Back in 2012, just as Black Ensemble Theater was moving into its brand-new home in Uptown, the theater’s founder and CEO, Jackie Taylor, gave an interview to the Reader‘s Tony Adler. “I always knew that the theater company had to be more than just a name, it had to have an asset, it had to have a foundation,” Taylor told Adler. “Owning your own space, having your own theater solidifies you in a way that nothing else can. So when I started thinking about Black Ensemble as an institution that survives my lifetime, I knew that I had to start thinking in terms of transformation and solidification of the business.”
“We lost almost two years now of earned revenue. So the grant just came at a very very vital time in our existence,” says Taylor. “Most of the grant is going to allow us to sustain. Well, of course we’ve paid some major bills that we have had for many years and were going in a circle with because we never could get them paid off. And the rest is to be able to survive at least another year on—because ticket sales are not going to just automatically come back to where they were. So we have to plan accordingly. So even though $5 million sounds like a lot, I sure wish it was 10.” Or, as Scott wrote, “Would [these organizations] still benefit from more (more advocates, more money, more volunteers)? Yes.”
