'Sad day for Raleigh:' North Carolina Theatre files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, suspends 2024 season
The North Carolina Theatre, Raleigh’s largest professional theatre company producing live musical theatre for the past 40 years, announced on Friday they are filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
They are also suspending the remainder of their 2024 season.
This comes after financial challenges the production company faced during and following the pandemic.
"With profound sadness, the NCT Board of Directors announces that it must implement a financial restructuring by seeking protection under Chapter 11," said. "The financial restructuring is a necessary step toward rebuilding and revitalizing The North Carolina Theatre for the future."
Former performers for the company like Ira David Wood III said they are saddened to hear the news.
"This is like a death in the family," said Wood. "It's a very sad day for Raleigh, for North Carolina and indeed the country."
DeAnn Jones, founder of North Carolina Theater, says when she left in 2005, the theatre still had "considerable funds."
She says she's proud of the good the theatre did for Raleigh back in 1983, when there wasn't much available in downtown.
Jones says she's hopeful they can reorganize, but it’s going to be difficult, saying, "It's a hard business."
NCT will join multiple prominent live theatres across the country that have either closed or sought bankruptcy protection resulting from external forces during and after the pandemic, including significant increases in production costs, loss of corporate and personal sponsorships, decline in subscription sales and a slow return of audiences to live venues.
The North Carolina Theatre asked for help in November
Back in November 2023, the theatre asked the community for help staying afloat, with a goal of raising $500,000 in order to keep its performances going. The nonprofit puts on professional productions and runs a training program for performers called the conservatory.
“Surviving the pandemic, at the beginning, looked like an impossibility,” John Zaloom, the secretary on the board of directors, said. “Coming out of it, we didn’t have the audience come back as quickly, and we didn’t have corporate sponsors come back as quickly.”
At the time, the theatre had said they were close to reaching their goal and had hopes of staying afloat.
Plans for the future: Re-organizing and seeking funding
"The NCT Board of Directors, with assistance from NCT staff, made extraordinary efforts to secure additional funding, and NCT re-scaled production to bring down expenses," said the release. "Unfortunately, those efforts did not result in the ability to continue producing live theatre at this time."
As a part of the reorganization plan, the theatre will continue its efforts to secure substantial public funding to supplement its funding from ticket sales, sponsorships, and donations.
During the reorganization phase, the theatre plans to continue the day-to-day operations of the North Carolina Theatre Conservatory, such as training and fostering educational growth with students ranging from beginners to pre-professionals in acting, dancing, and voice performance.
Despite filing for Chapter 11, the theatre has a message of hope for the future.
"We plan to emerge from reorganization as the premiere regional theatre, producing performances that blend professional Broadway actors with talented local youth and adult actors in North Carolina," said the release.
They believe the Chapter 11 reorganization process will allow them to eventually resume their new model of producing more cost-effective productions in the smaller, more intimate A.J. Fletcher Theatre.
What if you already had tickets to a future show?
According to their release, the theatre hopes to emerge at the end of the restructuring phase with the ability to provide some form of credit to those who purchased tickets for future shows.
"NCT sincerely apologizes for this hardship and inconvenience to our devoted patrons, benefactors, and stakeholders. The NCT Board requests grace, patience, and generosity from fellow patrons and subscribers during the reorganization phase," says the release.
