FOLLIES

We just finished our annual Follies production in Cedar Falls at the Gallagher Bluedorn Auditorium and a few things struck that I thought worth mentioning. As always, I am pleasantly surprised at the level of talented volunteers for this annual production and am impressed by the dedication that so many people exhibit when it comes to this long standing tradition. I even had a blast by singing "Talk to the Animals" impersonating Siegfried and Roy with Executive Director Robert Massey, and displaying a rather bi-polar interpretation of "To All the Girls I've Loved Before" by singing the roles of both Willie Nelson and Julio Iglesias at the same time--no easy feat.

As a fundraiser Follies is not what it used to be however. Sadly audiences have been declining in the last decade and expenses have never taken a holiday. It takes a budget approaching six figures to produce such an extravaganza, and in its heyday could be counted on to raise an average of $30,000 for the orchestra. Until we return to the Paramount Theatre, the best we can hope for is to break even.

There are many reasons for this not the least of which was the flood and the retirement of founding director Bob Gueder. Bob built a great team in Damon Cole, Michelle Philgreen, and Bette Eells-- artistically the show is in good hands.

The nature of the audience is key to why revenue is down, and also leads to why we are performing in Cedar Falls and not Cedar Rapids. If one were to analyze the make-up of the audience, they would find that roughly half come from bus tours from around the state, and the other from local patrons (at one time, by far, bus tours comprised the greatest percentage of audience). Here's the rub: Follies needs a large stage that has considerable technical facility with a large audience capacity. No such venue exists in Cedar Rapids for the time being except for maybe a few high schools. Most bus tours, however, do not recognize high schools as destinations and would discontinue their patronage. Getting them back, lets say when the Paramount returns, would be extremely difficult as they would have already found alternatives between now and then. In fact, bus tours are on the rise now that we are performing in the summer and in a professional venue. No, it is the decline in local audience that finds the Follies in this most vulnerable of situations. If we can survive long enough to return back to our home in Cedar Rapids (which will be over 2 productions away) the good times will roll again for our Follies family. It was a terrific show this year filled with fun and great performances. If you missed it, consider supporting it next year--we'd love to see you in the audience.

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