Troupes step outside the box in quest for audience

In a world in which television has supplanted the stage, theater companies succeed by thinking how their plays also can serve a useful purpose.

Three northern Nevada troupes see solvency in secondary service: business training, social service tie-in, and acting lessons.

Private parties companies and casinos provide the bread and butter business of Funtime Theatre. Its mystery dinners, presented for a flat fee of $1,500, employ six to 10 paid actors.

For business customers, when the goal is to provide an exercise for company team members to work together solving a problem in this case, a murder mystery the plays are custom-written for each company. Even the character parts are keyed to suit the specific participants.

And casinos hire the troupe to stage dinner entertainment for valued club members, says Kathy Easly, the troupe's founder.

She formed the company in 1991. Named Society Souls Inc. in 1999, its public persona is Funtime Theatre. Her husband Bob wrote the scripts for the first 10 years; now a troupe member also pens the scenarios.

Audience size at the mystery dinners has ranged from 15 to 300, says Easly. While big groups may sound unwieldy, she adds, "We've found it breaks into three groups: those who really get into it and follow you around and ask questions, those who want to be interested but are actually more interested in their dinner, and those who are only interested in their dinner."

Due to the small cast, private homes provide space for mystery dinners, says Easly, because the productions mostly require character development. But time can throw the cast a curve ball. "We don't always have a whole lot of notice," says Easly, "We like to have two months but sometimes we only get two weeks." Then it's a scramble to create the play.

Funtime Theater also presents stage plays, and provides the characters that populate the graveyard at Virginia City each autumn to reenact history. However, those actors work on a volunteer basis.

When presenting stage plays, Funtime Theater faces the challenge of all area performing groups: finding rehearsal and performance space. Also tough is getting the word out to actors about auditions.

But the rewards are great, says Easly, due to her love of theater, awakened when she performed in grade school plays. She also performed for many years with Reno Little Theater.

Social service tie-ins prove key to successful grant writing, says Stephanie Richardson, executive director, founder and artistic director at TheatreWorks of Northern Nevada.

The company contains 25 youths, 15 teens and 15 adults. Performances are suitable for all ages. Adult actors are paid 10 percent of the take if the box office does well.

Sierra Arts Foundation gave Richardson $1,000 to start up three years ago. Despite the several theater companies already in operation, yet another was funded, she says, "because we include kids."

When writing grants, Richardson says she's always looking for a service angle. "What can we do as a benefit to the community?"

For example, the play, "Dog Music" doubled as a benefit for SPCA.

"Goldilocks on Trial" tied in with a book drive. "Wicked Queen" dealt with the social problem of schoolgirl bullies. And every performance of

"Bang Bang You're Dead" which dealt with school shootings by boys was followed by a community town hall meeting.

"That kind of thinking is great for grant writing," Richardson says.

And when it comes to marketing the plays, Richardson says, the troupe has been successful at ticket sales because it carefully targets its audiences.

"Wicked Queen" was pitched to Girl Scouts and Washoe County School District. "Dog Lovers" was pitched to SPCA and Humane Society. Scraps, a dog bakery business, agreed to be a sponsor, and store employees handed out promotional postcards to customers.

Posters went up at Sparks Marina's dog beach and at Art Paws in the Park. An article about the play ran in Petfolio, a magazine for pet owners.

But the ongoing challenge that the group and other theater companies continue to face is finding a venue. Redfield Theatre on

Keystone Avenue costs $500 a night. The group has been presenting at the Laxalt Building on West Second Street, which costs just $65 a

night. However, Richardson says, word's gotten out about the reasonable rate and now she must compete with other theater companies wanting to book it.

And there's a constant need for actors. And even more so for volunteers to run the box office, build sets and create costumes. Finally, as the new kid on the block, TheatreWorks needs to build a reputation. "Bruka and Reno Little Theater have the name," she says.

Working with children presents another challenge.

"Adults realize the commitment of acting in a play," she says. "But kids after three rehearsals they're bored. They don't realize it's a discipline. I tell kids that if they don't fulfill their commitment to this play, they can't be in another show."

Parents are keen on their kids' participation, she says. "Parents want kids involved for self-esteem, reading and speaking. Parents say the biggest benefit is to see an introverted child able to perform before an audience of 100."

Richardson would like to secure a dedicated performance venue with adjacent office space. Presently, each time a play runs, the stage hands must transport the set to the rented venue each evening and then tear it down again because the space is always rented by day for other events.

And the pressure is increasing: The company began with three shows a year. This season, which runs from August 2008 to 2009, it plans eight plays.

Bruka theater, meanwhile, proves that a company can survive long term in a dedicated space. Started 15 years ago by Scott Beers, it leases two floors in the Masonic Building downtown at First and Virginia streets. The ground-level main stage seats 70 while the lower level seats 50. A staff of five is paid part-time wages for full-time work in a labor of love, says Mary Bennett, producing director.

Bruka presents up to eight adult shows annually, plus one children's show that tours schools. About half the funding comes from ticket sales, another 30 percent from grants, and 10 percent from donors. It pays $3,200 a month in rent.

The key to its financial sustainability, says Bennett, is that Bruka grew slowly to remain solvent. But not all rewards are financial.

"It's neat being part of the riverfront renaissance," she says. "Bruka as a group has been a major force in that."

Finally, a start up company, Empire Improv, is still finding its way to profitability. Formed within the past year, founder Michael Lewis says,

"I designed a curriculum for training and we've been offering free workshops, trying to fill classes." Traditionally, stage actors have paid for such classes to polish their skills.

In conjunction with Artown, Empire Improv has been presenting weekly shows and workshops at Studio on Fourth Street.

Lewis looks to his 12-year background teaching and performing with theater companies in Bakersfield and Los Angeles, and says he hopes to conduct improv sessions to teach business skills at area companies.

However, to land those lucrative business contracts, he says an improv company must have a reputation in the community. "The improv organizations who do that are huge."

To launch one in Reno, his goal is to house 20 stage-ready players able to put on weekly shows. But obstacles loom, starting with the search for a good cast.

"My goal," says Lewis, "is to put up work that's really good."