Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, September 26, 1993 TAG: 9309300290
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOE KENNEDY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Jim Ayers would open it, recognize it and hustle into a rehearsal at Mill Mountain Theatre to show it to Jere Hodgin.
Then Ayers, the theater's business manager, and Hodgin, its artistic and executive director, would celebrate by dancing a little jig. Marion Via, a reclusive Roanoke philanthropist, had come through for them again.
If anything symbolizes the heady days of growth in the arts in Roanoke in the 1980s, it would be Via's annual checks, which often amounted to $100,000 to $200,000 for each of the arts groups she favored, plus a host of educational and social service institutions. Through her anonymous, yet famous, donations, the privacy-loving heiress enabled the Roanoke Symphony to retain Victoria Bond as its first, full-time conductor; the Southwest Virginia Opera Society to become Opera Roanoke, a fully professional company with Bond as its artistic director and with professional singers brought in from New York and elsewhere; and the Mill Mountain Theatre to attain a level of theatrical production unusual in an area this size.
Unknown to the general public, deeply appreciated by the groups that received them, her gifts were the topping to a period that began in 1983 with the opening of Center in the Square in a refurbished furniture warehouse on the Roanoke City Market and continued with expansion and improvements to the Art Museum of Western Virginia and other institutions.
They helped make the quality of Roanoke arts offerings something to be proud of. And they undoubtedly stimulated others to make significant contributions.
When the arts boom was at its peak, the Roanoke Symphony staged three summer pops concerts, a performance of Quincy Jones' ``Black Requiem'' by the orchestra, Ray Charles and a large community choir and a series of Sunday afternoon chamber concerts. The symphony began an annual, elegant polo match to raise funds, hired five full-time ``core'' musicians and joined with Opera Roanoke, the Roanoke Valley Choral Society and professional singers for annual, wintertime concert versions of famed operas, including Verdi's ``Aida'' and Gershwin's ``Porgy and Bess.'' The Arts Council of the Blue Ridge, as it came to be known, presented offbeat entertainment in a series called ``One Night Stands.''
With Virginia's economy booming, money came in from state and federal sources, as well as area businesses, notably Dominion Bank.
Roanoke, a gritty city that had seen the railroad, its principal employer, merge and move its headquarters to Norfolk, had more than its share of artistic excitement.
The excitement continues in many ways, but the rapid growth has slowed. Recession struck, affecting contributions. Facing a budget deficit in 1991, Gov. Douglas Wilder gutted the Virginia Commission for the Arts, the grant-giving lifeline in Richmond, slashing its annual budget by 80 percent. Some prime supporters of the arts shifted their money to stabilize the struggling Center in the Square. All organizations had to work harder for contributions.
Last January, Marion Via died. She left nothing in her will to the groups she had showered with money and attention. Whether further contributions will come from her heirs is a delicate matter that few are willing to discuss.
Via made it plain during her lifetime that she would not burden her heirs with stipulations continuing her gifts, says Bond, the symphony's artistic director. The plan was to spread seeds. The flowers that resulted were to be maintained by the community at large.
Arts professionals and patrons are eager for the creative momentum to continue. That means different things to different groups.
``We're in transition from a period of being heavily dependent on one donor to seeking broad support for our endeavors,'' says Judy Clark, executive director of Opera Roanoke. ``What happens this year will indicate a direction for the company.''
Two years ago, the opera board developed a long-range plan to ensure the company's survival and growth when Marion Via died, says Joseph D. Logan III, the president. It doubled its income in the past two years, and it's aiming to do so again this year, from $76,000 to $154,000. It hopes its budget of $292,000 will cover administrative expenses and four performances of each of its two productions, ``Sweeney Todd'' and ``The Marriage of Figaro.''
Each production costs about $60,000. Ticket sales cover about a third of that, and contribute nothing toward the administrative costs.
With Via's help, the opera company established an endowment fund of about $250,000 and an investment fund of more than twice that amount. The interest it produces has been used to meet some of the operating expenses.
But, says J. Tyler Pugh, the board treasurer, the margin is narrow.
``We will have to use some of our cash reserves, as we have done every year, to be able to produce the kind of opera productions that we have been proud to present in the past few years,'' he says.
For the symphony, the ups and downs of the economy caused a gradual paring of unprofitable activities. The chamber concerts were discontinued after losing money. The core musicians were let go. A pops concert was dropped, as was the winter opera concert, which Via underwrote.
The Monday night subscription series continues (pianist Leon Bates was the soloist for the season's opener) and the symphony still exercises its flair for inventive programming. Willie Nelson played a pops concert this summer, and Roberta Flack will perform with the orchestra in October.
But the cutbacks have directly affected the musicians, says Valerie Mullison, oboe player and the head of the orchestra's players committee. They are rehearsing and performing less and making less money. That's especially hard on young, free-lance musicians with bills to pay.
The orchestra's reputation enables it to draw players from as far as Cleveland, Cincinnati and Ann Arbor, Mich. With fewer performances and rehearsals, traveling that far becomes less worthwhile. Mullison knows of no one who has stopped coming for that reason, but she worries that some might -- and that the quality will suffer.
In the best of times, the musicians met and played together about every three weeks.
"With even a month in between concerts,'' she says, ``you lose things.''
She says the musicians blame no one for the situation, but many are discouraged by it.
The symphony has a current budget of $1.3 million and a permanent endowment of more than $500,000, with pledges over the next three years bringing the total to some $720,000, plus operating reserves, according to Marguerite Fourcroy, its executive director. Each concert brings up to $60,000 in direct costs. Ticket sales cover about a third of that, leaving two-thirds to be covered by money from other sources.
``I think we are a stronger organization than we were even a few years ago,'' Fourcroy says. But she admits to facing a ``tough time right now. We've lost a strong financial supporter.''
Via's death and the effects of the recession also are being felt at Mill Mountain Theatre. State and federal grant money shrank from $81,000 in 1989 to about $38,000 last year. During the same period, though, donations from individuals, corporations and foundations rose from $225,359 to $429,521 -- a result not only of Via's sizable contribution, but also of going hard after new sources and obtaining more from existing ones, says Jere Hodgin, the theater's artistic and executive director.
The theater's receipts in '92 reached more than $1.1 million, and its disbursements were some $20,000 less. With the Via money unavailable, Hodgin doesn't know what 1994 will bring, though he says the theater already has sold more season tickets than last year.
``I don't think that most of our audience recognizes that if we were to sell every ticket to every show for the top price . . . we still could not pay our way,'' Hodgin says. Expenses are high. Royalties -- payments for the right to produce a work -- vary widely.
The stage production of ``Foxfire'' carried a royalty of $5,575. For the 31 performances of ``42nd Street,'' a popular musical, the figure was $22,562. Add $55,000 in performers' salaries, $21,000 for musicians' pay, $16,000 for costumes, $13,000 for sets and $9,500 for tech crew work and you get a production cost of $137,000. And that's an incomplete list. The show fell some $20,000 short of breaking even.
``But that's considered a huge success to us,'' Hodgin says. ``It was virtually sold out.''
The theater has no cash reserves that compare with the other groups'. Hodgin says the policy was to put Via's money right to work.
Arts people in Roanoke say the valley has an unusually broad base of support for their work. True, Via was a big contributor, and other big ones exist, but many donations come in smaller denominations, and those are equally welcome. Now, they say, with the recession and Via's death, more of the population will be asked to chip in -- as will other entities.
``The challenge I would give is to the business and corporate community and to the municipal governments of this region,'' Hodgin says. First Union Corp., the North Carolina bank that bought hometown Dominion, hasn't revealed what, if any, support it will provide to community organizations. People are eager to find out.
Hodgin says the stimulating effects that arts groups have on the valley's economy is sometimes overlooked by area officials. The theater is receiving an $8,500 contribution from Roanoke County this year, $2,500 from Salem and only $1,000 from Roanoke City -- despite paying some $25,000 in city admissions taxes each year, and despite providing customers who give consistent boosts to Market area businesses.
No one in the arts seems to be panicking, but, as Hodgin's tone indicates, no one wants to be taken for granted, either.
``I think what happens this year will determine the future of this area's cultural life,'' Judy Clark says. ``It is an honest-to-goodness opportunity to determine how we can best serve the people of this area.''
Arts patron Heidi Krisch says she is optimistic because Roanokers have always come forward to support the things they love, such as the Hotel Roanoke.
Tyler Pugh says Roanoke Valley residents must recognize the cost of having quality arts organizations, something they haven't had to do, thanks in part to Marion Via.
``It's time to pay the piper,'' Victoria Bond says. ``This is when the music stops, and everybody throws his or her quarter into the hat.''
by CNB