WESTBROOK – A drop in students enrolled in acting classes – Acorn Productions’ main revenue source – is seen as the primary reason the theater group will leave its Dana Warp Mill space in Westbrook after 71?2 years.
Michael Levine, Acorn’s founder, said Tuesday that the organization has been operating under a revenue model based on its acting school, with productions done as an “outgrowth of the work done in the acting school.” However, he said, during the last few years, interest in the classes had declined.
That forced the Acorn board of directors to make the difficult decision.
“We can’t support a space of our own without some sort of foundation for a revenue stream, and the economic engine that supported that space was the acting school,” he said.
He said Acorn’s summer camps, which used to host seven sessions that were heavily attended, now run four sessions that are 60-70 percent full. Levine suspects that the combination of a struggling local economy and the growing number of opportunities for kids to get involved in drama has also affected Acorn’s numbers.
“It’s not the biggest market in the world,” he said. “It’s not like the audience is magically doubling.”
He also cited a decline in rentals of its mill space, which was once rented multiple nights per week for dance rehearsals.
The theater company will vacate its home space April 30 but continue to offer its well-known annual programs, including the Maine Playwrights Festival and Naked Shakespeare.
Acorn is producing the 13th annual Maine Playwrights Festival at the St. Lawrence Arts Center in Portland from April 25-May 4, and “Hamlet,” at the University of Southern Maine, from May 30-June 14. According to Levine, these events will be unaffected by the decision to move, as will the upcoming Naked Shakespeare shows at Slainte Wine Bar and Lounge in Portland. He said that during the summer, the organization will explore options for next year’s theater season.
“While we enjoyed our tenancy at the Dana Warp Mill,” said Levine in a press release, “economic forces have caused us to re-evaluate how we are serving our mission to nurture and develop the performing arts in our community. In many ways, our own success has led to us seeding so many projects throughout Greater Portland that the need for a permanent space no longer exists.”
Levine said Tuesday that many theater companies in the Greater Portland area do not always operate from a “home” location, and that Acorn did the same prior to moving to Westbrook. He said that after the move to the mill, Acorn received help with rent from other arts organizations, but that the only remaining renter is “In Motion” dance.
“The plan was to always have these other partners, and I don’t know why they stopped renting, but at a certain point you have to face the reality that people don’t want to rent the space,” he said. “We’re theater people, but we’re also business people.”
Kerry Rasor, the president of Acorn’s board of directors, has been with the organization for its entire run in Westbrook. Rasor said Wednesday that it “is a constant economic crunch when it comes to theater” and to get the necessary support to maintain programming.
“Like a lot of other theater companies, we will be a company that doesn’t have their own studio space,” she said.
Rasor said it will be difficult to leave Westbrook because of the connections the company made with the Westbrook community, which included working with My Place Teen Center and the Westbrook Community Center.
“This is certainly not the end of Acorn Productions, just this particular phase,” Levine said.
While Acorn’s major events will remain intact, Rasor said the board is currently considering where to go with their other programming, such as Teen Shakespeare and children’s programming that are on hold.
“The main chunk that is definitely on hiatus is the school,” she said. “Everything is still on the table, it’s just what we can make happen, and that’s in flux.”
Rasor added that Acorn’s Maine Playwrights Festival is the “biggest it has ever been.”
Bill Baker, the assistant city administrator for business and community relations, was surprised by the announcement Tuesday.
“We’re disappointed every time someone from the creative community fails, but I’d certainly welcome an opportunity to speak to them and see if there’s a way that we can keep them here,” he said. “But there are certainly a lot of market forces at play here.”
Levine said that while it will be an emotional move from the mill, especially after putting so much “sweat, equity and time” into turning the space into a functional theater company, he wants to focus on the positives as the company starts a new chapter.
“It touched many people’s lives, and that’s what we wanted it to do,” he said. “There are people whose lives were literally turned around by their time there, so I’ll focus on all that.”
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