Constellation Theatre Company wants to buy the Source Theatre Building. But the nonprofit that owns it is trying to survive, too.
For the DC theater community, if this 120-seat black box theater goes away, local theater artists will “lose one of the last viable black boxes for itinerant theater companies in the DC area,” TheatreWashington president and CEO Amy Austin says. Black boxes in DC have closed, limiting space, including the, and others in Maryland and Virginia that are sought out by companies without permanent homes, but those are often booked up or the wrong size.
According to Maiselman, the organizations have been in good faith negotiations since May and are still actively negotiating. CulturalDC, she says, “would love nothing more than to finalize and be able to complete a purchase of the building”—but the organizations had an understanding that at a certain point without a letter of intent to purchase the building, CulturalDC would reach out to other organizations. The ball is currently in Constellation’s court, Maiselman says.
“Our hope is always for Source to be a venue for arts organizations, and serve multiple disciplines, organizations, and artists,” Maiselman says. “Less and less, we’ve been able to use Source for our own programming. Where we have found success for our own programming is not necessarily in this building as a black box theater.”
The building is zoned for the arts, though it is mixed-use, and artists have mentioned worries about it being revamped into retail or a restaurant. CulturalDC’s hope is for the building to remain within the arts, withoutlining a desire to sell to a “like-minded organization or operator, such that it remains within the arts community,” according to CulturalDC’s principal broker, Langdon D. Hample.
“We’ve been losing revenue on Source; we’ve lost direct revenue as it relates to rentals and occupancy,” she says. “As leadership changes, organizations change, even though the mission may not directly change. I think new leadership brings changes in programming.”