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Citrus theater group tries to stabilize
By JORGE SANCHEZ, Times Staff Writer
CRYSTAL RIVER -- Facing a leadership void, a group claiming to represent the general membership of Playhouse 19 community theater will seek new candidates to fill the depleted board of directors and eventually revamp the bylaws. The board of directors has dwindled from nine to three, and there are no officers left after a series of resignations. The attempt by the community theater to pull itself up by its bootstraps could be hampered by some dismal financial news: Attendance and season ticket subscribers are down significantly. The theater lost $78,000 in the past two years. Also, $20,000 from a recent cash-out mortgage refinancing has been mostly spent, leaving about $7,000 in the bank. And there's a credit card with a $10,000 balance, according to the theater's former bookkeeper, who presented those figures Tuesday night during a three-hour membership meeting. The theater's monthly operating expenses are about $8,000. The theater missed a mortgage payment during the refinancing, former president Richard Flury said. Still, the membership group feels the theater has a mission to fulfill, which is to bring community theater, mostly revivals of Broadway musicals, to Citrus County. But first, the internal squabbling causing board members and volunteers to depart has to stop so a stable board of directors can be found. "We've got to work together as a team," said Curtis Rich, who served on previous boards and attended the Tuesday meeting at the theater. "The problem is that we've got to put together a board with good leadership and work as a team. Then we'll get the grants." Rich and other patrons said the theater must do a better job of obtaining private donations and grants to stay solvent. "I don't know of any theater that makes it just on ticket sales," he said. Playhouse 19 executive director Ray Hill, who was given an impromptu vote of confidence by the 45 people who attended the meeting Tuesday, said he was pleased with the outcome. The theater has about 570 season subscribers. "At this point, with $7,000 in the bank, I'm a happy man," he said. Hill said the theater is getting checks from patrons renewing their season tickets, and that money will pay operating expenses. He said the money should be spent on paying royalty fees for next season's plays, but the current circumstances made that impossible. "But I am glad that this meeting and the newspaper article have made the general membership take notice of what's going on here," Hill said. Tuesday's meeting, led by Greg Wilker, an actor in some of the theater's plays, was mostly an indictment of actions by the board of directors, primarily the officers. The only remaining director who served as an officer, secretary Charles Kylis, resigned during the meeting and walked out. The remaining board members are Jeri Augustine, Shelby Weingarten and Lois Thomas. "The problem is the bylaws," Wilker told the audience. "No board should have this amount of power. They are accountable to no one." The financial news was delivered by David Carpenter, a bookkeeper who was fired by Hill after he refused to give Hill a computer password that would have allowed the person using it to edit the financial records. Carpenter said Playhouse 19 lost $53,000 last year and $25,000 so far this year. Hill denied changing any financial records and Carpenter did not accuse him of that, but said there would be no other reason for having the password. By the end of the meeting, Wilker was chosen to head a search committee to find new board members. The revamping of the bylaws will follow that move. -- Jorge Sanchez can be reached at 860-7313 or sanchez@sptimes.com
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