Florence Little Theatre Looking Forward to New Building, More Shows
Florence Morning News - January 11, 2008
By Jamie Durant
FLORENCE — The Florence Little Theatre has big plans in store for the coming year, including moving into a new facility in downtown Florence.
“We’re going to complete our season at the resident building in May and, as soon as that’s over, we’ll be taking everything from that building into the new one,” said Patsy Stone, a member of the Florence Little Theatre board.
So far, there has only been one small delay in the construction of the new facility, and that won’t make much of a difference in the overall completion timeline, Stone said.
The move to a new building, while needed, will be a bittersweet moment for the players in the company.
“It’s been our home for a long time, but really it’s threadbare,” Stone said. “It’s been a wonderful home for us, but we’re looking forward to all the acoutrements that come with the new building.”
The play reading committee has not yet recommended a schedule for the coming season, but it won’t be long before the season is planned for the coming year, Stone said. The schedule would have been completed earlier, but many of the plays in which the company had hoped to perform weren’t possible for the growing community theater.
“So many of the things we would like to do, we found were restricted for us,” she said. “We would like to do Les Miserables, but I don’t know if we could even mount it, let alone afford it. The royalties would be so great.”
Stone said the majority of theatergoers don’t realize that in order for the Florence Little Theatre to put on a production, it must first pay royalty fees — between $8,000 to 10,000 per musical — for the right to put a show together. Straight plays, as non-musical plays are called, usually cost less in terms of royalties, but are sometimes not as well-received as the musical productions.
“In addition to royalties, you always have costs for the technical things,” she said. “Costumes are a big drag on the budget, and any sort of specialties, like musicians.”
Other than musicians, the players in the Florence Little Theatre shows are volunteers and the theater welcomes new members. A number of Florence Little Theatre players in recent years have come from Francis Marion University’s theatre department.
“We are always delighted to have them,” Stone said.
As the theater continues to grow, Stone said she hopes the community will continue to support it by attending the shows and trying out for auditions.