City Aids Theatre in the Square, Lease Renegotiated

The voted 6-0 to give $30,000 during a special meeting Wednesday, the Marietta Daily Journal and Atalanta Journal-Constitution report.

The grant comes from a surplus in car rental tax proceeds, the MDJ and AJC say.

The money does not solve the theater's money problems. The theater needs $64,000 in addition to the $34,000 already raised to remain open, the MDJ reports.

Councilman Philip Goldstein, the theater’s landlord, has renegotiated the theater’s 30-year lease down to five years and reduced the theater’s monthly rent from $10,778 to $7,000, the MDJ says. The new lease does not include the 125-seat Alley Stage.

The theater owes Goldstein .

Theatre in the Square previously stated that it needs to raise $400,000 by June 30 to launch its next season in the Fall of 2012. Of the $400,000 needed, donors have pledged $55,000.

The grant and donations raised since February will go toward payroll, licensing plays, ticket service fees and other bills, the AJC says.

The full theater board will meet on Friday to discuss what changes it must make in its operations if it wants to open a 31st season.

Ticket sales at the nonprofit theater, which has a $1.5 million operating budget, have dropped 10 percent since 2008. Because of the theater's nonprofit status, 65 percent of its income is earned through ticket sales and 35 percent relies on contributions, which have experienced a 30 percent cut in the last three years.

The theater welcomes over 45,000 people through its doors each year and represents a $785,000 economic impact on Cobb County. Approximately, 70 percent of audiences eat in Marietta when they see a show at the theater, which performs every day but Monday.