Last week’s decision by the Tacoma Actors Guild (TAG) to end its season early left ticket-holders frustrated, and board members scrambling to find ways to appease audiences and balance the books.

As theatre-goers arrived Thursday evening to watch TAG’s production of the “Chaps!” holiday play, they were greeted by board members and bad news: the theatre was $300,000 to $350,000 in debt, and Columbia Bank froze its account (though TAG had $30,000 in the account, it had an outstanding note of approximately $165,000).

The result?

Postponed productions of The Glass Menagerie (Jan. 12 – Jan. 30), Sleuth (Feb. 16 – Mar. 6), and The Comedy of Errors (Mar. 23 – Apr. 10); and the resignations of TAG’s artistic director Pat Patton and board president Shelley Angelo.

TAG’s announcement devastated Tacoma’s theatre audience. It also provided a sobering look at this city’s theatre-business climate.

To be sure, mid-sized theatres like TAG are struggling locally (Empty Space Theatre in Seattle will close Jan. 15 unless it raises $350,00) and nationally (according to Theatre Facts 2003, a report on the national theatre business by Theatre Communications Group, nearly 60 percent of the 85 nonprofit theaters surveyed for the report ended last year with a deficit).

For several key reasons, however, Tacoma is a uniquely challenging place to run a theatre production business.

“I think the challenge in Tacoma is the type of theatre that can be produced,” says Jon Douglas Rake, Artistic Director at the Tacoma Musical Playhouse (TMP). “Tacoma audiences aren’t willing to take risks. They like standards. TAG’s challenge was to find that happy road in the middle, yet challenge the audience as well.”

Indeed, when TAG staged “Baltimore Waltz” in 2002, more than two-dozen incensed ticketholders complained to TAG’s management. The play was indirectly about AIDS and contained implied sexual content.

Another challenge is corporate funding.

“Tacoma doesn’t have the same number of large corporations like Seattle,” says Rake. “In this city, we often compete for the same money.” Rake adds that corporate sponsorship is difficult “everywhere,” but particularly tough in Tacoma.

Josie Turner, Manager of Tacoma Economic Development Department’s Culture & Tourism Division, agrees with Rake.

“It’s always a challenge, especially in this economic climate, for arts organizations to find funding,” she says. “I wouldn’t say organizations are ‘fighting’ over funds, but the pool of money is a constant, and that’s definitely a challenge. Until there are ways to enlarge that pool, there is always going to be that problem.”

Turner points out that Tacoma audiences have changed from subscribers to single-ticket purchasers, which has impacted the theatre business.

“Historically, we have seen subscriptions drop, which have been the backbone of theatres, and single-ticket sales rise,” she says. “People aren’t planning their lives around season-long subscriptions.”

This change has contributed to a level of financial uncertainty in an already fiscally fragile industry. According to TAG, a drop in the number of season-ticket subscribers and a rise in unpredictable and uneven single-ticket sales contributed to its struggle.

Area theatres also face the challenge of presenting material with a ticket-price affordable to all audiences.

“If theatres charged the true price of production costs,” says Turner, “many people wouldn’t have access to the arts. That’s something that arts organizations want to do — make theatre accessible to all residents of Tacoma.”

Funding problems, like those at TAG, make that tough, according to Turner. Still, Turner believes that TAG’s problems are more indicative of the inherent business of theatre, rather than any shortcomings of Tacoma’s theatre scene. She argues that small theatres such as Shakespeare in the Parking Lot and the TMP have had success in Tacoma by finding a specific niche with audiences.

Indeed, TMP has survived for 11 years. Artistic director Rake reports that his theatre had a “banner year” in 2003. The theatre is tentatively planning a benefit for TAG on Jan. 26.

“Musical theatre is easier to sell,” he says. “We do new things as well, but we have built a trust with our audience. Our audience knows that these newer productions will work.”