Finding a place to call home

This is a big question for performing arts groups to deal with when they start. Local theater auteur, John Dranshak, has stated that this seems to be a reoccurring theme in many local organizations since there doesn't seem to be any affordable performance spaces in this town. John talked about how this has been an ongoing issue in Columbus for the last couple of decades and that there have been others before this organization who have tried that have a lot of power and influence. The Greater Columbus Arts Council has done at least 2 studies on the issue in the past to no avail it seems.

The solution that no one seems to be able to put together economically has been to create an incubator performing arts space for small arts organizations. The Drama Foundry is determined to get a performance space that isn't going to take us to the cleaners. As John pointed out, performance spaces are the single largest expense for any performing arts organization. (He named some figures last night for using a theater for a week in Columbus.) As far as my long hesitation in trying to engage my community and following my passion, it is issues like this that make me want to run away and hide. It is a hard pill to swallow that a city the size of Columbus does not have an incubator performance space for local arts organizations.