For Peggy Shannon, who assumed leadership of the Sacramento Theatre Company on Aug. 1. following artistic director Stephen Rothman's abrupt departure for Pennsylvania Centre Stage, every day seems to bring a surprise. And not the "Oh, boy, that's just what I wanted" kind of surprise.
Struggling under a $250,000 long-term debt and a finicky subscriber base scared off by the bankruptcy of the Sacramento Symphony, STC's precise financial position is still being plotted, said Shannon. "I knew STC had financial problems, but I didn't know everything," she added. "There's been some new revelation every day."
While four plays produced under Rothman's two-year tenure moved into STC's Top 10 list of best-selling shows, the theatre has continued to lose money, said spokesman Charlie Weiss. Coupled with Shannon's differing creative and business sensibilities, STC's fiscal malaise has prompted a budget cut, staffing changes, and a complete overhaul of the company's 1998-'99 season. That overhaul provided STC's some 4,000 subscribers a surprise of their own, delivered during the week of Aug. 24 in the form of an introductory letter from Shannon.
Of the revised season's eight offerings, only two are holdovers from the previously announced roster: opener Always... Patsy Cline by Ted Swindley, Sept. 15-Oct. 11, and Alfred Uhry's Tony-winning The Last Night at Ballyhoo, Feb. 23-Mar. 21. Both are slated for the McClatchey Mainstage.
Also included in the new lineup are Victoria Thompson's Dorothy Parker: Lady of the Corridor, Sept. 29-Nov. 28; Shakespeare's Pericles, Nov. 3-Dec. 6; December in America, Stories From the Heart, Dec. 11-20; David Hare's Skylight, Jan. 12-Feb. 7; D.L. Coburn's The Gin Game, Feb. 2-Mar. 21, and Emily Mann's Having Our Say, The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years, Apr. 6-May 2. "In the long run, I feel like this is a season that has real literary value to it and is appealing and entertaining," said Shannon.
Shannon said STC's revised season is just part of a master plan to lure back lost subscribers and instill confidence in city benefactors, who recently awarded the theatre's a $238,500 grant through the Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission.
Shannon said she even welcomed the strings attached to the grant, which call for a monthly accounting report. "It demands that the theatre operate as a business," said Shannon.
Sometimes operating as a business is unpleasant. When STC's budget was recently slashed from 1997-'98's $1.7 million to the current $1.5 million, staff reductions naturally followed.
Layoffs began July 1, with more coming after Shannon's arrival‹a mix of budget trimming and artistic director's prerogative. Among those coming onboard was managing director Wendy Armagnac and a new artistic associate yet to be named. "I looked very critically at why this theatre was in the financial shape it was in," Shannon explained. "I looked over the last 10 years of marketing campaigns, the administrative structure. I had to make some very hard decisions that I feel would turn this place around."
Shannon said her business sense wasn't honed at either the Riverside Repertory Theatre, where she left her producing artistic director position to accept STC's offer, or at A Contemporary Theatre in Seattle, where she served as artistic director. She received her MBA at the mall. "My philosophy is to run [STC] like a Nordstrom," she said, "where quality is first-rate; patron, donors, and sponsors alike are treated with extreme courtesy, and there's a strong financial accountability."
While this season's ticket holders won't be greeted by white-smocked, perfume-spraying twentysomethings at STC's front gate, they should notice an unprecedented attention to detail, said Shannon. Her plans call for pre-show entertainment in the theatre's courtyard, streamlined ticket sales, improved concessions, a vibrant eye-catching paint job for the building's exterior, and the renovation of the theatre's lobby and bathrooms.
Though she said she would "probably" have still taken the job had she known just how bare STC's cupboards were, the past few weeks have been a real test for the very pregnant Shannon's self-described "Zen-like calm." She's due to deliver her second child, a girl, in November. Shannon and her "significant other," actor Hassan El-Amin, have a four year old son, Isaiah.
"I didn't know it was going to be this huge a challenge, but I enjoy challenges," said Shannon. "I believe in this theatre. I believe in its potential."