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Date: 12/16/2020
WILBRAHAM – One thing most people aren’t doing during the pandemic is sitting in large crowds to watch theater productions. For small local theater companies, the inability to sell out shows has caused serious financial challenges. In spite of this, for Director Mark Giza and the Theatre Guild of Hampden, the show must go on.
Giza began the Theatre Guild of Hampden 15 years ago. The guild has produced shows across multiple genres and eras, from “The Full Monty” to “Cat of a Hot Tin Roof,” but Giza said he tries to put on shows that have wide appeal and are a little more modern.
The guild used to stage productions at the Hampden Country Club, now Greathorse, and Wilbraham & Monson Academy, but Giza said those venues weren’t handicap accessible. For several seasons, Fountain Park in Wilbraham has been the location of the guild’s shows. Eventually, Giza wants the guild to have a permanent home of its own. The guild is far from that dream, though, as the pandemic has created financial difficulty for the theater company.
“We opened with ‘Mama Mia’ in March and between the first weekend and the second weekend, we had to shut down,” Giza said. The guild lost about $6,000 in ticket refunds.
Giza put on “Steel Magnolias” at Fountain Park in June as a free show for the community. To comply with pandemic restrictions, it was performed outside with a limit of 40 audience members for each of the three shows. Even the actors were staged to have six feet between them at all times. While the theater company didn’t make any money on ticket sales, there was a donation basket, from which they made about $450.
“What we really need is a couple of businesses to say, ‘here’s $500, here’s $1,000,’ just to get us back on our feet,” Giza said. He explained that musicals cost between $10,000 and $12,000 to produce, largely due to purchasing licenses, staff and costumes.
“Dolly’s dress alone, with all the sequins, it’s just classic,” Giza noted about the cost of the upcoming production. Plays cost significantly less to produce, at around $4,000.
Traditional forms of fundraising have been difficult, Giza said. “It’s just hard right now because everybody is tapped. You can’t have a spaghetti supper, you can’t have a dance,” he said because fundraisers are affected by the same pandemic restrictions as audience size. Instead, Giza said, the guild is relying on donations and the Valley Gives initiative.
Despite the financial hit that the guild has taken over the past nine months, it is pushing forward with its 2021 season. Giza said the guild will be presenting a production of “Hello, Dolly!” over two weekends in June. As with most musicals, it will be staged outside. Giza hopes that restrictions on crowd size will be lifted by then. In September, he will direct “12 Angry Men” in the Red Barn at Fountain Park and follow that up with “Funny Girl” in March of 2022.
People can donate to the Theatre Guild of Hampden at www.theatreguildofhampden.org or www.valley-gives.org/organizations/theatre-guild-of-hampden.