Glens Falls Chronicle Serving the Glens Falls/Lake George region; Warren, Washington and northern Saratoga counties since 1980
Chronicle Managing Editor Cathy DeDe writes: Martha Banta, who co-founded the Adirondack Theatre Festival in 1993 with now-husband David Turner, takes the ATF reins again this year. Here’s some of what she told The Chronicle about the coming season, in advance of the January 12 gala that raised $80,000 plus.
“ATF has never been in the red, but it’s not been progressing…” Ms. Banta said.
“The diehards come because they love it and they know the quality, but we’re trying to expand….
“We’ve extended the season, and there’s more performances of each show. Does that mean we’re taking our usual audience and going to spread them even thinner over more days?
“Or does it mean now more people will come? We’re taking that chance….
“We’re doing a well known title musical (Come from Away), which we don’t usually do. Part of the mission is that we’re bringing you something you wouldn’t normally even know to go see.
“We’re working on, and they seem interested, some notable actors coming that will cause a little bit of a buzz. Not Hollywood, but….
“We’re just going for everything we can. I was a founder; if I’m coming back 30 years later, something’s wrong. We have to fix it.”
“I’m not faulting a person or people,” Ms. Banta said. “The world has changed, and we’ve got to change too…ATF is struggling, like most theaters are. We’ve dealing with everything. Costs are going up everywhere, and a lot of people have stopped giving the way they used to. So it’s a tough nut.
“I think the belt got tightened so much that it maybe didn’t offer enough for everybody, or people will not subscribe if it’s only running this many weeks. So we’re gonna see what the people want.”
Ms. Banta’s view is, “If we keep making these little, tiny, incremental changes to see if it works, we’re not going to survive. It’s not enough of a change.
“We wanted to wake it up. So far, just even the ideas, people are really excited about. Go big or go home! you know? I don’t know why I feel optimistic about it — but I just do.”
To a degree ATF may be a victim of its own success, she said.
“When we first started [doing shows in 1995] we literally were the only game in town,” Ms. Banta says, “and now we’re competing with all these things we were the catalyst in bringing — which is good news for Glens Falls, but now harder for us.”
She references the adage: “Be careful what you wish for.”
Also, says Ms. Banta, Broadway once favored regional professional theatres like ATF. Not so much anymore.
“It used to be if a show happened on Broadway, it then went on tour, then eventually the rights were given to professional regional theaters, sometimes only the big ones, then small ones, and eventually, finally, the high schools, the Youththeatres.
“When we got the rights to, say, Three Tall Women, it was a big deal. We were one of the first theaters outside of New York to be granted those rights. So that also attracted people: This is rare.
“Now a lot of shows, particularly musicals, they jump from Broadway to high school to amateur. They’re trying to build an audience, because it’s still running on Broadway, or on tour.
“Kids will do the show, then when it comes to their town, they’ve got to go see it. By the time the rights are granted to professional regional theater, you might have seen it on Broadway. You might have seen your kids do it. You don’t have the same need to go. It’s weird for us to figure that out.”
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