Gamm Theatre Closes Season with Record Sales, Fiscal Year in Black

Artistic Director Tony Estrella is pleased to announce that The Sandra Feinstein-Gamm Theatre (The Gamm) has closed its 2011-2012 season with the highest ticket sales in its 27-year- history, projecting a balanced operating budget for the fiscal year ending July 31.

All ticket sales increased by 11% over the previous season, with The Gamm's production of Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House having "gone clean" through an extension week, breaking all previous box office records. Season subscriptions totaled approximately $228,000 and contributed to projected year-end revenues of $1,192,175 - 13% higher than the approved revenue budget of $1,055,726. Additionally, 76% of subscribers to The Gamm's current season have renewed their subscriptions to the upcoming 2011-2012 season, making for the theater's highest retention rate to date.

"We are thrilled with the results of this season," said Executive Director Yvonne Seggerman. "It clearly demonstrates that The Gamm's loyal following is growing. People have come to expect challenging works when they come to The Gamm, including the North American premiere of Paul by Howard Brenton or Christopher Durang's Why Torture is Wrong, and the People Who Love Them. Our patrons are fiercely loyal and not shy about expressing their interest in having The Gamm continue to challenge and provoke.

"It is encouraging to see this in light of national trends of lowered expectations and 'lightening the programming.' I am happy that Tony Estrella, our artistic director, is sticking to his guns and producing serious work that is paying off in increasing audiences," Seggerman said adding, "Even in a year when government funding was cut, we have been fortunate for our ticket sales successes and long-standing patrons' generosity."

Community Investment
"We at The Gamm affirm that the arts are integral to the intellectual, emotional and economic health of the community. In serving the communities of Pawtucket, the Blackstone Valley and the larger audience of Southeastern New England, The Gamm sees its commitment to investment in the community as central to our mission and also key to our successful operation," Seggerman said. "Among the many non-profit organizations and government agencies that The Gamm has partnered with over the past few seasons, we were delighted to work this year with The RI Council for the Humanities, The Pawtucket Foundation, The Rhode Island Foundation, RI Film Collaborative, Foundry Artists, Brown University, URI, WRNI (RI's public radio station), WBRU, Rhode Island PBS, Trinity Rep, RI Citizens for the Arts, The Pawtucket Arts Festival, Pawtucket Child Opportunity Zone (COZ), Pawtucket Schools, The Rhode Island Department of Health, Lincoln School and 'Shakespeare in the City', The Autism Project, Pawtucket Arts Collaborative, Women and Infants Hospital, and many more."

Highlights of The Gamm's community investment are the deep relationship, entering its sixth year, between the non-profit theater company and the Pawtucket School Department in the program called Pawtucket Literacy and Arts for Youth (PLAY), a full time residency program in Pawtucket's elementary, middle and high schools. PLAY is offered free to schools and supported by $7,000 seed money from Community Development Block Grant, RI State Council on the Arts and by a variety of local and national foundation and corporate sources.

Significant support earmarked for PLAY and the above collaborations this season has come from the Carter Family Charitable Trust ($10,000), The Champlin Foundations ($49,000), The Rhode Island Foundation ($58,100), Rhode Island State Council on the Arts ($37,490), The Alice I. Sullivan Foundation of Collette Vacations ($25,000), Sharpe Family Foundation ($25,000), Citizens Bank ($15,000), The Shubert Foundation ($10,000), Alliance Blackstone Valley Federal Credit Union ($10,000), MetLife Foundation, ($10,000), Bristol County Savings Charitable Foundation ($7,000), Oliver Fund ($5,000), Bank of America ($5,000), June Rockwell Levy Foundation, ($3,500), Rhode Island Council for the Humanities ($2,950), Hassenfeld Foundation ($2,500), Pawtucket Credit Union ($5,000), John Clarke Trust ($4,000), Troy, Pires & Allen Insurance ($2,500),

Arts Funding in Pawtucket ($1,500), Paul V. Sherlock Center on Disabilities at Rhode Island College ($1,450), Theatre Communications Group ($1,100), Embolden Inc. ($1,000), Hinckley Allen Snyder LLP ($1,000), Somerled Charitable Foundation ($1,000) and many of The Gamm's individual supporters. Crucial in-kind support was supplied by the Providence Phoenix, Pawtucket Times, East Coast Lighting & Production Services, Focus Business Solutions, Artinium Inc., and Newport Storm.

As a final note, newly elected President of the Board David M. Wax is pleased to announce that The Gamm recently signed new three-year contracts with Artistic Director Tony Estrella and Executive Director Yvonne Seggerman. Estrella and Seggerman have been leading the company since its move from Providence to Pawtucket in 2003.

About The Gamm Theatre
Founded in 1984 as Alias Stage, the non-profit Sandra Feinstein-Gamm Theatre creates the finest of live theater, engaging the audience intensely in current and recurrent issues of consequence. The Gamm further serves the public with educational outreach programming designed to support the theatrical experience, and help sustain and enhance the intellectual and cultural life of its community. The Gamm is a member of New England Area Theatre (NEAT), a bargaining unit of the Actors Equity Association.

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