Friends, neighbors, theater goers, lend us a hand!

Last year was a rough one for us here at the Lake Country Playhouse and the Historic Select Theater, as it was for all of us. We are still reeling from the effects of 2020. The new year is looking brighter, but we are still facing challenges.

In 2020 the Lake Country Playhouse suffered a 52% loss of income from 2019. That is right, over half of our regular income was lost in 2020. Even though many of our friends made donations to help us with much needed building repairs and maintenance, we still had a damaging loss.

The National Association of Theatre Owners have seen their businesses decimated by COVID, “probably around 70% of our mid- and small-sized members will either confront bankruptcy reorganization or the likelihood of going out of business entirely.”

While many theaters across the country closed and did not re-open, your generosity and support helped to keep the Select Theater standing proudly in downtown Mineola with its tower glowing and the lights still on to welcome guests into the 101-year-old showplace.

So, how much regular income did we lose in 2020? Well, 52%. That works out to just over $125,000 in lost revenue. At the same time the theater still had bills to pay, work to do, employees to pay, but with no revenue coming in as the governor’s office ordered a complete shutdown of venues like us. We couldn’t do anything, except just pull our socks up and grit our teeth while folks put in thousands of volunteer hours doing the work needed.

Our reserves were depleted, so we were forced to come to our friends, neighbors and supporters to ask for help.

Once the word got out, everyone stepped up to the plate and supported this 101-year-old beauty. Because of you we are still here! With two live performances under our belt, a great magic show weekend and both first run and classic movie favorites showing, things are looking bright for the first time in a year. But...

During regular maintenance on our air conditioners, it was discovered that the two huge commercial units that heat and cool the main auditorium are in need of replacement. One unit has totally failed on the cooling side, and the other is starting to fail (with summer heat coming full steam ahead!) Both units are over 20 years old and have served the theater well. But they have lived their lives.

Due to changes in regulations, coolants, etc. these units are irreparable, and our only option is to replace them with new, more efficient units.

This took us by surprise, and knocked us back as this is a big expense (approximately $30,000) that (under normal circumstances) we could have covered, but just coming out of 2020 we can use your help.

To make a tax deductible donation, go to the link below, and thank you for your support!

https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=T3GH3FPAU92N2

The Lake Country Playhouse is a non-profit tax-exempt organization recognized under IRS code 501 (c)3 and all donations made are tax deductible.

Randy Parrish

Treasurer