In early May, more than a dozen Connecticut theaters were notified by the state that the government was getting ready to disburse American Rescue Plan Act funds to those organizations.

The money would be for fiscal years 2024 and 2025. It reflected what the theaters had been told in writing in the summer of 2023 that they would be receiving.

But by mid-May, another message came from the state: Those funds had been reallocated and the theaters would not receive them after all.

That came as an unpleasant surprise to these organizations that are still recovering from the economic effects of the pandemic. Theater officials didn’t know legislators were even considering such a move.

Examples of how much in ARPA funds local venues had been anticipating:

The Eugene O’Neill Theater Center in Waterford had been expecting $80,000 for the fiscal year 2024 ― which, for the O’Neill, ends Aug. 31 ― and $60,000 for the following year. The center’s budget is a little over $4.5 million.

Goodspeed Musicals was told it would get $80,730 in FY 2024, and $60,547 in FY 2025. The organization’s budget is around $13 million, and its fiscal year runs with the calendar year.

The Garde Arts Center in New London was scheduled to get $211,935 in fiscal year 2025. Its annual budget is around $3 million, and its fiscal year ends July 31. The Garde was one of the few theaters that did receive the 2024 funds; more on that later.

In a letter to Gov. Ned Lamont and legislative leaders, 13 theaters ― including the O’Neill, the Garde, Goodspeed, and the Chestnut Street Playhouse in Norwich ― are asking them and the General Assembly to restore the funding for the 2024 fiscal year “as quickly as possible to ensure the survival of these organizations.”

In addition, they asked that the theaters be prioritized so that any available funds or unspent ARPA dollars in October of this year would go toward the FY2025 funding that had been eliminated. The amount for the 17 theaters combined was originally to total $3.5 million for FY 2024 and $2.625 million for FY2025. (Thirteen of those theaters signed the letter to the governor and legislative leaders.)

The letter emphasized that the ARPA money was a critical part of the budgets the theater’s boards have approved.

“For many of us, the loss of this ARPA funding comes at the end of our fiscal years; some of us have only four weeks remaining in our fiscal year, too late to meaningfully reduce expenses and raise this extraordinary amount. A number of us are operating in a deficit as we continue to recover from the financial impact of the pandemic; the elimination of pledged ARPA money only deepens our losses, making us more financially unstable,” the letter states.

Tiffani Gavin, executive director of the O’Neill, said in an interview that the loss of the state funding “means that we will absolutely run at a deficit this year. We were already pretty much on the verge of running at a deficit anyway. This will make it much tougher.”

She hopes that an O’Neill fundraiser coming up will do well. But, she said, it’s going to be a tough end of the fiscal year as the O’Neill heads into its busy summer season, where it holds several conferences, including its renowned National Playwrights Conference.

“It is too late to make the kind of cuts that would be able to significantly cut into this (missing) piece, and it is too late to raise that kind of money. We were promised it and we expected it. We were enshrined in the budget. So there was no reason to think that we weren’t going to get this money,” she said. She said she had not encountered something like this before.

The O’Neill, like other theaters, had been working to bounce back from the pandemic. Theaters were among the last to reopen after the COVID-induced closures.

“We spent the pandemic just trying to keep our heads above water, and now we’re trying to do a lot of catching up,” Gavin said.

The O’Neill has done fundraising, made cuts, and looked at how to share resources with other venues. “This isn’t just us standing here with our hand out to the state,” Gavin said.

She said that O’Neill folks are in the process of trying to figure out what they might have to cut or postpone to offset the ARPA funding change. The O’Neill would like not to have to cancel anything, but this might necessitate “nibbling around the edges” of things, she said.

“I remain hopeful and excited about going into our 60th anniversary but am tremendously concerned,” Gavin said.

The Goodspeed

Donna Lynn Hilton, artistic director of Goodspeed Musicals, said that for this year, Goodspeed will have to find $80,000 in funding elsewhere because they budgeted, planned and produced with those funds assumed to be coming. She said they haven’t looked at programs yet, “but if we can’t find the funding elsewhere, we’ll certainly be looking to where we can tighten the belt and not end up increasing our deficit.” (Goodspeed is allowed to draw from its endowment to make up a deficit, but Hilton noted that the endowment isn’t limitless.)

While the theaters are advocating to try to get funding restored at some level for this year, they’ll have to be more cautious going forward. Goodspeed is in the middle of budgeting for its 2025 fiscal year right now.

As for rebounding from the pandemic, Hilton said, “We feel very fortunate compared to our peers. Through the region and across the country, many theaters report 50 percent or more reduction in audience. That has not been the case at Goodspeed. I think we feel like we lost about 30 percent of our audience with the pandemic, (people) that are simply not going to come back to the theater.”

Pre-pandemic, Goodspeed’s mainstage shows tended to run between 10 and 13 weeks. This year, the theater has budgeted for nine-week runs. They hope to sustain that next year, but Hilton said she wouldn’t be surprised if they don’t have to reduce that to eight weeks. Even so, she said, “Our story is better than (the ones) many regional theaters are telling.”

The state’s response

Connecticut Office of Policy and Management spokesman Chris Collibee said no one was available for an interview but emailed this statement:

“The administration provided legislative leaders with a status update regarding ARPA funding during the course of budget negotiations. Legislative leaders provided feedback to the administration that included a reduction of funding in FY 24 for theaters. DECD had processed ARPA applications and made payments to some theaters for FY 24. The department was continuing to process paperwork from others when they received word the funds may no longer be available. The administration informed legislative leaders that some theaters had applications that were being processed and they chose to reallocate those resources for the higher education units and other legislative priorities. Governing requires making difficult choices about how to allocate scarce taxpayer resources across competing priorities.

“ARPA funds may be reallocated by OPM, in consultation with legislative leaders, this fall if intended uses come in under budget or cannot meet timelines imposed by the federal government, the General Fund budget is in balance, and the additional $40 million guaranteed to UConn and CSCU are met.”

A few theaters got some money

The summer 2023 notification of theaters’ individual awards came from the Office of the Arts at Connecticut's Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD), which administers the allocations.

The companies had to prove financial hardship caused by the pandemic, whether it be, for example, decreases in revenue, challenges covering payroll or increased costs.

As Collibee mentioned, some theaters did get their money for fiscal year 2024; they filed their paperwork before the funding was reallocated. But most of the theaters didn’t get anything. And none of them are now scheduled to get the funding that had originally been earmarked for 2025.

Gavin said the DECD found a little money in its line item, so that was split among four theaters whose funds were essentially going out that day. The O’Neill gets a little over $20,000 from that, which Gavin said is helpful.

“I appreciate the DECD trying to help the situation, but the state has really failed us on this,” Gavin said, noting that it’s difficult for theaters if they can’t rely on money promised by the state, especially when those organizations have not recovered from the pandemic’s impact.

At the Garde

Steve Sigel, executive director of the Garde, said the Garde did receive its funding for 2024 but missing the funds for 2025 “means a significant readjustment of how we plan for next year in terms of how many events we do, and it could have implications on our staffing, certainly. It just adds a big burden to our planning. We certainly don’t want to go into debt for that amount. We’re trying to stay even each year. But we’re doing a lot of additional activity post-COVID to reintroduce a significant level of activity in the city, and we don’t want to cut back on that, especially because so many other businesses rely on our activity.”

As for audiences, Sigel said the Garde is approaching pre-COVID numbers but isn’t there yet. He said about half of the audience for every show consists of first-time attendees. That’s great, he said, but there are people who aren’t coming out because they are still cautious about indoor large gatherings.

Another issue for theaters is that expenses are up. Many arts organizations are, he said, in essence trying to recapture lost dollars from the pandemic.

Sigel is hopeful that the state might find additional funds to make good on the money that was supposed to be allocated. He doesn’t think the May move was an intentional act that indicated that lawmakers believe the theaters don’t need the support.

“Historically, the state has been very supportive of the Garde and has been critical for the Garde because the city is so small and has so little resources itself,” he said.

k.dorsey@theday.com