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The (Too) Long Goodbye
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Business New Haven
1/22/2001
By: BNH
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The very long and very odd saga of the Stratford Festival (née Shakespeare) Theatre took another peculiar turn January 9 when directors of the state's largest theater (1,500 seats) fired Artistic Director Louis Burke during a meeting at which two board members also stepped aside.
Burke had been the prime mover of efforts to renovate and reopen the decade-dark theater. Earlier in the project he boasted of an SFT-centered entertainment hub that would include restaurants, inns, a museum and a drama school. It would attract $100 million in private investment, he crowed.
In the end, Burke & Co. managed to raise only about $100,000 in private money - one-thousandth of Burke's original figure.
Nevertheless, friendly state officials and legislators, led by 82-year-old State Sen. George (Doc) Gunther (R-21), a Burke supporter, were able to coax a $500,000 grant from the state's Department of Economic & Community Development (DECD), an equivalent amount from the town of Stratford, plus a state-guaranteed $1.5-million loan from People's Bank. On top of all that largess, the state turned over the theater and its prime waterfront property to Burke's group in July - essentially free of charge.
However, Burke & Co. again proved that math was not their strong suit, as the $2.5 million proved, according to reports, to be nearly $1 million short of what was actually need to finish the job. Thus the project ground to a halt in September, awash in unpaid bill and angry creditors. That month Gov. John G. Rowland wisely announced that the state was cutting its losses and there would be no further SFT bailouts.
This much seems clear: Either Burke and his allies misled state officials about how much money was really needed to complete the job and/or their ability to privately raise the balance, or were incompetent to forecast project costs. In the end, perhaps they merely deceived themselves.
With Burke gone, perhaps a reconstituted SFT board will be able to muster the renewed credibility they'll need to attract the private investment necessary to complete a project so important to its home town.
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