Up against $1 million deficit, will Jeune Lune theater wane?

Just two years after it won the regional Tony Award, the celebrated Theatre de la Jeune Lune faces an uncertain future.

It is struggling under an accumulated debt of nearly $1 million and has revamped its marketing to combat declining audiences.

The Minneapolis company, which lost its longtime administrative leader two weeks ago, has slashed its $1.7 million annual budget by one-third, cut its staff by a similar amount and changed its programming model, theater officials say.

Jeune Lune did not publicize a full 2007-08 season of plays and operas. Instead, it is offering fewer works, each announced individually.

Jeune Lune officials have also discussed selling the $3 million warehouse building that it has called home for 15 years.

"I've invested 30 years of my life in this company, and it is everything to me," said Dominique Serrand, artistic director. "Whether we are here and strong, disband, or move to some place like Berlin -- that's up to the community. But the art will continue."

Board chair Bruce Neary took a more measured tone. "I don't want to minimize the challenges that the company faces -- they are serious," he said. "But we can get through it and emerge stronger."

Guthrie as 'category killer'?

Jeune Lune's precarious position might seem like the fruition of predictions that the Guthrie Theater, which opened its three-stage, $125 million complex in June 2006, would become a Walmart-style category killer that sucked up resources and talent and put mid-sized and small companies out of business.

However, Jeune Lune's fiscal woes have been growing over the past several years.

"They haven't taken our audience away, because there's not much overlap," said Jeune Lune company member Steve Epp in an interview last week. "But with its Wonder Bread shows, the Guthrie has dumbed down expectations, so people have less of an appetite for adventurous work."

Jack Reuler, artistic director of Mixed Blood Theatre, which is similar in size to Jeune Lune, sees the situation differently.

"Over the year and a half that they've been open, we haven't seen any impact on our box office or audiences," he said. "And as the Guthrie's programming has expanded, they have committed to hiring local people, stabilizing and improving the talent pool by keeping strong actors from heading for the exits."

Jeune Lune's trademarks

Founded in 1978 by Parisians and Twin Citians, Jeune Lune built its reputation on physical humor, visually stunning re-imagined classics, original works and, in recent years, ravishing, scaled-down operas.

"If Jeune Lune were to go, it wouldn't just be Minneapolis' loss, but the country would be losing a part of its artistic and imaginative soul," said Gideon Lester, interim artistic director of the American Repertory Theatre (A.R.T) in Cambridge, Mass. Jeune Lune has collaborated with A.R.T. on five shows.

Jeune Lune has built its reputation by doing co-productions with larger national regional theaters, including A.R.T., which has a $9 million annual budget and a 560-seat main hall at Harvard University, and the Berkeley (Calif.) Repertory Theatre, with an $11.5 million budget and 600-seat main hall.

"'The Miser' was one of the most successful shows in our history," Lester said. "It was everything that Jeune Lune at its very best promises to be: wildly inventive, with great physical comedy and a political edge."

Tony Taccone, artistic director of the Berkeley Rep, declared Jeune Lune "a national treasure."They have a singular collective imagination of telling stories through the prism of wonder," he said.

Small and nimble

Despite its big reputation, Jeune Lune's budget has never exceeded $2 million. And even that has been hard to make. It got into fiscal trouble by borrowing against the equity in its 70,000-square-foot building in the warehouse district, which it moved into in 1992 and which was last appraised at $3 million, to cover shortfalls.

The current deficit, which board chair Neary said is "over $900,000" and at a rate of 9.25 percent, has been exacerbated by over-optimistic planning, said Scot Covey, the company's new marketing director. "We have a realistic budgeting process now that does not expect sell-outs," Covey said .

The latest news about Jeune Lune is part of a transition and transformation for the company. A year and a half ago, it shed its five-person leadership model in favor of one, Serrand. The co-founders have pursued different interests, with Vincent Gracieux departing for France while Barbra Berlovitz and Bob Rosen teach, direct and perform in the Twin Cities.

Less than two weeks ago, Steve Richardson, producing director of the company for 14 years, left.

"Steve Richardson was a steadying influence on the company," said former Jeune Lune board chair Patricia Bloodgood. "On the other hand, change always brings opportunity and there is no question that [the theater] will come through these challenges a stronger organization."

Serrand, who was knighted by the French government a few years ago, points out that the problems affecting his theater are not unique. Penumbra Theatre in St. Paul, for example, was once saddled with a debt that had ballooned to $500,000. After five years on a strict fiscal regimen that included trims to its seasons, salaries and staff, Penumbra has balanced its books.

"A deficit saps your confidence a little, but you need to be steadfast and disciplined and you've got to remember what it is you started out to do," said Penumbra's Lou Bellamy.

In addition to cutting back on staff, budget and programming, Jeune Lune hopes to turn things around by building a young audience. It has begun offering young theatergoers a $9 ticket to any show. It has toyed with the idea of selling the building, perhaps to supporters, and leasing it back.

"In their shows, Jeune Lune looks at the world in a hard, clear-eyed way and speaks truth in a clean, pointed and beautiful style," said board chair Neary. "The art is as strong as ever. And we will continue to push forward."

Rohan Preston • 612-673-4390

Rohan Preston • rpreston@startribune.com