Welcome to the meeting of the performing arts committee on September 17th today.

Let me pull this up.

At six nineteen.

Okay.

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Chair David Garcia.

Okay, let's look at the minutes here from last time.

I'm Valerie, I have reviewed the minutes, and they looked at the me while I didn't attend the August twenty-second.

They just seem to match what I understand this is best.

I second the motion.

That would be unanimously.

Speakers are limited to three minutes.

State law prohibits the committee from acting on any non-agenda items.

Do we have oral communication from the public?

I don't know if there's a good timer.

I do.

Um, there's nobody on Zoom right now.

That's a month.

Okay.

Item five, unfinished business.

None.

Looking at item six.

Um with revenue company review from P1T.

So I'll start with the staff now first.

And then I'll end by um.

So this is what welcoming PYT on your annual review for the resident company status.

Um, most of you already know this, but for our audience and various folks, Peninsula Youth Theater was founded in 1992 with a clear mission to provide outstanding theatrical learning experiences that develop leadership, emphasize responsibility, and foster teamwork in a supportive respective environment.

They emphasize professional production values to help children cultivate a deep appreciation for the theatrical arts.

And PYT is committed to providing an enriching theatrical experience with the community and local schools to demonstrate and reinforce the positive role that the arts play in academic success.

So for the previous fiscal year, ending December 31st, 2024, Peninsula Youth Theater had an approved budget of 1,072,763.

And through program services, they generated 798,415 in revenue and received 274,348 from contributions and grants.

Looking ahead to the current fiscal year, ending December 31st, 2025.

PYT has a budget of 1,134,746.

The anticipated revenue from program services is approximately 829,046, with an additional 305,000 5,700 expected from contributed revenue sources.

In return, PYT gains priority in choosing dates during the primary scheduling for their upcoming season.

So the analysis following here.

So they did four shows on the main stage, finding Nemo, Mary Poppins, Tuck Everlasting, and Alice in Wonderland.

Any questions there?

I'm kind of gonna go through this.

We've seen some of these before, but I know I have a couple new committee members.

So if you have questions, don't hesitate to slow me down if you need to.

So as you can see, uh number of performances for finding Nemo, six following Mary Province, eight, eight, and six for a total of 28 performances.

Total and number of tickets for mainstage shows was 9,551.

Gross ticket sales, the percentage of the seats sold was 57%.

As you can see moving across, this is kind of the 14%.

We do a flat fee versus a gross, and for PYT their percentage is 14%.

So that's the percentage that the city uh collected for rental revenues and then facility and audience services, laboring equipment, ticket service fees, total revenues to CIP for the main stage CPA for the main stage is 112,713.

And then they did following 36 performances in the second stage for a total of 3,972 tickets.

Uh gross ticket sales there, 45,575.

The percentage of the ticket seats sold for all of those shows was 69%.

Again, 14%.

There's an asterisk behind any of those, if it ends up being a flat fee, which I will say that typically PYT is always at a gross.

They sell enough tickets that it isn't a flat fee.

It's only if the ticket sales don't cover.

Um net to PYT is 136,983 and 47 cents.

We had four performances on the main stage and seven in second stage.

Any questions from my community?

I have a question.

Um for facility and audience services fees.

270 dollars for the second stage for all of them except for Chicago teen edition.

That's because the um stories on stage are typically um school performances.

We don't take a facility use fee.

So the when we say facility, it's actually facility use fee.

And then audience services for the school performances, we don't take those um because we sell them in bulk.

And so it's like a per order fee, it's a much smaller amount.

And the Chicago teen edition, although it was in um second stage, it was a Connor.

It was over the summer.

Yeah, it was a typical production.

It wasn't a school only production.

Okay, so that's the difference for that one.

Yes, thank you.

Any other questions?

Okay, then I would like to welcome Connor up to give our presentation.

So if the presentation was written in the peninsula, you could hear it.

I'm good.

Thank you.

Hi everyone.

Uh my name's Connor.

Connor.

Uh hello.

Um, I am managing director at PIT.

I am um joined today by several of our board members.

Um welcome.

Would you like to introduce yourselves?

You don't have to.

We will be participating in parts of this.

Well, my name is Vivek.

I have been with Ship with BYT, the lab windows.

We've got me on somebody's on stage.

Yeah.

It's Carol Down Muller.

It's my second I sort of was on the board when my daughter was a performer at PYT.

I'm back on the board to help out with stories on stage and some other things.

Hi, I'm Pam Padromo, and uh my kid started at PYT in 2013.

I've been involved pretty actively ever since, board president for the last two years and on the board of the others before that.

And with volunteer producer book, and I'm Alette Mahler, and I've been PYT if I have to say, since the T99, uh my daughter grew up at PYT and I got directed in customs and I've been doing customers ever since.

Um I'm on the board now, but um have successfully stayed off of it for many years, preferring to be behind the scenes at costumes, but um, routine.

Hi, uh my name's Dan Kelly.

I'm a Mad V resident.

I've been on the PYT board.

I joined during COVID.

Uh so five years.

Uh my children were involved but are not too old for that.

Um yeah.

I'm Carrie Watson, um Mountain Dew resident, uh, been on the board for a little over a year, I think, so probably maybe.

Um my daughter's been involved with PYT productions since playing a box and camps in the park, and now she's pretty active.

She's in high school now.

She's pretty active in the different productions.

So, yeah, I'm in one computer estimate as well, and I must say that uh I the experience being NBC PA since before one people could be on the phone.

We're on people who can I remember when they built it.

We have to come to the anniversary celebration.

Okay, we can move on.

Um I am going out of order with your questions just for the sake of an overall narrative.

Um, but so we are gonna start off just with an overview of our programs, which I believe was part of the vibration section.

Um so uh the programs that we offer, um, these are our primary buckets.

Our first one's school play in a box.

We also are referred to it as SPIB.

Um, this is our after school programs that are hosted specifically on site at both public and private schools.

Um all the way from San Jose to Menlo Park, so pretty much all of the uh Santa Clara County.

Um we don't go down to Morgan Hill and Gilroy.

That's it's a little far.

But um I we also have our studio classes and camps, which are at our our studio in Mountain View.

Um these involve a lot of different subjects, musical theater acting and improv are the main ones, but sometimes we do audition prep this fall.

We're doing a new class um called rewrite the story, and it's specifically on adapting scripts.

Um unfortunately writing classes for young people.

We've tried several times to get off the ground even during COVID.

They just aren't as popular as the more active ones, but we're given it a shot again.

Um and also at PYT we offer school break camps during um school year during winter break, uh during the week off that they have in February, which is um commonly known as ski week.

I'm not a skier, but a lot of these kids aren't either because then they come to drama camp.

Um, and then we do a spring camp usually as well.

Um you all are likely familiar with our performance programs, our main stage musicals, and our stories on stage program, um, all of which are performed here at MPCPA, and um our theater in the park summer camps, which is our um largest program by revenue and uh attendance.

Uh we offer camps for ages four to fifteen, and also ages 13 plus have the opportunity to intern for us and help supporting those camps.

Um, and they are day camps that last either one or two weeks where campers are putting on a play, making their own props, costume sets, everything is very scrappy, but it's a good time.

This is from Alice in Wonderland, this is not from camp, um sets that we built ourselves.

Um and uh our MVCPA camps.

Um we host our camps at several different school sites um in the area, but specifically at MVC BA they perform on the park stage.

Um, this is why we call it theater in the park at the end of each camp, um, at least for the performance ones.

Um the kids have an outdoor performance.

We also work with Saratoga Rec and perform at Wildwood Park in Saratoga, and we have a partnership with Los Altos at a couple of schools.

Um I'll also mention um for the slide.

Um there's a question about the communities that we're serving with these programs, and all of them are ultimately designed to serve young people who are interested in performing arts in the greater.

Um, and do we feel we are effectively reaching them?

Yes.

Uh, but there's a lot of time for improvement.

Our work is never done.

Um, and we also know that participation in our programs particularly are private ones that are at our studio and offered outside of school, um, are um dominated by middle-class families who can afford their tuition and the time that it requires to participate successfully in these programs.

Um, we do offer ways for families who want to participate but have a financial barrier to work.

Um, and our tuition fees, but that's as the the program still requires reliable transportation uh and familial support, particularly with volunteering.

We can't we do require volunteer hours from most of our um participants because we rely on that labor to keep our costs down, but that's not something lower income families are able to provide.

It is something that we can waive for some families, but those are some big barriers to our programs, but I think the arts in general, um, that we're always keeping in mind.

Um, and to keep that in mind, we prioritize working with all of our kids through our in-school programming and our school day performances we mentioned when we were looking at the finances.

Um we uh do school day performances for our two musicals that perform during the school year and fall and spring, as well as all of our stories on stage programs, which all run during the school year.

Um so we do reach a lot of kids through these methods, and we always ask for the stories on stage school productions for kids to raise their hand if this is their first um experiencing theater live for the first time, and we always get a ton of hands.

Sometimes these kids might not understand fully what that question even means.

Um, so I can't say the data is accurate, but we do see that.

We're very proud of that.

Um, so specifically, how many programs have been delivered in Mountain View?

Um, all of our studio classes and our rehearsals for our performance programs are in Mountain View because that's where our studio is.

Um, specifically for our school play in a box program, SV.

Um, these are our three schools in Mountain View.

Farakoff and Landles are public.

Um Chung International School is private.

Um, and this makes Mountain View overall makes up about 25% of our um program total.

Uh all of our performance programs, as I've said, from here at MPCPA.

Um, and as far as we know, we're also the only company that actually utilizes all three stages at MPCPA, and we are also very proud of that.

Um, how are we assessing this?

These programs impact as well as our base programs before.

Um, you know, enrollment and retention trends.

Uh, we take participation surveys, particularly for our camps.

Um, we try to have review sessions as often as possible with staff and school administrators at the end of every program, and we pay attention to our attendance and ticket sales.

Of course, these are more of the quantitative ways that we are assessing our programs, but we have a lot of anecdotal evidence that people like us.

I think our board can attest to that.

Um, and I did want to take some time now to share a couple of messages that we got at the end of last summer, um, from some of our participants, which I've given off to our board members.

Um, I'm myself a testing running, myself, but I really like this email, sort of connected with me.

This uh this is uh Sophie who's been with us for a while, and uh she's joined us, she's volunteers with us, uh, she's not participating, which is which is not unusual for us to have people who want to be wanted to even though they couldn't participate because monthly, everything else they're doing in middle school or I have teenage goals, so that's why I connected with it.

Um, including Sophie in your activities or BYT.

She truly loves being a part of every single audition.

We also take performance whether as a volunteer or part of the cast, then she has something BYT related on her schedule.

She's in a great mood all day, and that's saying a lot for a DNH girl.

Who knows what DNA does back into the student?

It's been such a huge positive part of our life, and we are so appreciative.

So thank you for everything.

I'm telling you, a twindows would be needed.

And if they say hi, forget hugs.

But my goals do both movies on stage, and they've done uh musicals as well.

It's amazing.

The day they have the Riosos, and sometimes at 9 30, it will be at 10, but in the D.

And the next day, the people that's awesome.

Uh I have an email to read as well.

Dear PYT producers, as Alice in Wonderland approaches its finale, we wanted to take a moment to express our heartfelt thanks for all the guidance and support you've given our daughter, Lily and Gia.

We've truly seen her grow through this journey from finding Nemo through Mary Poppins and now small outs.

It's been a joy to watch her transformation and her love for every part of PYT.

We're also deeply appreciative of the incredible work the producers and team have done, especially in navigating the challenges of COVID to put on such a magical ship.

Such dedication, effort, and passion mean a great deal for our family.

Looking ahead, we've already signed Lilia for Shrek, and we'd love to contribute further by donating $3,500 to sponsor a season.

I mean, yeah.

Anyway, um, and I want to say that.

So I have twins as well because that's the way to go.

My son, board members.

So what are the kind of the odds here?

My son participated in shows from when he was eight until he got aged out.

Um, he also interned at a large number of summer camps, and now it's like this summer.

Last two summers is that.

Oh, yeah, that's right.

We hired them early.

That was not for her, but then has done tech for many shows, and signed uh so I dropped the two of them at Stanford yesterday.

That's right.

Which I have mixed feelings about.

Oh, yes, oh daddy, I know.

But my daughter emailed me today, texted me.

She signed up to run tech.

Uh I know.

So I'm just saying it's been deeply impactful for my whole family.

Um, okay, thank you.

Very nice.

So uh, so moving on.

Um, what other benefits do you believe your organization braces Mount View community?

So um besides all of those things, looking at bigger picture, we are ultimately a Mountain Organization, we always have been.

Um, we have a long established partnership with the city since our establishment in 1992.

Um, there are similar programs, similar programs to us in San Jose and Sunnyvale and Los Altos and Palo Alto.

We know them, we're in touch, we share resources.

Um, but as we are here, we are often the most convenient, and we shoot our own horn and we think we're the best.

But um, we also know that location is important to families, and um often people find us because of where we are located, but um people stay because of what we offer.

Um so one thing that's at the heart is that um we offer community, a program community that offers the entire ecosystem around a child to be able to participate in our programs.

We rely a lot on volunteer labor from parents from family members, but a lot of the feedback that we get from parents is um our our executive artistic director, Karen who's at Russell directing the show right now, um, is also a parent, always says at our parent meetings for our big shows that this is a unique place where families can participate in activity together with their kids who don't want anything to do with them.

Because we give everyone a job and everyone's focused on that job, and the kids love it because they want to perform and they're excited about the arts, and the parents love that they can support their kids doing these things, but it's hands up.

Mom, like stay over there, you know.

It yeah, it is hands-on, but yeah, it's fun, it truly is fun for the whole family.

Um, and you know, because we are a private program, we are bringing in kids from across the South Bay at least.

Um, so kids from different schools are able to connect with each other, who otherwise likely would not.

Um, and yeah finally, we really for years have stayed true to our values of responsibility teamwork and fun and our programs.

They are always at the forefront of everything we do.

We care about the work, we care about putting on good shows, but this is how we do it.

Um, and that's where we bring all of our kids back to.

Um, anything else to add from all of you who are parents for our parents?

I just wanted to say too like along the lines of I mean my both my kids participated in PYZ they both have now aged out as well and one of the things that really really made a I mean it all of it made a big difference but when COVID hit PYT was absolutely for my kids the first group to pivot like that and provide opportunity for them to stay engaged with their community of theater friends they created opportunities to do these phone um zoom you know performances nobody had done that before I mean it was just all new and they didn't hesitate they knew it was important for these kids to have engagement with each other to have engagement with the arts all of it just I cannot tell you how important that was as a parent to see that outlet available for my children who were struggling as many were so there are many stories I could tell but that is one of the ones that I feel just is so so meaningful to our family and is part of why I continue to get back to UIC because of how that's and I if I can I'm gonna actually say something that is usually on um I think there's something to say that Carol's been with it 28 29 years.

I've been so now to kind of for a long time so even though our kids aged out a long time ago we're still here and Caitlin the head of our educational was a PYT kid um Aaron was a PYT kid our choreographers is a PYT kid our music person is a PYT they grew up through the program went off to college did their education came back and went hey that's the place I want to work and that count our accountant was a PYT who else I'm sure there's many more but the fact that parents will stay involved and the kids 20 years later stay involved since it's a quality program.

And the other thing I want to mention it's kind of been touched on but it's just not only providing opportunities for these kids to perform on stage and create amazing productions but backstage whatever they want a kid comes and presents a proposal and says I would like to get involved in XYZ PYT listens and tries to provide those opportunities for growth and leadership experience mentorship all those things all the time and I'm probably not the first person at PYT to have this experience but I now attend PYG productions with my grandchild.

She is four as she will tell you she has been to many many PYT productions all the time oh lordy she's gonna be an expert yes we we are well into generation two students and wow soon to generation three Karen's gonna flip um thank you everyone um so regarding I put the programming and strategic planning questions together here um so overall right now we are going through a lot of change some of it is has been anticipated but a lot of it has not been um so you know regarding programming strategic planning all of that we're very much in just stay the course mode right now as we work through everything um so because of that our biggest advances um are really around consistency um consistency is a big win for us right now so if we're having some programs that are staying consistent we are happy our main stage musicals have been hitting capacity pretty regularly since COVID, and we're very proud of that.

Our classes have been staying strong, and our school play in the box program has been staying strong um as far as setbacks go, right now we are working through the center's new staffing mandate um which is forcing us to reconsider a lot of our own creative choices, our own staffing structure, our budget, of course um and our educational operations.

I know we've mentioned we have a lot of teams that like to volunteer backstage, but not sure how we're gonna be able to make that work anymore.

So it should be determined, it is still pretty new.

Another setback, our stories on stage program really since COVID has and maybe a little bit before then, but I've only started at COVID.

Um has not really re-stabilized as strongly um in ways our other programs have.

We want to give um kids a chance to be involved in an advanced acting program.

That's why the way this program was designed.

Um but we are not seeing that as well these past couple of years.

Um also this summer, this is more of an unexpected change.

Um we saw a drop in summer camp enrollment.

Um we increased our camp tuition about four or five percent over the last few years, just with inflation, with um our before I came on board, our camp rates were extremely below market.

So I've really just been trying to get them up.

If you're a parent you or parent with kids who go to summer camp now, you know how absolutely insane that uh market is.

Um so we've been trying to uh match it, but um so because of that increase we didn't see a 10% revenue loss, but it was an unexpected thing as this was the first summer since COVID that we saw drafting enrollment.

Um so we will be diving into that before next summer to see how we can fix.

Um, and lastly of the big setbacks, um, over the last couple of years.

We have also received word from a couple of our big foundational um contributors, particularly the Packard Foundation and the Sobrato Foundation, who are nationally serving foundations, but both are local to the Bay Area.

Um, and we were local community, I don't know exactly what their initiative was called, but just you know our community arts um program support from the Packard Via Foundation in particular.

We pretty much annually got a $20,000 grant from them for years, plus we've been a very consistent of grant money or grantee from them.

Um and they met with us last year or the year before, saying they were shifting their strategic priorities and no longer supporting artistic uh institutions.

So we are currently in our last grant cycle for them.

Our last 20k will be for 2026.

Um so that was an anticipated change, as we heard they they did tell us in advance, these foundations have big 10, 20 year strategic plans.

Um, but that's uh the Sperato Foundation we um received in kind support from.

They have provided us a very, very low rent um technically it's an office space, but we have retrofitted it to work for several um things over the last few years.

We received it in 2019 and them um because we lost uh our studio space building was sold to a new owner, and the rent went up significantly.

Um so we had to give up one of our studio spaces, and for that we were able to find the support from Sobrato, but um we likely losing that space at the end of this year.

Um as a symptom of that last year, likely spoke to you about this, but we shared the space of theaterworks in Redwood City that was also owned by Sobrato to store our costumes in.

Um Theaterworks was kicked out of that space last year and had to find a new home.

So we also had to find our new home for our costumes.

Well, we moved everything to our MLP, the Soprato space, but we are not losing that.

So yeah, let us know if you know anyone who has some warehouse space float around because we need it.

Theaterworks need it, needs it, but players needs it.

Uh so um that's tough.

Um so as far as structural changes and programming changes.

Currently, no major structural changes for this year.

Um as I said, we're just trying to stay afloat.

Um, but on the programming side, um we are very focused on working to try and save for lack of a better word, our uh stories on stage program.

It is already small scale, so we want to keep our tuition costs and our ticket costs low to keep that accessible to families.

That's the intention of the program.

Um, so we are working to just try and get more people through the door for that program.

Um as I mentioned, we are trying to figure out different ways to provide technical leadership positions to our teens who are interested that aren't here at the center.

Um this also has affected our structure for stage management management for our stories and stage program.

Usually we'd have a student stage manager up in the booth with our um line designer and well, just a line designer for um SOS, but with our requirement to hire center staff, we don't feel comfortable having our students up there.

So we um are working to work something else out.

Um also with that um we've had to make some changes um for our design of our main state shows.

Um we I mentioned to about a month ago, we're dealing with what we are seeing from our estimates of about a 30 to 40 percent uh year over year increase in our venue costs, so we just won't be able to sustain that for very long.

So we are having to make cuts for um our budgets for our sets, just not gonna be able to have as many elaborate sets this year.

We're not flying anything in from the fly rail.

Um, and we even the work that we've done so far isn't enough to make up that difference.

So I'm still very much actively trying to figure it out.

Um, a piece of that just to be frank is exploring other venue options.

Um especially for stories on stage and our summer shows because our shows that happened during the school year at the main stage, we offer two productions per two in the fall and two in the spring, and they consistently sell out.

Shrek is already sold out for schools, has been, I think since the middle of the summer, with a significant wait list.

Um, so you know, we're able to fill the building for those shows.

The main stage ones.

For main stage, yeah.

Not for our general shows.

Um, I see.

But we we still want to be able to offer our general audience shows and um keep our ticket costs as low as possible.

Um so there was more options to be able to do that elsewhere.

Um so as far as strategic planning, um stories and stage is a big part of that, and as well as um our venue consideration for our performance programs, but another piece of that over the last couple of years is um focusing on re energizing our board.

Um, our board was heavily involved in getting through COVID, um, which ultimately led to some personnel changes, not due to decisions that we had to make, but we had to um major staff members leave um for their decision making through that great resignation process.

Um and this was all before I was even hired because through that process my position was created.

Um and I was hired in 2021.

But after that, after we burned everyone that was basically on the board from what I understood, involvement just kind of stagnated a little bit.

They were involved, we had meetings, we discussed things, but the majority of decisions of the organization were made by staff.

So I did want to invite Pam, our current president, to speak a little bit about the last couple of years to recruit new members and some committees that we've just created.

Yeah.

So yeah, we now have 13 board members, and many have started in the last couple of years in this effort to kind of re-energize and bring some families in who hadn't had the opportunity to participate before, many of whom were active volunteers.

So they were very familiar with the organization.

They have kids who are actively engaged, some who had kids again who want to weren't engaged anymore but wanted to come back and support the organization.

So again, speaking to that, how many different levels of participation we have from families.

So yeah, now we're at 13 if I didn't say that already.

And we did just last week get some committees going that we've talked about for a while, but we're trying to really get activated even further.

Um and one of those committees is um the development committee and basically coming up with ways to raise funds from existing families as well as um families that participated previously and also just from the community at large who want to support BYT and the programs that they offer.

And then a nominating committee because I am drumming out the president role is two years.

So we have a nominating committee that will be talking to board members about their interested interest in taking on becoming an officer for the board, and then also trying to make sure that we continue to recruit actively for um people who would like to participate at the board level because I think there would be a lot of interest again, given the dedication and commitment to PYT that many families feel.

And uh then one other committee we created last week was the succession committee, and I'm gonna let Father speak about that unless there was something else that you wanted me to share about what the board's been trying to the point we've been trying to get to.

That's great, but we can move on.

Um, so we will have a leadership change coming, and it actually involves me.

Um I have been accepted to graduate school.

Um, I'm I've specifically been um accepted to the master's program at Jackson University in Philadelphia in arts administration.

Um so I really love working here.

I've been doing this for four years.

Before that, I was with Girl Scouts.

Um I also loved, but we're out of.

Um I still love Girl Scouts very much.

Um so I'm really excited.

Um this job ultimately led to making this decision.

Um, but I was looking over the summer, um, I've been about grad school for a long time, and um I was originally looking to start next fall and apply this fall.

Um, but I visited Philly and I visited campus in August, and um I fell in love with it, and I decided with the overall state of higher ed right now, and just where this timing is in my life, um, I'm gonna start this fall.

So starting a couple online classes and then depending on how quickly we're able to find my replacement here, I plan to move to Philadelphia to uh pursue the rest of my degree on campus.

Um, and my partner and I really like Philly, and we might end up settling there after I'm done, but that's um but as I said, I'm very excited.

Um, but I am very sad to be leaving GYT.

Um, you know, it's ultimately what has made me realize that this is the type of job I want to keep doing forever.

And um what inspired me to choose this particular grad program before I was looking at MBAs and trying to get out of the nonprofit space.

Um, but I gave up.

So but you know, with all that, we're facing a lot of challenges right now, and this was another one that I had to dump on everyone.

Um but uh so I'll have to say a major task for us this fall is my replacement.

Um but I do want to thank all of you and the rest of the board.

Um they've been nothing but supportive since I told them literally a week to go to.

Um so very very new, but um we're gonna work through it.

Um so obviously ultimately that will end up in some changes.

We're already kind of taking a look at my role, which has evolved over the last four years.

My original title was director of business operations, but um I have experience I didn't grow up in PYT, but I grew up in a similar community theater program.

So I had even though I was hired for more of my on data skill.

Uh I have the connection to the arts, not professionally until this point.

Um but the role ultimately involved into what is the traditional managing director role in theater.

Um so that's why my title change happened a couple years ago, but we are gonna take a step back.

That's what the committee is for to look at the managing director role if it needs to be adjusted, um, or if we're just gonna adjust it depend on well, if I can, it's we hopefully find.

So that's a big that's a big change.

Um so the other question under the organization was um, any of your members work or reside in Mountain View?

Well, five of them do, and four of them are here tonight.

Um we yeah, so five out of the 13 are Mountain View residents.

Um but looking at our list, actually every other member lives in a different city in the area.

So we have a pretty fair representation of our reach, which I actually hadn't really realized until I went to answer this question.

But I'm proud of that.

Um so key metrics and demographics of our creating audience.

Um, so because our primary audience is the youth that we serve through our programs, the data that we have is based on our registration.

We do not track any data on our actual audiences.

Um but or our attending audiences for our shows.

Um this data is both collected directly through our program registration, but also our school-based registration at our SWP schools.

Um looking at the last five years, we really haven't seen any significant changes in this data, more than four percent up and down any of these uh numbers.

Um I did not take the time to pull pre-2020 age data, but anecdotally um over the last five to ten years looking back, um, we have seen probably more of a five percent increase or decrease in the participation of those older age groups, 12 to 14 and 5 to 18, and an increase in the in the six to eleven.

Um strategies in marketing.

Um I'm sorry, I'm jumping around with those questions.

Um are we attracting to the two more diverse or younger audience?

Um, we can't go any younger, but um we can get more diverse, and ultimately a diverse audience is just reaching out more to the people that we aren't serving as you know as readily as I mentioned middle class families are dominating our programs.

Um and the way we do this is through our school day matinees and our school programs where we're meeting children where they are instead of making them come to us.

Um and then another big strategy that we're trying to push, as I've mentioned, is promoting our stories on stage program.

So Carol has been instrumental to that over the last couple of months, and I'd love her to describe a couple of things that she's been doing.

A couple of I had a couple of careers um in journalism, and I've been a part-time bookseller at IckleBees in San Jose for 25 years.

And Hicklebees is a media sponsor for stories on stage.

And so we've just been working to try and do better marketing.

A lot of stories on stage problems is that it's a very small program in a much larger organization.

And obviously, the larger organization sucks up a lot of the a lot of the resources.

They don't know that they want to be in the smaller plays that are based on children's children's literature, both stuff in the public domain and stuff that we get the rights for and adapt ourselves.

And the pipeline just got interrupted.

Kids didn't realize that there's this other whole great opportunity.

So we've been trying to market it a lot harder.

I presented to a local group or to a Bay Area group of children's booksellers about stories on stage and did a certain amount of you know beggings, as well as just we need your help promoting this publicity wise, but we'd also love it if you have other people that you connect with us to support it.

Comparable organizations who did not comparable in size or scope, perhaps, but comparable organizations that also focused on making literary literary properties into putting putting stories on their feet on stage have dropped like flies throughout the Bay Area, and Stories on Stage is sort of the last person standing in that regard.

When I made my presentation to booksellers, I said, you know, what would you know if you knew your favorite book was about to go out of print?

There's sort of a gasp in the room.

That's how I feel about stories on stage.

So we're just uh we're trying to get a news uh regular mailing list up so that they can print out posters and put them in their stores.

Um just trying to do a lot more to get the public aware of stories on stage, the public performances.

Meanwhile, the school performances of stories on stage sell out all the time.

This is a wonderful venue for people's early theater experiences.

We try to keep it affordable, it's great for younger audiences, it's great for the participants in it, the adoration in a small black box stage thing where you get to see your audiences up close, absolutely adoring what you're doing with in the black box space where it's you know it's imagination and creativity with not a lot of props and not a lot of sets, but bringing stories, especially when the teachers have been good and taught the stories beforehand, bringing stories to life, it's just a great program.

We want to do everything we can to keep it viable, and the operational changes have been very hard on the stories on stage, in terms of what we've been offering and do.

So we we're just trying to make as much as we can out of that.

Yeah, I just wanted to uh you can correct me if I'm wrong, but the demographic data that you presented all these was like we didn't have it, but I wanted to point out that what it doesn't show is that like Mountain View has all agents from all over the world, right?

The people from Sodia and you know, and uh that's what's something which is great about Mountain View by publicity feed is fantastic.

Um, and that is represented the VYT, uh at least the music, right?

The main stage.

Um I mean, for me is amazing to be people from Tina to the Bosnia and uh London View residents, well, cajuns, but I just want to see the diversity is a little bit a little uh skewed in that data point.

Um, okay.

Um social media.

Okay, so what platforms do we use?

Um Instagram and Facebook really are it.

We dabbled in Twitter and what's that?

No more Twitter once it became X.

Um we also have not delved into TikTok, basically because I manage our social media and I personally refuse to get on TikTok for my own well being.

But I say that but I'm also contradicting myself because I spent a lot of time on Instagram and all the reels and stuff are basically the same thing.

But anyway, as far as creating awareness Instagram is definitely over the last couple of years been the most effective particularly on there we are reaching our current participants who are allowed to be on Instagram as well as probably ones who aren't but that's not my job.

As well as recent alumni and uh parents um other supporters who are on that platform.

And this year we've had a couple of really great um Instagram takeovers from our own um actors uh 13 plus um to uh help us from the inside carry's daughter's done it I think yeah um so my daughter's in high school now um but she's been on Instagram for a couple of years and I don't know if you all are familiar with the theater world on social media but it's enormous and my daughter follows um other youth theater companies across the country um and one of the things that she's has been seeing and they you know her peers have all been seeing in the past few years is how active the social media presence is from the participants from these you know these kids doing you know the theater kids talking about doing theater and uh you know backstage and that they call it the takeovers where I have a handful of uh you know someone takes over the account for the we for tech week usually um and they the kids in both of our summer productions this year um were able to do that for the first time for PYT and it was a blast I think they love it that's not sure you've done it before but it just was way more successful this year.

My kid was aware of it yeah but it was really fun and it was really you know done really well and and uh you know it's a it's a identity for them so it's a way to cultivate that really and I agree Instagram is where the participants are that's the right yeah um we are on Facebook they are both owned by Meta so I just make everything go on both.

Yeah but we get way more engagement on Instagram though the same posts are also going on Facebook.

Facebook is best to read our parents and then say other adult supporters maybe parents who have aged out um etc etc so we see there aren't any real ways for us to track it but from our these like clicks on links and things that we post I definitely think Facebook is the big bigger driver for things like enrollment and ticket sales but engagement for sure is Instagram.

And then I will tweet my own horn over the last few years I've been doing a series of season announcement teaser posts over the couple weeks before it's so much fun.

Before we announce our main just primarily our mainstay shows um I put together a series of posts of random things related to what the titles are and um I know the kids go crazy trying to figure out what it definitely gets the kids talking yeah yeah we usually do by the end of it.

We usually have figured out by the end yeah but that's become really trendy among companies to do it that way.

So I like it I do have one of our videos linked here I don't know if it's going to play through but we can give it a shot.

This is from Alice in Wonderland.

This summer.

I think it's PDF it's oh it's not gonna do it.

Flat yeah.

Okay.

Okay, it's called PDF as well usually they do but I think you have to check it out of present maybe out of presentation mode.

Oh there it is.

Yeah we go oh no okay oh yeah you can do it I have to unmute it because it checks nice volume sorry I meant the screen looking on page I think I love this likes his costume sorry a little too loud my outfit I got my corner and my sock that only one of the glows and then I have my giant hat and then I have my slightly less giant hat and yeah you want to start it over yeah first two kids are also very funny.

So I'm wearing the overall black light paint and then I'm wearing a white covers for translators and then I bring colorful socks and then I have scratched that light up and checks today we're gonna start at the bottom of beautiful knock off conference from hands on very much in the green environment for reuse, reduce recycled online.

Anyways these are homemade my beautiful hat and I'm looking tall so like yeah guys outfit I got my sock that only one of the glow and then I have my giant hat and then I have my slightly less giant hat and um yeah just um this is called doing the hall in the hall I'm doing the hall it's oh I thought it was a fit check.

Yeah but at the shows the theater takeovers are doing the hall this is also why I'm outsourcing this work.

Is when you go shopping yeah like what you haunt right the hall yeah I was saying H A M.

Okay.

Yeah they did some ASMR stuff where they're like tapping on all those um yeah really really excellent ones there um just an additional thing for marketing also word of mouth um where are you guys getting most of your stuff or is it mostly um how is word of it's more of the mouth also part of it's not it's not the I thought it was traditionally marketing but word of mouth is also where enrollment is coming from or kind of how's that going as well yes um I guess it's not on here so yeah what primarily is kind of also driving whether that's your enrollment or ticket sales or things like that coming through Facebook or word of mouth how'd you find a thing?

Yes um I mean we're not specifically like where the word of mouth is coming from or no no I'm asking it's gonna be a breakdown right now yeah it's coming from is it coming from mostly from word of mouth right now or is it coming right oh yes on Facebook okay word of mouth yeah and just with social it's just interesting to you know social media is great how much is coming through from social media I can't that's not something necessarily we track um either by data um but I think big yeah's reputation in the community is longer than for 30 years um a lot of people are here about us but I also think people are just googling theater at Mountain View.

We're a hit so yeah all right great and then our how do you determine our current break-even point?

Well, we feel free to ask questions later, but we monitor our budget.

We create a budget and follow it.

That's how we find our break-even point um but specifically, looking at our expenses money or monthly expenses um generally and then I always do a breakdown by program at the end of each specific program, whether it's a show, whether it's camp, um, and we usually do uh an evaluation around the end of summer to now um to set our end-of-year fundraising goals, which is where we're collecting the majority of our contributed revenue to ensure that whatever that break in even point is at the end of the year is met.

Um and you know, in general, we are always working to keep our expenses low.

Some of the ways we do that, uh we um prioritize reusing as many set materials as possible.

I know even before, well before my time at PYT, it's a lot of waste that was happening for a lot of different reasons.

But basically, we build a set, we get rid of it completely, and we build a brand new set that are next show.

Um we can't do that anymore, and it's also just not only responsible.

Um, so that's a priority for us.

Um, we also work really hard to adapt a lot of our own scripts.

Um, licensing fees are real and are high for programs like ours.

We do it for our big musicals um because we have to, but um, for our programs like Stories and Stage in Theater and Park, those programs are designed um for adapting our own scripts.

We do bring in um play scripts from authors and the like four stories on stage as well when we can, um, but we do try to adapt our own as much as possible.

Carol has adapted two for this season.

Three for this season.

Three!

One of them was one of them is recycled.

Oh that's right, but two new new, yeah.

Um, and lastly, I've mentioned a couple of times, but we have a large reliance on volunteer labor.

Um, it is required for main stage productions, but it is necessary for our structure.

Um, we do not have a large staff.

I am second in command, Karen is first.

We have an education manager who's full-time, and that's it for the full-time staff.

We have a 30-hour a week um resident choreographer who also does a lot of teaching for us, as well as a 20-hour a week bookkeeper.

Um, and then otherwise it's just seasonal staff to keep this place running.

Um as far as um, so those were kind of all of the strategies to make sure overhead is kept under control.

Um, unanticipated expenses um we manage through an emergency fund.

It was larger over the last couple of years.

We received a very large grant in 2023 that really upped our emergency fund, but that money is coming going fast.

Um, but we still do have a 60k in a different bank account that we have not touched since or I've been around, um, that is still there, because of a major rainy day.

Um but um a big reason why our emergency fund for that 2033 grant went down was we had a flooding issue in our building, um, some plumbing went awry, and we were on the hook for about 35 to 40,000 worth of damages in our building at the end of that year.

Um, bank grit helped out really well, but it was unexpected.

Um we also lost have lost our sobrato storage spaces, but which I mentioned earlier, but um our moving expenses for that are unanticipated, but we are going to be facing that within the next few months.

Um, and as I mentioned, the rental costs for this season at BCPA are going up anywhere from 25 to 40 percent.

25% is for um on the low end is actually for our second stage musical, but the 40% end is for our big main stage um wall and spring productions where we're in the building for all two weeks.

Um and must have stuff here, which we didn't have before.

Um yeah, so this likely will be the last time that I will have to do this for PYG.

You'll have someone new next year.

Um but I have appreciated getting to know you two um over the last two years and uh welcome in the committee, and then I think that you'll be able to continue supporting P2 IT even while I am very fun.

You have questions from the committee.

Yeah, I have some questions.

Um just onto there was a statement on the the on the marketing slide about operational changes for stories on stage has made it hard for us to market it.

I didn't understand what the we should maybe ask them, but it was um, board members.

Some it wasn't written here, it was something spoken.

Said, Well, the operational changes that we've had have made it really difficult for us to market stories on stage, um, or to make that stories on stage successful.

Is that the operational changes for the um it was the the oh yes, yes, it is um changes at the Mount View Center for the that is making stories on stage a challenge.

Yes, could you explain a little bit more about how those changes do stories on change a challenge?

So the new sta the new structure update MFS EPA is that um two staff members are now required um in the building for the entire run of the show or shows um to operate city equipment and support us in whatever ways we need.

Is that correct?

Yeah, um previously we had only hired me to hire one person for those productions, um who was the what was formerly called the facility supervisor to support us in the building and all other operations running the lights running the sound were done by our staff and sound was done by a volunteer for us and we had a lighting designer who um was played to do so.

Um I believe I'd have to dig up the numbers, but I I I just didn't understand the connections, so that makes more sense.

Operationally we are having to adjust to having those people working with us.

Um in the sound portion of things, we'd usually have a student there working our sound computer, and we have a volunteer help things to the soundboard, so that student could they the student usually would not be operating the soundboard, but we um could have them present and able to run things and stage manage the show.

Um, we aren't gonna be able to do that anymore.

Um, and also for our lighting, that is actually still something we're trying to work out in preparation for the year since this is a relatively new change.

But at this point, our lighting designers having to shift to doing work in the building, which is usually what we would do.

They wouldn't come in with um design plans set because it's not the way we operated that program.

They would just use our tech our one evening of tech to do program all the cues.

But since we're having to work with someone here, um, either trying to work out whether we do want to set the cues early or something else, keep it basic.

I don't know.

We're that's hoping.

This is one that I missed that.

Sorry, so bringing in them later, small detail, but we're on it.

So I'm just curious.

Um, in later because um, I'm missing the cost connection for the vendor because you'd have to it's your guys' person who's doing the design if you're trying to cut them back in order to save cost.

Yes.

And just well, they're like I said, their work was primarily done in the building while they were in the building.

Now they're and I'm also describing this in a way that probably doesn't make sense because I'm not a lighting person, so this is all secondhand.

So, but they're either gonna do the work early, because usually what they would do is they'd kind of design the show while they were in the building with the kids there.

Sure.

We're not gonna be able to do that anymore.

So we are because the city is running the equipment, correct?

So and then just to be clear to go off of this question.

If if it was there anything else you want to.

I think you're probably tying on to the same thing I was gonna ask about as well.

I also heard something about now we cannot have students in the lighting booth because of center staff.

Well, no, I can I understand that comment.

This is something that was not initiated by the center staff or whatever.

This decision came from the risk management department in the city.

Because a lot of but you can correct me if I'm wrong, but I mean a lot of uh new equipment was invested in.

And so, in order to protect these this high dollar uh cost equipment, uh, the risk managers made the decision that professional city staff who had been gone through some whatever training they go into, would be the only ones that would be okay to operate this new equipment.

We cannot have students, she's she's you're almost right, Carol.

I know, it's an amount of it a little bit.

So we we replaced all our rigging in the center, and then um basically what I'll just say very frankly is I have never experienced a facility that we allowed volunteers to operate rigging, um the risk is very high with equipment, and then the move to operate the sound and light boards is because I'm getting ready to replace all that equipment this upcoming year.

So we will have new equipment right now.

The light light and sound equipment is is non-random, but it will be soon enough.

Um, and so but we've been doing this for 20 something years with you.

We've never had a problem, they've never caused us.

Not the it's it's a risk management issue.

We can't allow volunteers and outside folks to operate our equipment.

They're making choice risk management.

That's a choice that risk managing is making as a city.

Is we can't have one of our students up there with adults we don't know that haven't been fingerprinted that haven't they all been fingerprinted in background checks.

Every city employee has been fingerprinted in background checks.

We had a city employees or are they contracted?

They're all city employees.

I don't have outside contractors, they're all city employees.

Everybody that our volunteers have been fingerprinted in background check.

There isn't a single person in that building that operates under us that has not been fingerprinted in background.

I think what commonly would call it like life scanned or whatever like that.

Yeah, you can't volunteer and not be fingerprinted.

We've all you can't.

I mean, it's the same for my my employees.

That's why I was curious because it was what I kind of heard earlier is that the students cannot be around the staff because we don't trust our students around these staff, but that's what I was gonna ask.

Well, it's also life scanned for a non-profit, you can't leave your your minors with someone else, yes.

Like you they have to be chaperoned, so it's not that it's also like for your risk management and safety as as UIT, that you can't let your kids just go off with people that are not, you know, from your organization.

So there has to be oversight.

Now now, but our our folks have been fingerprinted and background checked, but that doesn't mean that you still want like your kids to be responsible.

There's nothing different.

Yeah, there's systemic constraints on both sides, both on TYT and on the city side.

Yeah, and that was a point I was making is it goes both ways.

Yeah, yeah.

And we've been with you for 20 something years.

Yes, we've been the resident company for 20.

I was here when we went through the process to become the resident company, and we had to go through a lot of hoops, and that makes sense because you will bring your kids in, but it's getting a little off sided now, and I'm not sure that we can handle a 40% increase.

That is what it looks like when you ask us, correct me if I'm wrong, if you require us to use three of your people for a whole time during mainstage shows and two of your people, or the whole time through instruction station, it's not clear that we need to sustainable.

So when you look at when you ask the question of what has changed and what is risks going forward, I'm sorry to say that it's that contract.

That's the biggest risk to PYT's success at this point.

And I don't think I don't think that's being recognized, and I don't think it's being emphasized enough.

I think a 40% rental, this is the part that I wanted to actually look at was specifically talk about was the 20 to 20 uh 25 to 40% rental increase and I wanted to just extrapolate the cost a little bit more because when we're talking about rental costs the rental cost at the the fee has not increased right now for renting the facility using the facility correct so the um the flat rate has increased in the July proportionally council fee schedule right but as I mentioned when when I did our report PYT is still on the 14% percentage which is been that way for decades as far as I know.

So that so as far as the fees that they pay for rentals for renting the facility that has not shifted I didn't up their percentage to 20% I'm just using that as a random number.

So that really hasn't changed but what has changed is the cost of labor.

And then what so specifically and that was my question do you have the um the data as to how much labor and equipment specifically assigned from the rental fee or is that that is the 20% yes yeah that's pretty good.

Yeah it's it's coming from the increased production services I think is the section that it's called of um that yeah that really raised our labor and equipment fee for essentially coming from from the city which yes so just to clarify because I know last year there was a couple of the stories on stage that didn't make the percentage threshold and were charged the 40% they were no they were charged the flat rate and that flat in that flavor flat rate has increased.

So that would be an increase but in this in this year there wasn't a flat rate used at all right but that does that does I will say that that affects second stage more than the because like a lot of the folks that use including PYT a lot of the folks that use second stage it's it's you're you're closer to the line of your gross tickets being able to cover and my understanding is there will be another increase next year and the following year right that was part as as a we're we're bringing the resident companies up to the nonprofit rate as the flat rate so that's again in the case of PYT predominantly you pay a percentage and trees that doesn't start creeping closer to that flat rate increase.

Right now the potentially the fee study comes from the the city contractor through the entire city I'm correct yes so that was a citywide fee study and what I will say is that for CPA my understanding is that the fees have not been looked at or touched since 2012.

So and we understand that theory but we under this is such a significant year over year increase that it's hit us and it's and I mean we're feeding I'm deletedly I'm delicately gonna try and say this but to leave fees alone for that long is probably not a good practice for I mean we're like if this had been a gradual 13 years of that's a that's a long time to just leave them alone.

I mean so we're in we're in a bit of a bind on on all sides right so this is I mean the 25 to 40 is not ideal right like this is and yet we still have we still have these fee increases and so I do want to do some more smithing into where revenue is coming from just to help get a picture as well we've we've talked about this in previous years and we have new committee members you're most of it tuition is what is is primarily bringing revenue for PYT and ticket sales yeah okay and then do you know the percentages as well of tuition I that's kind of when looking at um looking at break even that was something that was my hope to see where enrollment and and tickets were being the split enrollments all you guys right so our tickets it impacts you guys but tickets also is us right you know how many audience members are are in are in that that that theater right so this is also a place we have areas where we touch and we meet and then we have places where we don't and tickets have to happen to be one of them so that's my curiosity.

That's excellent.

I love a lot of math.

So we have to the tip.

That's not you.

No.

And while that happens what is if we may know what is the with I mean obviously there's uncertainty and we we talked a lot a bit about this but I mean we have a significant amount of the board here too and we are available for conversation right so what kind of is it I mean it's no doubt right theater is also not in its greatest moment around um you know and with what has been going so kind of what is the plan with the 25 to 40% increase if we're looking at that.

I mean look yeah the partnership with theaterworks has such name recognition and it's an important aspect of a name associated with the center right which would be lovely to have us tagged in social media.

I try I I do some um you know when you can do collaborative posts I share those frequently with the center but there was a little it was happening when we had a marketing assistant who was yeah we're getting another one oh great yeah uh but it kind of hashtag MPPCA please yeah but we uh we tag you when we mention you so uh excellent um so kind of just one you know talking about um yeah so kind of what are some of the plans and I know we have some or is it still still in looking I mean there's a lot of we don't know we said Connor because I feel like you shared that there were some more recent yeah things that came out okay yeah I will mention we did luckily this was a light um there was an employee retention credit um uh through the IRS that happened during COVID that we had applied for two three years ago and never seen that money magically last month we get 100k from the IRS thank you Uncle Sam um well yeah so the odds that is going to help us survive over the next few months um you know in addition to this we're also facing that move of trying to figure out what the we're gonna do with our costumes um because our rent in Milpitas for how big is that space I'm sorry how's big how big is the Milpita space that's we're on the bed I think okay it holds 500 linear feet of costs so yeah I said is I don't know if we're like looking for two thousand square feet of extra space in the rental market here is going to be a hit when we are currently paying 500 a month for that space.

So that's a lot of that 100K is going there.

We're also figuring out the transition plan of meeting whoever's gonna replace me and some overlap for training so that is that um so yeah as part of part of partly I mentioned trying to figure out what our end of year campaign is gonna look like um because you know 89 90 of our annual contributor revenue comes in the last three months of the year um so we will be molding whatever that campaign's gonna be this year around that we can fund all this yes Pam I just sorry I don't want to interrupt one where you're going but also what I was what I meant to ask was more there were some changes about themes and expectations of staffing that I thought were more recent we shared with you.

I don't know how recently the minimum staffing was the most recent yeah that that was that says equipment so that was the most recent change because some of these things were discussed previously but this the requirement of city staff having to use the equipment was announced in March I March of this year I believe but we we had discussed it in the previous year.

So we knew that was coming this requirement was um I do have percentages so 27% for this year's budget is about where our contributed revenue is hitting um I'll start with the biggest one our theater in the park which is our summer camp tuition fees are 32% of our new budget.

Um, program specific.

This program specifically.

Total across all of our tuition programs.

Tuition is 56% of our budget that includes TIP.

So that's total tuition-based programs.

Um, and then ticket sales are about 15%, 16%.

So about 15%.

Okay.

So do you have a similar breakdown for cost?

Yes.

Um I'm I'm on our budget right now.

I just did that percentage.

You're welcome.

Um, we have this broken down a little bit.

Well, this also happens.

Can I hear a little bit more uh overview about um stories on stage?

I know we've it's been talked about, but kind of just getting a full picture of it again, um, in more detail of the program than it is if you're getting it to the parent.

Elevator pitch.

Yeah, yeah.

I don't know.

I don't know.

The elevator pitch for stories on stage.

Yeah, but not pitching it, but it's yeah, but it's it's where children's literature comes to life on stage.

Um more little bit more, I don't know.

Okay, so we so we adapt.

Stories on and not.

Oh, they're they're awesome, they're awesome.

So it's a 40 minute 40 minute show with a talk back.

Um it's most of them are adapted from a lot of them are adapted from you know classic stories, but a lot of them are also things that we go out and get the rights for and adapt.

And authors have been generous in helping us get those rights, though we still do have to pay something.

But the but of course the process of getting rights is exceedingly hard always.

Um we adapt them.

Um Karen Karen Simpson has adapted many of them.

I've adapted them.

A few other people have adapted other places.

We sometimes are able to get scripts from children's theater programs elsewhere, but usually they don't fit our parameters of 40 minutes and whatever kids get a bookmark with suggested reading on the way out.

Um they're great.

From the black box.

Well, from the actor's perspective, it's generally like a cast of eight to twelve kids who get to work really closely with each other to collaborate both creatively, technically, and they also get direct contact with the director, and they just get a lot of accelerated rehearsals, one tech, it's mounted.

They get to perform it three times on Friday, two times on Saturday.

The audiences are you know wildly appreciative for the school shows.

And shows are the school shows are typical.

And from the audience perspective.

The schools come on a field trip.

Okay, I wasn't sure.

Yeah, by the school or the district, then right.

The kids get to see the faces of close of the of the cut customers that's there.

Second stage though, right?

Because it's a way to like other people from their school.

The schools don't pay very much.

The schools get a very discounted.

Oh, yeah.

All the tickets are low.

And that's one of the reasons why changes hit stories on stage very hard.

There's not much money.

You can't raise the ticket prices on on 40 minute shows, performed by 14 year olds, you know.

It's it's not like they can skyrocket the ticket prices and make a difference.

Are these high school students that are playing in or uh 12 to 18?

Okay, got it.

I'd say primarily metal right now.

Instead of performers, it's a risk because they have to actually audition and they may or may not get a spot.

So mainstage shows, everybody who auditions gets something.

And so the risk isn't there, which allows them to dip their toe in the water, get a good feel for what it's like, get a main stage experience where they can look out across the audience and see what it is and every kid who wants to do theater is a meadow mark so that you know it's it's a it's a great place for kids who want to do theater and explore.

It's also a place where you originate work, you know.

I mean, some of these are scripts that have never been done before.

Um there have been rare occasions uh rare occasions when the when the author of the book has also been able to attend.

And um one coming in October right I'm not sure I'm allowed to say that publicly because it's not like it's a public appearance from the author um but but Paul is example a Newberry award winner and the son of a newberry award winner uh we have done we did his father's play based on um the cooking boy we did his production of we did his book joyful noise and you know I could reach out for quote he said you know it's a it's imagination come to life you know it's it's very cool yeah it's a very cool program and they have opportunities for teams to adapt stories as well so that is rather a growth leadership opportunity for our needs and as the kids get older like my daughter is in high school now and she has enjoyed she's been in stories on stage shows but she's also stage managed and has learned a ton really intense learning that role may not no longer exist right we'd like to make it work stage managing trying to figure it out having the having students I have a question um you I've heard the quote we're trying to save the stories on stage program and then you said you're trying to get more people in and it sounded like you're trying to get more people in the backstage side as well as the um audience side not as many middle school and high school people are as involved the audience has been good the participation of the kids has taken up we lost a generation of big kids to not having participated during COVID and so the oh yeah the teen shows have been smaller and the stories on stage has been smaller.

Oh yeah okay so there's like four years of teams like think of the pipeline and it got the pipeline got really effective yeah the middle schoolers now you may get high school students in a couple of years okay that makes sense.

Yeah so as a program is this program losing money then um it has not been making money for a lot of time now however keep in mind the stories on stage are you know what we're the budget is small um we you know for our use fees here previously were around two thousand dollars per show yeah um we're talking about four stories on stage yeah okay um so out of our you know million dollar budget is a drop of the bucket oh but the impact and the amount of time that we spend is not proportional to that we put a lot of effort into this program because we care about it um but it's I mean it was kind of unsustainable before now it's becoming still want to cancel it that's what we're trying to do this yeah but changes are gonna have to be made well there's something about stories on stage well my daughter started just a year ago she just done thirty age so is a stage enables kids from schools or kids become touch and feel uh the actors and see the director and have an interaction that uh sort of I've been quantum correctly wrong but it sort of like gets the kids into the theater right either kids who come from elementary school so then become from the school and they fact that they're able to touch and feel the actors and see this you know performance happening right so close in fact you know my daughter has commented that it's very disruptive because they're talking the whole time.

So I think it's described story on stage for me is that a street play in a in sight.

Because it's a street play in essentially and it's inside the theater.

Uh because there's interaction goes on, right?

Um it is an immensely uh impactful uh exercise the stories on stage, not just for the actors, but also for the kids who come see it.

My daughter was been doing some stage, you know, I'm sure she became a star because she was performing in seventh grade.

There were kids who were from her school who knew her, the school play from there, they were like, oh yeah, they were like, she was like a minimum minor celebrity at the time.

The impact that has on it is like pretty uh amazing.

So it'll be pretty sad if we are not able to afford stories on stage.

Not just for us as PYT, but I would think for the Monte New Lager Theater Company.

I will elaborate a little bit more, you know, taking a step back from just SOS.

Our performance programs, what we do here in Mountain View, the NCH and second stage, we ultimately lose money on all of those programs.

We are not breaking even.

Um, that's where our theater in the park.

Yeah, our theater camp is the money maker.

That allows us to have the rest of our programs.

Yeah, that's that's how our budget's built.

Um I do have the expense.

Well, that's right.

We're waiting for something.

Um so we have them broken down kind of by production and education, and I can numbers if you're interested.

But higher um total payroll across everything is 58% of our expenses.

Um occupancy, which this number includes our rent at the studio as well as what we pay to use our uh external um spaces for our camps and our performances is 31%.

And then other production expenses 3% and admin is 8%.

And there was production again, so sorry.

Production other production is three percent.

So I forgot one or two, but it was that three.

Three.

Most of what we're doing is demorative.

Staffing yourself.

Okay, yeah, yeah.

And our our biggest occupancy um costs is our uh business studio.

Okay, for $2,000 a month in rent there.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Okay.

Okay.

Oh, another question.

Can I have some?

Yes, okay.

Uh just um I really first of all, really appreciate this presentation.

I think we all do super informative.

Um, it's been a while uh for me, about 10 years since I performed my last community production, um, not with PYT, but with other.

I'm not that I'm yeah.

I was too old when I moved here for it.

So, you know, to to see uh, you know, these struggles that I'm hearing from your organization are are not unique for when I've been more involved with other theater theaters, um, you know, uh making money to support the other programs, finding the ways to do that.

Uh it is a challenge and um and all uh expenses.

I I am surprised but not shocked that with all of like I read in the San Jose Mercury News and the Mountain View Voice about all these huge office vacancies that they're still gouging for rents.

Doesn't make any sense to me.

I believe you, but it's so sad that they have their space sitting empty that I know a group like yours could you know you said rework it a little bit, make it work.

Um so I would encourage you to keep maybe looking for some of those places with the high occupancy rates, maybe they can have a soft spot in their heart.

Um most places I perform which happened community aspects, but not in a necessary theater like the performing art center, with the exception of Hillbarn Theater, um, but Hillbarn kind of runs all of their own stuff.

Um they are Hillbarn is the resident company and runs the building as well.

Um but places like Saratoga Drama Group, the volunteers for the theater do the rigging and the lighting design and hang the lighting um select volunteers, not just because of the risk and stuff.

So I've not um been involved as a community member performing in the production um where there was restrictions uh of that nature before, but I understand risk is changing and evolving.

So I think I think it's unfortunate that this is a very large unexpected cost um for I assume it's gonna hit all of the people that perform Mountain View, and we'll be a surprise to all of them.

So um with my passion for wanting to bring live theater to as many people as possible, I it's just a little sad, and I would encourage anything that would help bridge this um for these groups.

Um this is the first group we're hearing from, but I I think they said you're small.

I'm not sure.

Anything we could do to bridge that or maybe it's a little less painful or help move other levers, I think would be um useful for keeping shows going in the theater.

Everybody's budgets are tight.

That's all my comments.

You did such a fine bet.

I'm I'm surprised I don't have much to say.

I'm anything to say.

Um, and I just love what work fans are doing.

I run my own um arts organization.

Um it's a really small school.

They teach and game classical brands.

And um hearing kind of what you guys have created is just so inspirational, and like I would love to I can't even imagine that far to have like the next generation and next generation.

But I'm like, wow, it it happened, so you know kudos to you.

This I know it's not easy to create these guys, um, thank you.

Thank you, I appreciate your continued support.

I'll still be around for the next couple months.

So this will not be my last the last time you see me, but thank you.

Thank you.

Everyone, thank you for me too much for you.

Can I see a share?

Yes, yes, I think I have some dragons tacos.

Yeah, yeah.

Well, there's a long time.

Some of this, maybe these story shows in a part where we've seen, yeah.

Well, sitting on the ground watching.

You know, I brought kids to theater's when they were, you know, they're their late 30s and 40s.

And uh, my granddaughter, she's just like in awe.

Well, thank you, and good luck.

Yes, thank you.

Thank you.

Welcome, yeah.

Well, I forgot to ask, I wanted to ask about ticket sales.

We did not, but a lot of other questions.

I have a question about this attendance revenue in each quarter.

Oh, that's our this is the next quarterly end.

I've got it.

Okay, let's move on.

Um, yes, I do one last I mean, but um, it should have asked it, but I think I'm curious about their the ticket filter drop in ticket filter at selling at half percent uh main stage.

Um so I don't know if there's a way to that we could have it up with them on regards to that.

But that's something that I'm interested in here from as Wikipedia.

What would you like me to have some?

I'm just because I'm curious if so what because also if do they have a dip in their ticket sales?

Do we have that from last year as well?

From last year, yes, I'm curious.

Significantly that and so this is their main stage.

Well, couple things.

Last the last two years they've only done three on the mains.

And their ticket sales were generally, and I'm going off of memory, I don't have those numbers right in front of me, but I can obviously bring them to you because of the team.

Um, usually 70 plus, 70%.

So, so they did four of the yeah, they did four of these.

I was shocked.

So they did four this year, and they only had one, and that was a so that's that's that's a change for them from literally the last two years.

They went from three main stage shows to four.

Which increasing rate.

I also wanted to ask, and kind of missing moments, they always do seven um second stage.

I also wanted to break that.

We didn't get a chance to return to this, and so that was so we always do they do seven if not more.

Not more, wow.

Okay.

So I am curious if we could just hear from um about what happened regarding ticket sales um to open and dialogue, but the other thing I want to put on the record is for stories on stage.

My staff sells those tickets.

They call all the schools from previous years.

Okay, sell those.

Okay.

So I yeah, I thought there was some oversight on us as a committee.

So um the other thing I want you guys to understand is this school in the box.

That's also subsidized, subsidized by the city.

It's the recreation.

The school in the box becomes the plays in the box.

Oh, they go out to the schools.

So that's not under the resident company umbrella.

I I mean, there's gonna be but in regards to that, right?

There's always aspects of their revenue that don't pertain to us.

I mean, if they also but if they're using the facility, but we're not right, they're not using the facility for school in the box, right?

No, okay.

What I'm trying to say is my department is the best.

You're yeah, okay.

Yeah, I mean, that's the department.

What I'm trying to say is is there's there's a lack of transparency here, right?

How is your department being both signed and not understood?

The city.

So I'm I'm part of the community services department.

Okay, so I I'm I'm the center for your arts, and we have a recreation to work.

Yes.

So that department is for those.

School in the box, school in the box, right?

The twenty-five percent that go to the mountain view.

Oh, okay.

Okay.

Well, it might be useful in the future to for somebody to make a comment that you for telling us the overview.

But um, we like to confine our questions to the resident company, part of your company or something.

I mean, this has played this is also this is the second year of this, and we can keep on refining it.

It's just we but this is a it continues to be the struggle of what is under our auspices and not um and then also what are that, but I mean this is an ongoing from their perspective too of what are we asking for directly.

They can continue to all day to give us overviews of the entire organization, but not all of it pertains to us, not and not all of it in the narrative that they they're writing, makes clear where income flow is coming from or or things are being subsidized directly.

And so I I mean I don't fault them for that necessarily.

I mean, but I mean, yeah, we this is the question, but yeah.

It's just specific on this slide.

This is what you're talking about is product recreation department.

Okay, that would have been good for them to call out, and I think I guess my ask would be um the next company that presents.

I don't know if they have anything like that, but they don't.

I mean, this is unique to me because it's unique to them.

Right, yeah.

And it's and the leg the history of it being with uh the city, so it's just but yeah, so partnership with another program instead of another.

No, it's the same department though, but also because they're because they're education though, we have even they're I mean they're capable of doing both, but okay, that makes sense.

Yeah, there's I mean, uh I'm not there's no no harm in doing it.

I don't say that, it's just it is it it's being subsidized.

That's good to know.

It's the transparency.

So um quarterly impact report.

Um, this is so you guys are getting the whole year here, which is typical.

I'll we will bring these, I bring these to you like this is July, August, September of 24.

So it runs on our fiscal year, and then we do um typically in August, but we're you know, sometimes it takes us a little while.

Um so we're bringing this to you now.

Um we had other things to tend to in August.

So basically, as you can see, you know, the quarterly, and and don't stop me if we have any questions, but you know, we have main stage and second stage, and um for the July, August, September of 24, we had 26 total performances, number of tickets sold, um 5,702.

And as you can see, like um, you know, the percentages are up above, like upstage did pretty well with their um uh well new century dance was a high one high number for that one.

So they did 66 percent, and then post game.

Um I mean, I'm sorry, Semper Bion's ones came into Giants Rising.

Um, and then you can see like Golden Goose, um, for Peninsula Youth Theater was at 65%, which is you know, that's that's a nice healthy number.

This quarter, typically in July, August, and September.

Sometimes uh theater works loads in a little earlier, and their their show is um starting in September, but for this quarter last year they they did not have a production.

Um I also want to point out obviously the ancillary spending.

This is according to Americans for the arts.

Um the ancillary spending of the attendees um on all attendees average is 225,000 for that that quarter.

And then as you can see, we ramp up a little bit, obviously, because this is a question, summers are slower.

What?

Zero.

It's not a ticketed performance.

Okay, you've mentioned that before.

I forgot.

If it's zero, it's not rented the theater.

They rented it and they had what they did.

Yeah, okay.

Does it make sense to separate May's stage from second stage?

I'm just gonna say that.

Okay, we can if you like, and and I and I we're gonna die, yeah.

We can do that, and we and I wanted to look at a glance, yes.

And and I was thinking about that actually because we did it for Peninsula Youth Theater because of the resident company changes, you know, the main stage.

There's a percentage for main stage, and you need to uphold that percentage or you're gonna lose.

Moving forward, theater works now has five weeks in second stage as well.

So yes, yeah.

So breaking that out in the future might be good.

Yeah.

So second quarter for us is October, November, December.

Um, as you can see, you know, uh we have a total grand total, and that includes uh King James for theater works, grand total for quarter two, 68 performances, uh tickets sold 19,153, with uh percentage of everybody at 73 percent, which is a nice healthy percentage in this market right now, and then all attendee average, of course, for uh ancillary spending is 757,000.

And some changes.

So, question though about King James.

I did see a lot of social media things for that.

I didn't see that because 36% of the house sounds low.

It is yes.

Uh was there I I guess we have to wait for we spot the um theater works, but is there anything that you're aware of that drove that low attendance?

Wait for a conversation with the Rix.

I I didn't know if there was like there was bad weather or meter works.

Yeah, and the outside of world.

Oh, I didn't see that.

Flooding, we're riding this.

So um, they could have.

I did something happen with the fountain that day.

No, okay, okay, um, so I saw that play.

It was an excellent script.

They had two of the best actors that have seen that were higher.

Um it wasn't a bad show, it was not a bad show, but apparently people did buy tickets.

Yeah, so that like on the long weekend or something.

No, no, well, they run for three weeks.

So yeah.

Yeah, this looks like a really good quarter.

Is that I don't know how you kind of.

So the January, which one?

Uh, sorry, the afternoon residue of December one.

Well, we so typically our season runs like a typical season, September.

Through, we drop off sometime in June.

Um so basically, you know, that's that's kind of that's kind of typical, but I will say the two months that are nuts, I call them our knot holes, is December and May.

We shove more shows and more dancers in my building, then you know, we just are full, full, full, full, full.

There just isn't a you know single bit of room anywhere.

Um, so Smoon, Western Ballet, you know, we've got we've got folks Pacific Ballet, Pacific Ballet.

Um, and then January, February, March.

We're typically a little lighter in January, but theater works loads in and sits with us for five weeks.

Um, that's typically a Hershey felder.

Um, so you know, we have lamp lighters, peninsula, you you know, theater, but it's uh open space.

This year we had Amy Tan, which did very well on 99.

Um, very well received.

Wow.

Um, which quarter are we looking at right now?

So 100 January, February, March quarter.

So you see 117.

I have a question about that one too.

It's probably is it rotating, or what's that?

Oh, they so French, yeah.

French talent is um a talent show.

So they're actually um how do I explain this?

The second stage is really only meant for 150 folks, okay.

But because it's a talent show and you have folks coming in and coming out, we actually oversold it.

I guess is the best way to say because people because the the attendees are gonna come and watch your talent.

Right.

Oh, and then they'll leave.

And then they'll leave, and then we I see okay.

So we so in essence we over we oversell it because we know the people are not are not they're not gonna made a full time.

Okay, okay.

Yeah, I guess it's the best way to explain it.

Um, that's right.

Great.

Yeah, so we're 21, 127 for that quarter at 72 percent.

Um, the conversation did well.

What was that?

Sorry, Peninsula.

Um, it's open space trust.

It was just a conversation with Amy Tim.

Yes, so a conversation did well.

It's good to know just kind of and the ticket prices were reasonably high.

They were they were healthy prices, yeah.

Yeah, I know.

I thought about going and I thought, eh, maybe not.

Yeah.

Well, and then the night of you couldn't know.

And if you waited, it was sold out.

Yeah.

Now I have incaps like not, I don't want to say like weeks before, but I remember it was sold out because I was talking about I was asked my husband, I think, and then um when I asked Sean if there's any tickets left, he's like, All I have is house seats left.

And I was like, Oh, okay, well, never mind.

Um, so and then, you know, obviously we have, you know, folks like like the bottom one here, dance arts foundation.

That's uh that's a dance competition, so there's no tickets sold, but they're in and out.

So, you know, for one day we have 3,621 people that come to Roto.

So what was that like in Lumberton?

3,621.

Yeah, last for my 600 seater.

So for those, there's six, they well, it's a dance, it's a competition all day.

So people come in, they watch their friends, they leave.

Yeah, um, yeah, but I do have a question.

I guess about those books for the gravitate as well.

Why isn't there a facility use fee?

Like what did we charge them?

So the facility use fee we is a ticketing fee.

Oh, okay.

So basically what happens that how do I say that?

I think this is one of those that's a little hard to explain.

So basically, um, when you're purchasing a ticket, the facility use fee is paid by the patron.

It's like a dollar, yeah, whatever.

And so that's paid by the patron, so the client doesn't pay that.

In their case, because we're not they're not charging for tickets.

There is a facility, we have like a formula, and you'll pay that as part of the because we are so this doesn't mean our rental fee on this chart.

Okay.

I think it's revenue.

Okay.

Well, how do you manage the flow of people coming and going?

Do they need a pants of some sort for a particular time?

No, because it's it's different, it's different groups.

So, you know, if there's, I don't know, the Mountain View group is at 11, then everybody that knows them are gonna come and then they perform and then they leave, and then the Palo Alto group is next up, and it's just uh we do have to make sure we do have to click and make sure that we click you don't over overfill, but um, so far that has we've we've made we can't use that word.

Sounds very dynamic.

Well, that's why we have lots of house managers and um volunteer ushers, to help navigate that just a note to on on quarter three looking at um at theaterworks again at 72 percent.

Um, or they're not typical programming, right?

That is uh that is special programming.

Am I correct?

Or right yeah, that's they have to right.

They're presenting, they're not originating, which is technically not our agreement with theaterworks, is that correct, right?

No, that's that hasn't changed.

Right, it's not though, but they cannot present.

Am I correct?

But no, they can.

They can.

When we rearranged the um resident company, we kind of looked at okay.

Uh, but it's not 72%, and so when we were also looking at shows they were originating, so it's an interesting thing.

Yeah, um, and then quarter four is April, May, June.

Um, and then we're always a little lighter in June typically, so uh, you know, Fayeu Theater.

I do want to point out Faye Theater only because uh their performances are in Mandarin.

So we've we've actually in the short three years that I've been here, there's been multiple um companies that have come.

Um they're in Mandarin, Tetro Noah, they're in Spanish.

Um, so you know, we're kind of we're getting a few more folks that um represent the diversity of mountains, I would say.

And then you can see another one I want to point out is it forced major medium best of um stand-up comedy.

Um, as you can see, 98% comedy does really well.

I was there, it was great, yeah.

And you know, and then things like and this is second stage, but you know, like you know, the adventure through video music 93%, um, and then Parkett Opera, um, Tartoof did really well, you know, good on them, and then uh we had the heart sellers for theater works uh season announcement and come back to the five and dime, so 37 38 and season announcement, so but um and totaling 64 percent.

And what is the percentage that they're supposed to hit on as per 65%?

So, and I I did actually come and see the uh five and dime show.

It was outstanding, and many seats I know that were sold because when I bought my seats, they sold should have sold people didn't come.

So I don't know if it was seasoned subscribers or something.

I don't know.

It's like the whole room.

I my friend and I sat on the edge because our whole world was sold, but it's empty.

So it was very, I guess I could swear who attended versus bought tickets, but um, and I thought, oh, maybe it's for the summer, and then I went the possibly the same weekend or the next weekend to see drowsy chaperon by South Bay.

Or West Island Opera, I can't remember.

They both perform in the same space and sold out.

Um, it's a smaller space, but um just interesting to me.

Oh five and nine.

Yes.

Uh-huh.

So they perform basically um they've modified that a little bit, but they basically so they're loaded they're loading in right now this week, and the show they'll go into preview night next Wednesday, so it'll be Wednesday, Thursday, Friday previews, Saturday opening night, and then they run basically Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, something.

I mean, there's like so many tickets, which it's just because they have so many shows, the percentage is so low.

But you're selling it basement.

They have longer runs.

And I mean, I think my way of thinking, it seems like if people think they have a lot of time to buy a ticket, they'll just put it off and then forget about it.

I do think that hits the nail on the head.

So five and nine is uh that was a world premiere.

They have a new work festival every summer in Hallowel.

And so they hired a play right to write that last August, and then they spent time developing it into a full work because they had a their new works festival are uh stage readings, and so this was the world of year of the full production with the sets and more acres and stuff, but still that is pretty low.

48.

Which, you know, but uh I mean I didn't feel my sales but I'd give it a 48.

Yeah, I see that.

I see where that came in.

Well, what I would say for a uh for new work for you since is not that you know that's not a bad exactly for a new work because people don't know the name they haven't seen the show they you know used yet you know that sort of thing we see yeah um so last that's thing is just basically a breakdown of of you know this we need absolute total numbers for um and just to explain the reason why it says show wear and then theater works should say test of um but show wear is the ticketing software that we use theaterworks has their own um ticketing software um testatura that we also know how to use but they predominantly sell most of their tickets um themselves and then the grand total by quarter and then the grand total for the year and then the ancillary spending and you guys will hear me talk about ancillary spending technium yeah because it's not something that has been talked about here um traditionally but it's important because our ancillary spending by Americans for the arts for Santa Clara County by our attendance numbers is 2,94300 brought into the community by our approaches and that is not chunk change.

Right very nice numbers that we need to be very proud of the problem is explaining to me what ancillary sending us or what the center is still that too well I mean exactly my my neighbor and I came see five and dine but of course we went to dinner beforehand right down the street and instead of eating at home and coming over to get I took an Uber because we didn't feel like walking and just there you go there it is.

There it is.

There it is at the ancillary spending and it matters was a hundred dollars for me on top of my ticket price that I probably spent that night.

How is this calculated though?

So Americans for the arts basically um they do it for the whole country okay so um basically Santa Clara you know we have a cost of living and yada yada yeah so it's done for the county and why just use the county numbers you can actually go in and drill it down for mountain mountain view itself um by zip cutting but that it's a little formula right it's a formula yeah I mean and that's why yeah when Beyonce came when Taylor Swift came super well that's what that's the house let's I probably report it with okay yeah there's so if that makes sense yeah well the other thing that I think that needs to be a mind shift maybe in the community is that the Center for Performing Arts is not public field house in a park it is a professional theater yeah right you know and I'm not too sure a lot of people think of it that way because they think that it's a public building and they should be able to do the bathroom there you know that sort of thing.

So you know a little bit of a wow factor.

I mean also long term right like prior to also looking at what say the facility was in when we're tenure began here Teresa is also another thing and looking at what maintenance needed to occur and so long term maintenance of looking to the future what we can do for the theater is another aspect too um so that is a challenge I think because historically I don't think we have another theater in our era in this specific part of whether that be Sunnyville Mountain View or Los Altos that is as well maintained as our performance center currently is being towards and is so that's an interesting aspect that I think that is a break and um but it's building new narratives for the community and they should be proud to have a center that is that is so well kept and so um thoroughly thought of into the future and so there's a level of pride that I think we can have with the center that is not currently there.

It is not a it is not a field house in the middle or the house in the middle um it's not um and no longer should be thought of um and that's something I think too that we could do while we're getting into the what are the members of community.

You know, it's part of the civic center, so you know which is in 26, you know, it'll be twenty in twenty six it'll be 35 years ago that this was built.

So it's only 42 million to do both City Hall and the performing earth center.

Wow.

So our portion of it at CP at the Mountain View Center for the Earth was approximately 17 million.

To replace that facility now is close as 200.

Oh, in today's stop.

And right, it's with the library, it's with City Hall, it's right there.

So it's in the center.

So we need to care in love.

My racehorse isn't called.

At another theater that doesn't really exist anymore, our stage manager was regularly got a little jolt for the web, but so you know I understand.

That person was a little like minor jolt.

Just keeps things exciting.

Wait a minute for the coffee, he was also in charge of the maintenance.

So, okay.

Any other thoughts on item 6.2?

So we are on seven committee staff announcements, updates requests, and committee reports.

I do think it would be nice to just toggle about what happened with the um, especially as Theaterworks is struggling to toggle back with Connor about what happened with uh not Theaterworks, uh PYT.

Yeah, um, theater.

What was um what was the from the committee because basically, if anyone else is interested, I'm just curious what what was the situation with ticket sales that's passed and on main stage.

What are the numbers before?

Also, is it possible to I'm curious?

But we have the I mean I have I don't have them in this binder, but we have those numbers from last year, and I will say that their their main stage numbers were 70 percent.

Okay.

And I remember one of their shows like last year.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, last year was like 70, I think one was at 80% of, you know, like we can we can we can pull those numbers out, but yeah, this was this was um surprisingly live.

Which again, couldn't say, and under our auspice, right?

As uh working out what the center could do.

No, when we were looking at the uh company the resident company agreements and all that review process and everything, PYT was like right, they were but that's my concern that that's a sudden squeeze that was unanticipated, you know.

They they're losing dates, right?

Are they no?

So that's the thing that so which didn't come up today either, but that's a thing of the potential loss of dates, um, which is interesting to look at when they are struggling.

So that's something that's why I'm saying kind of I'm just curious about that.

That's my concern right now.

Um there's special aspects.

We'll see more once we have our once are out there.

I think more a little bit so 50% of their shows this this past year were under 65 or under 60 percent.

Yeah, but the 65% if you read that council agenda, the resident company, it's only the main stage.

Because we the main stage is in such demand.

I see.

We turned away 12 organizations last year.

Yeah, yeah.

Because we didn't have dates, so we're trying to find a fair and equitable way, the ad hoc committee and then council approved it, of course.

A fair and equitable way to manage the dates on the main stage because you know, I have folks knocking on the door and do it, and we're returning them away because I just don't have dates to give them.

Okay, so and then if you're obviously less than 65%, maybe we should give somebody else a chance.

This is the logic behind it.

So theater works did forfeit a few like a week or something on the main stage this current season, right?

Well, they got 13 weeks on the main stage, and then of course they originally had 20 weeks, so then that's they're down to 13, and then the other weeks are in the second stage.

And they moved one show to the second stage.

No offhand what the genre mix was of the other companies that came in and filled those dates.

Were they all uh live theater or wish they were?

I'd be interested to see what that's so I'm glad you're asking me this now because to go back and do that for last year would be next to impossible.

We can kind of we can break it down into genres, but to specifically say who replaced that seven weeks, it's yeah, we're so I think that's one way to measure the success of the resident company review to say as these things have opened up, what new things have we brought in?

Because what I was and others were hearing from the community members are we want to see, you know, a more exciting mix of stuff, but as it stands now, because didn't think about asking last year, uh, it would be nice to say, well, don't have to say why, but some weeks came up, and this is what came, these are the new offerings.

Well, and what we can do, so what I'm what I'm happy to say is we have new venue management software, which we were last year in the midst of like finishing with the old and using the new, and it's a little you know, uh, um, just adopting the new software is a little bit like that.

But now we could actually probably go in and say we want to know how many dance, how many dance troops did we have, how many theater troops did we have, how many music troops do we have, how many comedians, how many we can break that down and it will sort it for us.

It won't tell you exactly who, yeah, but it will give you the percentage of that would be interesting and if we're contribute for that.

You don't have that at your fingertips, but that would be interesting if you had that change.

And I do think there's a growing kind of um with both both resident companies, um, with what recently happened with Theaterworks and also what the news of talking with YT today, um, I'm I'm I'm curious.

And in our partnership and what direction uh as a committee we can assist because there in many ways that we are our hands are tied in in certain ways to the point that you were making, yes, to support them.

And I just think we need to think about our our partnership with them more strategically.

We keep on like social media and marketing, you know, we keep on coming back to that, and there are ways that we can help them in marketing, and maybe in future meetings we can discuss that.

Um I just don't I'm not at this moment still clear on a direction as to what we can do.

What if we can pull?

Yeah, and as and also you know, in order because it's not just time, right?

Time not, seats not in the center are not just it's not just revenue loss, but it's also people not in the center, it's people who are not participating in our performing art center, right?

So we are we are we under serving a general fund or city funded center?

Yes, we are.

We still have we have places where resident companies you know are not performing at a level to bring in on top of already the slim demographic margins that they are bringing in.

So I just have layer upon layer of concern right now, and I think that that's a conversation in the future that would have.

What I'll also say is um because we do the flat fee versus the percentage, it means my cost recovery.

So, you know, they used to be on so there's tension, but I tend like you know, careful tension in the in the in what is happening in a sense.

So you know, even though they make the the gross tickets are higher than the flat fee, they're still not at 70% or where they where a lot of these groups were previously at a higher rate.

So when they're coming in at 51%, that's 20% less revenue.

Yeah, and cost recovery.

Well, I also don't quite fully understand how really help them because at the end of the day they said all their productions on the which is more standards, and their ticket sales only make up 15% of their revenue anyway.

So I mean they need to make more money.

It seems like it needs to come from some of their other programs, but somehow I don't know.

An excellent thing to remember, um, yes.

I that is the careful tension that I'm saying.

I think we are walking is that we don't have structurally a lot of ways to unless other things on our side of the committee um beyond just specifically center things changed, but it it's nice to hear what they have to say, but we don't have the ability to affect the change that they're looking for.

We can't overroll risk management, and nor can or counsel, nor we don't have so.

We can ask staff to see if there's really good ways we can partner with to help either bring down cost or provide those opportunities for students to still learn or get some kind of mentorship, but but that's I don't see where we can just say well risk management said this, let's just do something different because that's not how cities work.

So it's a quick way of getting everybody in trouble.

So I've been to a few public meetings on other topics in the community lately, and there are there's a core group of people who don't want any kind of change basically.

I mean it's just human nature, right?

And it's been like it's been this way for 31 years, and I don't understand and all this.

It's some other meeting I heard, I'm talking about today.

But um I think that the reason council has advisory committees and commissions is so that there is a sounding board in a place for community to go to say all those things, and so that's just kind of part of our jobs I think is to listen compassionately.

Yes, I I also think you know, so our hands are tied oddly directly with our resident companies, right?

We go to council, staff manages it, we have risk and like our hands are tied, but our hands are not tied when it comes to again uh connecting with community to see what ways we can be creative with with connecting our with because we're not hearing from uh the they are community members, they are residents, however, they are not necessarily they're not our audience members.

I'm sure they're in the audience, but they're not here as representative of our audience nor the broader arts community and health of the city.

So this is a very slim picture of the people that we technically as a committee can serve.

Um, you know, our if it'd be interesting to talk to the general public.

What is the general public feel about about the performing arts things like that?

And that's a different conversation than today was about, but that's what we did not see, and that's what we really have not seen.

That is places where we could affect change as a committee to some degree.

I don't want to get the public into these meetings to share exactly and things like that.

My last committee I was on that was not a problem to get public to attend the bicycle pedestrian that everybody's got in penny, whether it's change nothing or change everything or whatever.

They or just they talk about their big bike ride to school or people came all the time.

So we don't have to hear about their experiences and maybe it's maybe we have to do a little social media for this committee.

We just know that they can come here and talk about what they want to do.

I mean, the arts are about relationships, so it's it's interesting to think.

So I don't, but that's that right.

So the places where we can affect change, it's great to talk with our resident companies and we have oversight.

The public is gonna still be our community, so it'll be art.

Before I forget, uh, so I went to the Silicon Valley Creates meeting here a few months ago.

Oh yeah.

And I got on a Silicon Valley Creates is creating a boot camp for new arts commissioners.

And a boot camp for new arts commissioners.

Yes.

You're not a new one.

Well.

And it's on October 8th.

Uh it's going to be in San Jose from 6 30 to 8 30 p.m.

Now normally Silicon Valley creates works with the visual arts committee.

But since I'm on the planning committee, I don't know if you two would be interested in going.

I would that I have I have a performance on October 19th.

I'm rehearsing October 8th.

Um I'm whenever I'm not here, I have rehearsals once.

Okay, tell me again, like performing, you do.

Um I'm performing in uh Tacapella at uh it's an acapella concert.

Okay, at companies in San Francisco.

We did we have been performing in the Fox Theaters last few years.

I'm not sure what happened there in Redwood City, um, but uh where we did not do our own lines.

They they did that at the top figure.

But we're just it's a one it's like what you're talking about.

You come in, a bunch of groups come and but everybody stays for the whole time for that one.

Um so you have served seat, we should stay in.

Uh but we're San Francisco, I think, Center for Performing Arts, something.

It's a smaller theater, only 400 seats.

I think it's almost sold out, so it's I think we're say gallery um yeah the baby winehouse one not the Steve Onewood one.

So singing uh an Olivia Rodrigo song and don't believe it's over the A song.

Nice jealous I'm sorry I can't make it either I'm flying out that nice well okay what if they record it I would be I what is they've never done one before so I don't know if they'll record it but if I'll ask and then I don't know what's that I know and then we have 35th anniversary stuff coming down later right yes so that's another public facing thing for sure.

Yeah which will be fun to talk about.

So when will that be on the agenda?

Well let's get through the reconversation.

So January?

Yeah.

And so will there be or maybe December.

Well we don't have a meeting just unless we want to have one to start talking about it in November.

Maybe perhaps it's next month um here books yes and then upstages in November.

That's actually my work actually we might have to have time with that to her upstage but yeah you m yeah like upstage in November because there's just a problem.

I'm not gonna be able to make it next to the fall it's will we have another member.

What's the date the 22nd 15th 22nd 22nd October 15th is the challenge.

We couldn't can we the sun is performing in this my last rehearsal before middle school okay with we can't get it yeah it's October 15th so and your performance is the 19th is the 19th so that's my last rehearable uh yeah we have our group rehearsal of Google and everything on the 16th do we want to make it a week later or do we because you'll be we'll be rehearsing all that week right yes a week earlier than me we could do the 20th we do the 22nd I think at a fairness to theater works we shouldn't move it up we should yeah my back I can't do the 22nd if we have three of us could at least we'd have four of them yeah you have a core yeah I mean the likelihood of us having another person no yeah yeah that's not how interesting but 22nd I can do it too free.

I do the okay then I have one more question for Teresa.

I heard a rumor that members might get camp tickets to review the resident company performances.

Yes so the MOU is in process right now um we I've requested that we use we have house seats for we and we have like six or eight of them um for each performance so basically what I requested as part of the MI was that this body would be all so each of you would be able to have two house seats.

Can't all show up on the same night.

And they're really for customer you know exchanges or mistakes or you know whatever to take care of folks but um you would be able to do so that's that's part of the MOU.

So that hasn't been but I'm not surprised everything takes so long.

It does we're all okay this meeting is adjourned at 8 40 okay thank you thank you.

Can we set the next meeting for the 22nd?

Yeah