By Josh Green, NBC17
Six months after opening, the board that oversees the Durham Performing Arts Center is looking to upgrade the facility.
In the list from the DPAC Oversight Board: $172,000 in improvements. That includes $10,000 for renumbering all seats in the theater. Currently, the seat numbers are on the bottom of the chairs.
“I’ve seen way too many people as the houselights are dimming, but even when they’re full — they can’t see the seat number where it’s placed currently,” Councilman Mike Woodard said.
Also on the list of proposed improvements: cup holders.
Mary Anne Black, member of the Durham Performing Arts Center Oversight Committee, said that was one of the suggestions the Board made.
“That’s a safety issue … people tripping over the cups as they’re walking past,” she said.
Reginald J. Johnson, senior assistant to the city manager, said $1 from each ticket sold at DPAC goes into the Durham Performing Arts Center Enterprise Fund for projects like these.
There was about $80,000 in that fund before The Color Purple came to town. Johnson said it could be more than $100,000 now.
Some of the items on the list of improvements will technically be replacements for things that were “value engineered” to save money. Taxes paid for the $44 million building. At 29,500 square feet, it’s the largest in the Carolinas.
“We had 6,000 season ticket holders for our first season of Broadway and that was a great number,” Bob Klaus, general manager of DPAC, said. “Our goal this year is to have 8,000 to 10,000 with the big Blockbusters that we have.”
Wicked is coming to Durham as well as Phantom of the Opera. Each will be here about a month.
“We had 38 Broadway performances this past year, and that number in 2009-10 will grow to 104 performances with the multiple weeks of Wicked and Phantom of the Opera, Klaus said.
He said the last available count for new season ticket sales is approaching 6,500. That tops the 6,000 season tickets sold last season. But in this economy, it’s hard to gauge exactly what trends in the new theater look like.
“Our renewal rate is nearing 70 percent and industry standards are about 75 percent, and we’ve had quite a few new people sign up based on the new line-up,” Klaus said.
Councilman Howard Clemente expressed concerned about the cost of tickets at Durham’s six-month-old theater.
“There is a large segment of the population that they just can’t afford it,” Councilman Clemente said. “With the economic situation being what it is today — affordability is an issue.”
But Johnson defended the theater, saying season tickets are cheap considering these are Broadway shows.
“If you look at the pricing structure for the Broadway plays — the season tickets — where you have an opportunity to see seven Broadway performances — the cheapest tickets … season tickets is about $131 … which is about $20 per show, per Broadway performance.” Johnson said.
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May 25th, 2009 at 5:10 pm
Please provide one cost for season tickets to include all plays and other events to take place at th e DPAC ( concerts, plays,all different performances)
If the cost is acceptable I would be interested in 10-15 tickets
Also provide the expected 2010-2011 season events to take place at the DPAC
Thank you
Harold Finn