Fiscal year 2005-06 was to be the most challenging in the history of the Denver Center for the Performing Arts. But the community responded with significant increases in attendance, ticket revenue and giving, which has cautiously optimistic officials hoping the worst is behind them.
Ticket revenue was up 39.2 percent, from $21.2 million to $29.5 million, with overall revenue surging 16.6 percent to $48.5 million, according to the DCPA’s newly issued annual report.
After a two-year dry spell, touring-show attendance spiked 25.2 percent, to 513,008. That’s thanks largely to a sold-out run of “Wicked” and a full year of Second City comedy shows. And the total number of seats sold through subscription packages rose 33.5 percent, to 123,340.
The public also responded positively to Kent Thompson’s first year as Denver Center Theatre Company artistic director, with attendance spiking 15.8 percent, from 152,576 to 176,750. That’s mostly attributable to his increasing the number of play offerings from nine to 11. Subscribed seats were up 5 percent.
But the fiscal year ending June 30 also included 18 layoffs, $1.4 million in administrative cuts and deferrals to badly needed facility improvements. So wary company officials were talking Tuesday more in terms of stabilization than full recovery.
“It’s challenged, honestly,” new chairman Daniel L. Ritchie said of the Denver Center’s financial condition. “We’ve got work to do,” citing his oft-stated goal of achieving relief from the city’s seat tax.
The DCPA pays 10 percent of all ticket revenue back to the city, but remains responsible for the physical upkeep of all its facilities – even though it built them and gave them back to the city.
The DCPA is in the third year of a planned, strategic reduction in the annual contribution it takes from the Bonfils Foundation, created to support it more than 30 years ago. That contribution was halved to $3 million in 2005-06. It’s a painful but necessary step, officials said.
Individual, trustee, corporate and foundation giving increased from $2.4 million to $3 million last year. That includes a significant increase from American Express, and the creation of the Women’s Voices that raised more than $500,000.
For the first time, the DCPA is operating more on community giving than support from the Bonfils Foundation.
“We really needed to reduce our dependence on the foundation as a source of income,” said DCPA vice president Dorothy Denny. By decreasing how much it takes from its foundation for operations now, the hope is to grow a stronger endowment for the future. Denver Center chief financial officer Vicky Miles calls it tough love.
“We made it successfully through a really challenging time,” she said, “but it takes more than one good year to ensure the long-term financial health of an organization.”
Theater critic John Moore can be reached at 303-954-1056 or jmoore@denverpost.com.
