Dear City of Austin, the show must go on

310 in the Shade
Jul 21, 2017 · 5 min read

By Haley Rodriguez

There’s no stage, no props or bustling actors prepping for opening night. There’s not even risers for spectators to enjoy a show.

The Ground Floor Theatre, once a fully booked East Austin venue that opened in 2014, is now an empty, black box. During tech rehearsals of its first production for 2016, Fronterafest Long Fringe, the city of Austin shut down the venue. An assumed month out of service has turned into over a year. The theater was run by Patti Neff-Tiven and Lisa Scheps, founder and artistic director, who calls the space her brainchild and hopes to reopen again at the end of the year.

“The theater arts community is full of dedicated, passionate and caring people,” Scheps said. “People come to a show and think ‘That’s really nice,’ but what’s behind it, is just amazing.”

Scheps and Neff-Tiven continue to do the theater’s books, maintain relationships and secure funding for new improvements. Almost everything that made the space a theater was removed after the city’s multiple inspections deemed features like the wooden risers or the second-floor sound and lighting booth out of code.

Austin is home to countless artists and more than 5,600 non-profit organizations. Many of these non-profits like the Ground Floor Theatre serve as spaces for underrepresented groups to come together to express themselves as artists. But as population and rent rises, many are struggling to stay.

In response, the city of Austin’s Economic Development Department just launched the Art Space Assistance Program for non-profit arts organizations or those on its way to a non-profit. Out of the pool of applicants, the department will have $200,000, from the city’s general fund to grant this assistance, known as ASAP, as many organizations it sees suitable.

The financial assistance can be used toward rent or tenant improvements, which require a 50 percent match in funds, a prospect that aspires Scheps. But she said she would need at least $50,000 of the city’s allocated funding to open her theater again.

“This is a great first step,” Scheps said. “Everyone in that [planning] room has their hearts in the right place and hopefully this program will continue to be funded at a much higher level but this is our last chance.”

The grant will be decided on a competitive, criteria-based application. T.J. Owens, program manager of the African-American Heritage and Culture Facility, is at the head of ASAP and said hopes it would help arts organizations engage the community.

Non-profits that serve at-risk populations are encouraged to apply. Owens said the story and impact of any organization is important to describe in the narrative portion of the application.

“This is innovative and groundbreaking,” Owens said. “You don’t have a lot of cities that are really having funds earmarked and geared towards keeping these artistic venues vibrant and full of programming.”

The ASAP comes from the city’s June 2016 Omnibus Resolution, which “identified affordable space for artists as a priority of concern.” Within the theater arts community, the Off Center, where the Rude Mechanical theater collective operated, and the Salvage Vanguard Theater, already lost their venues after the property owners raised rent.

According to its website, The Ground Floor’s mission is to create works by and for underrepresented communities, or as Scheps calls it, “do-gooder theater.’” In 2015 the theater co-produced the musical “Parade” by Robert Uhry and Jason Robert Brown with TILT Performance Group. TILT is a company that provides opportunity for adults with special needs to participate and perform in professional theater.

“I was questioning our mission until we did the show with TILT, and then it was no question,” Scheps said. “That showed us we could do high quality, mainstream work that serves those communities.”

Scheps’ career always revolved around theater, first as a stage manager and director on Broadway and then in the business theater industry. After moving to Austin 15 years ago, she’s had various projects along the way. Every Wednesday, she co-hosts a KOOP radio show called “Off Stage and on the Air.” In 2005 she opened play! Theatre but closed it after a year.

“For a city that tells the rest of the country it’s artsy, we don’t help non-profit arts organizations,” Scheps said. “We have a long way to go to train the citizens of Austin to go see theater and be theater-loving people because right now that’s not who they are.”

She also said the city’s permit section is another roadblock.

“When the theater venue crisis came up, the city said they have a responsibility to provide venues but I don’t want them to provide us anything,” Scheps said. “I want them to get out of our way and let us make art.”

Initiatives within the arts community and beyond are working to sustain venue space. Jade Walker, executive director of Art Alliance Austin, said artists are always resourceful. They will often pair up and rent studio space together to manage the high rent costs. She is also contacted weekly by developers who want art in their spaces.

“I’m very confident there’s a growing interest from corporate entities to start offering spaces to artists,” Walker said. “Like the Texas Children’s Hospital who said, ‘We can’t have a hospital in Austin without art in it,’ and it’s true.”

Art Alliance Austin is a non-profit that brings artists, galleries and creative spaces the opportunity to make work. It also hosts events around the city to connect the general public to the art scene. Walker believes the visual arts should be essential to the city’s daily lives.

“I think all the cultural institutions are really important to our town,” Walker said. “We have an outstanding group of local artists. We just don’t have the proper voice to get those artists out into the world.

Open or closed, the Ground Floor Theatre is producing an original piece in September. Neff-Tiven and Scheps narrowed down a list of 300 applicants to five and are currently deciding who will be chosen. The play will give special consideration to underrepresented groups that don’t have a large voice in Austin.

And she still hopes for the now-vacant building.

“I hope to build on the second floor and open a piano bar for revenue and the theater geeks to come together and sing together,” she said. “I would love to see this as a place for people to congregate, to be a church.”

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310 in the Shade

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