Throughout its long history, Old Town Playhouse has benefited from a wonderful outpouring of community support. In return, the Playhouse has offered enriching entertainment and educational opportunities for the residents of northern Michigan.

A Community Stage
The Old Town Playhouse season runs annually from fall through summer. The 2008-2009 season is offering five mainstage productions - Nunsensations!, Urinetown: The Musical, One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, The Producers, and Leading Ladies- and three studio theatre productions - Rabbit Hole, Panache, and Doubt: A Parable. Approximately 20,000 patrons attend the 56 mainstage performances while an additional 2,240 will attend 27 studio performances. The youth education arm of Old Town Playhouse, the Traverse City Traverse City Children's Theatre (TCCT) provides performance and educational activities for youth age preschool through secondary school, including mainstage performances during December, June and August as well as classes and workshops for youth throughout the year. TCCT will involve 50 youth grades three through twelve in classes and rehearsals leading to the holiday presentation of Willy Wonka, Jr. in mid-December. Over 100 youth age preschool through high school will participate in a variety of six-week educational classes in winter, spring and summer. Old Town Playhouse also serves as a resource for stagecraft, scripts, costumes and related advice for regional schools, community groups and businesses, other theatres and area arts organizations.

Volunteers Essential to OTP
Since its inception in 1960, the Playhouse has been volunteer driven. Approximately 200 volunteers play key roles in all operational facets of the organization - productions, maintenance, administrative, professional. Last season, volunteers contributed close to 50,000 hours. Old Town Playhouse is reliant on its volunteer force to remain viable and vital.

Economic Impact
The current annual budget is approximately $450,000. Income is earned through individual ticket sales (45%), season ticket sales (24%), the Black & White Gala (10%), donations (6%), advertising & underwriting (6%), grants (5%), memberships (1%), concessions (1%) and educational projects, workshops and rentals (2%). All funds are reinvested into productions & operations. New sources of revenue, in particular through corporate underwriting, community partnerships and granting opportunities, are currently being studied and pursued to assure the ongoing financial viability of Old Town Playhouse. The fiscal year runs July through June. In addition to the annual operating budget, an endowment fund - the Old Town Playhouse Endowment at the Grand Traverse Regional Community Foundation - exists to support investment in OTP's future artistic endeavors into perpetuity. It is our goal to help this fund grow so that our community theatre will be able to grow and thrive for generations to come.

NEW INITIATIVES

Restructuring
In 2007, the Board of Trustees initiated plans to review the operations and structure of the Old Town Playhouse. In 2008 they commenced a restructuring of the governance of the operation with the approval of membership. This will result in a community based Board of Trustee structure, and refocus the Playhouse on managing its growth, with a focus toward development and fundraising to meet the growth and demands of the larger community.

Centralized Ticketing Box Office and Web Portal
The Executive Director with approval of The Trustees of the Old Town Playhouse led an initiative to create a Centralized Ticketing operation within the community and also agreed to take on the role of fiscal agent for this major collaborative initiative with the Traverse Symphony Orchestra and two presenting organizations, The City Opera House and the Milliken Auditorium of the Dennos Museum. With key funding made available through a generous grant from Rotary Charities of Traverse City, the new startup operation will centralize ticketing for the region and looks to increase the impact the arts and culture have in Northwestern Michigan. This is a model of collaboration among the arts.