Barbara Kingsley starred in "August: Osage County" to open the season at Park Square. Photo/Tom Wallace.
Amid recessions, budget deficits and declining audiences, Park Square Theatre continues to thrive. Revenue for the recently ended fiscal year rose 14 percent to $3 million and for the third straight year, the St. Paul troupe set attendance records. The total audience was 61,753, up 11 percent from the previous year — and 33 percent more than 2005-06. Also significantly, earned revenue rose 19 percent to $1.2 million.
Park Square also announced it has raised $3.4 million toward a goal of $4.2 million in its Next Stage campaign. The project includes building a new theater seating up to 200 in the basement of the Hamm Building. Target Corporation Foundation pledged $125,000 and the Nicholson Family Foundation recently offered a $50,000 challenge grant.
No specific opening date has been attached to the expansion project, but Park Square anticipates it would be able to nearly double its artistic output, to 18 shows a year, up from 10 now.
The theater, headed by artistic director Richard Cook, employs more stage talent than any other troupe in St. Paul, with more than 160 in the current season. That's double the figure from 2006. Cook has also signed up four artistic associates to help program the new space. They are director Brian Balcom, playwright/director Aditi Kapil, playwright Carson Kreitzer and actor/director James A. Williams.
