By Khalida Sarwari
A Santa Cruz Shakespeare company on the verge of cancellation announced today it will move forward with its 2010 season.
The announcement was made at a teleconference this afternoon with Shakespeare Santa Cruz artistic director Marco Barricelli and David Yager, dean of the arts at the University of California at Santa Cruz.
Yager said the 28-year-old theater company, hosted by the university’s Art Division, was able to meet its projected budget by cutting expenses and streamlining its operations in 2009.
Ticket sales for the company were 88 percent of the projected goal for the season. Yager said, “Given the nature of theater, if you look across any theater, they’d be thrilled to hit the 88 percent projection.”
Yager added that the company benefited from successful fundraising efforts from last December, when it raised $419,000 in 10 days to continue its annual season in 2009.
A portion of those funds, which came from more than 2,000 individual donors, including arts division and development staff, the local community and supporters across the country, helped Santa Cruz Shakespeare meet its projected budget for the year.
Barricelli said, “One of the beneficial things here that we have going for us is that Dean Yager is very new to Santa Cruz and I am relatively new here so both of us are able to look at the situation with fresher eyes and a different jumping point to deal with the issues of the past.”
Barricelli and Yager said their goal for the company is to focus on quality and to continue to improve.
“We’re thrilled and truly excited that not only were we able to move things in a positive direction for the 2009 season but that has enabled us to go forward in 2010,” Barricelli said.
On Oct. 16 and 17, Barricelli and theater arts professor Patty Gallagher will reprise a dramatic reading of Mark Twain’s “The Diaries of Adam and Eve” at the Main Stage Theater.
Shakespeare Santa Cruz plays feature professional actors, directors and designers and also involve students and student interns. The company’s season runs from mid-July through August and features three to four plays presented in repertory.