Actors Studio Looking for Funding and Home

REGIONAL – The Actors Studio, which has been producing high-quality performances with local actors, directors and playwrights for more than 30 years, is in search of money and a new home.
“I make no apologies. We need money,” said Marc Clopton, the founder and longtime driving force for the local theater group. Executive Director Kimm Wilkinson said she is losing sleep over the future of the beloved organization.
Their “band of vagabonds,” as they refer to themselves and supporters, still maintain an administrative office in the Tannery Marketplace in Newburyport, where the Actors Studio operated for more than 30 years.
It continues to produce exciting and well-received productions in a variety of “appropriate venues.” This year, the popular Story Slam show will be held at the Zach Field Drum and Music studio space in Amesbury.
Clopton holds classes for rookie and veteran actors, directors and playwrights in space owned by the Firehouse Theater in Newbury.
But he and Wilkinson are looking for space where they can land as tenants. They said they are done with trying to have their own theater and playing landlord.
Last summer, the local theater group relocated across the Merrimack River to the Amesbury Theater. The old theater, built in 1912 as the Strand Theater, was much larger with 753 seats compared to 50 seats in the studio at the Tannery.
Clopton and Wilkinson were excited about the possibilities for producing larger, better attended performances. The Amesbury Theater would also have bar and food service that would supplement ticket sales, which only brings in about 40 percent of the needed revenue.
But the move proved to be too much.
“We put a lot of money, time and effort into it, but it didn’t come to fruition,” Clopton said.
The utilities in the larger space were much more expensive. There were costly updates needed. And the roof leaked. If it rained during a performance, Wilkinson said she proposed they place umbrellas stage left to keep the actors dry.
The final blow to their dream was the lack of an elevator. The owner had promised in June, when the Actors Studio signed a six-month lease, to install an elevator to make the theater handicapped accessible.
In November, the owner decided there would be no elevator, Clopton said.
It was unfortunate because Amesbury welcomed the Actors Studio enthusiastically. “Lots of new people came to our shows,” Clopton said. “It was really a positive experience.”
Amesbury Mayor Kassandra Gove came to the opening night of its first show and is helping look for a new venue in the town.
“We learned we can survive outside of Newburyport,” Clopton said, admitting it was scary to leave the Tannery after three decades.
He fears they may not find a location in Newburyport. With real estate prices rising at a rapid pace, “our small black box theater may be priced out of Newburyport,” he said.
In the meantime, Clopton and Wilkinson and their core of volunteers “are doing what we love.”