and beyond. Ingui also said the organization will continue its more flexible membership model generating monthly income rather than a fixed-play annual subscription template. Pivot with Padrón With the hiring of Jacob G. Padrón as artistic director three years ago, the already financially-troubled theater chose a dramatically different direction. Padrón's aim was to find new growth, energy and inclusion in the communities within New Haven. Over the decades, Long Wharf was criticized for its disconnect with the city, including by former Mayor John DeStefano who tried to woo the theater downtown during his tenure. Twenty years ago, the theater considered moving to a new downtown location largely funded by the state, but it never happened. In the mid-2010s Long Wharf sought a satellite venue and collaborated with the Shubert eatre and Albertus Long Wharf eatre transforms business model in survival bid PHOTO | CONTRIBUTED PHOTO | CONTRIBUTED Long Wharf Theatre Managing Director Kit Ingui is overseeing a major shift in the nonprofit's business model as it leaves its New Haven Food Terminal home. Long Wharf Theatre's current home at the New Haven Food Terminal.

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