REPORT TO PARKS AND RECREATION COMMISSION
SUBJECT
Title
Approve Agreement between the City of Sunnyvale and Bay Area Children's Theatre for Use of Theater Facilities at the Community Center for the period January 5, 2018 through March 25, 2018.
Report
BACKGROUND
The Sunnyvale Theater, located on the grounds of the Sunnyvale Community Center, is the only public theater venue in Sunnyvale. Established policies and practices at the Theater allow for shared use of space to maximize the number of groups that can use the facility, and by extension, the number of audience members that can be served. This shared-use philosophy has been in existence since the mid-1970s and was reaffirmed in September 2009 with the adoption of the "Theater Use Policies and Practices Study Issue Report" (RTC 09-245).
The California Theatre Center (CTC), a Sunnyvale-based non-profit theater group best known for its School and Family series, is one of two resident theater groups that operated at the Theatre for many years. Given the off-peak hours of operation and the target audience of youth, the City allowed CTC to use the theater facilities at less than the established rental fee in the City's Master Facility Fee Schedule pursuant to the Other Support (special agreement) provisions in Council Policy 7.2.4 (Relationships with Outside Groups - Attachment 2). Earlier this year, however, CTC notified the City that CTC did not wish to extend its current agreement.
The Department of Library and Community Services had projected approximately $74,130 in revenue from CTC for FY2017/18. As a result, it is important that the Department identify an alternate source of revenue to mitigate this unforeseen revenue impact and fill the void left in children's theater programming.
The Department has identified a potential new partner, the Bay Area Children's Theater (BACT) who is interested in piloting a program in the first quarter of 2018 to determine the viability of a longer-term relationship. L...
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