After 27 years, the Mad Horse Theatre Company may have found a home.
On Monday, David Jacobs, president of the theater’s board of directors, appeared before the City Council in hopes of extending Mad Horse’s lease for the former Hutchins Elementary School at 24 Mosher St. through 2019.
Mad Horse has used the school for rehearsal space and prop storage since May 2009. In October, following the loss of its previous venue when Portland’s Lucid Stage closed, Mad Horse began staging shows at the Hutchins School, placing about 48 seats in two of the old classrooms, merged into one larger room in the years since the school closed.
“Mad Horse really took a leap of faith coming across the bridge,” said Jacobs. “We struggled to find a space and were thrilled that the city worked with us to make a theater happen at the old Hutchins School. We have now had a really creatively successful season here.”
Still, Jacobs said, ticket sales “have been down slightly,” even though South Portland and Cape Elizabeth residents have largely filled in for the Portland crowd that faded away with the move.
“We are working on ideas on how we can strengthen our being here,” said Jacobs. “Obviously, the biggest thing for us is the lease. For use to continue do what we’re doing, we’ve got to know we’ve got that security.”
Mad Horse initially paid $400 per month for the school when it first moved in, a rate that jumped to $800 last year. The proposed lease bumps the lease to $900 when it takes effect next year, then to $1,000 in 2017. The theater company also agrees to put in at least $3,000 worth of routine maintenance each year on the building, which dates to 1873. To date, largely using grants from the Davis Family Foundation, Mad Horse has put more than $28,000 into the old school, including installation of a handicap-accessible bathroom, new fire doors, painting and electrical work installation of a new furnace.
The current lease allows Mad Horse to sublet space to other nonprofit theater groups. However, it has given space to a for-profit company Stages: The Performing Arts Academy for Kids. Rather than get into a kerfuffle at the oversight, the council agreed to strike the work “nonprofit” from the lease, allowing Mad Horse to sublet to any theater group. Oversights can go both ways. The city was so excited to land Mad Horse then-Mayor Patti Smith even broke out a special welcoming proclamation it overlooked that fact that the theater needed “special exception” approval from the Planning Board to stage live shows. That was quickly corrected by December.
At Monday’s workshop session, the still-accommodating councilors also volunteered, without prompting, to amend the lease cycle by a couple of months to better coincide with Mad Horse’s fiscal year.
Afterward, Councilor Linda Cohen tried to entice Jacobs into an even longer stay than the five-year lease, fishing for interest in the company buying the Hutchins School.
“I was really happy to see Mad Horse make the jump across the bridge,” she said. “I’d like to see more of the arts and the creative economy coming to South Portland. I don’t think Portland should have a monopoly on that. We certainly have a lot to offer over here.”
Jacobs said a building purchase might be outside Mad Horse’s immediate financial grasp. However, he did intimate that the theater is looking forward to a long-term stay.
“Last year, we scrambled to find where we were going to perform,” he said. “Now, we’ve just had a board retreat and we’re really excited about developing a five-year plan, because we haven’t ever really had the stability to do that.
“We love it in South Portland. As long as the audience continues to come and support us, I don’t see why we would ever leave,” said Jabobs.
The City Council is scheduled to vote on the new lease at its next meeting, Aug. 5.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
