2013 is the year of the PAC. And no, we are not talking about Political Action Committees. The national election is over and we couldn’t be happier.
These PACs (Performing Arts Centers) are all about professional live entertainment, theatre, film, art, and - yes - even training and workshops for local future artist and performers.
If you are not familiar with the many PACs right in your own backyard, then you have clearly been missing out on something exceptional. And we hope to change that!
PACs are everywhere; often on or near campuses, in downtown areas, small communities and towns, in the suburbs and in fringe areas both far and near that epicenter that we so lovingly call "The Great White Way." PACs can be found in Manhattan, out on Long Island, in Purchase, New York and on quite a few of the major City University of New York (CUNY) campuses in New York City. They are in the boroughs, in Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and beyond the tri-state area. They are multi-stage venues, small intimate live theatre companies, and can be found in just about every size and shape. But the thing that makes PACs especially unique is that they attract some of the top names in theatre, comedy, dance, music and travelling Broadway productions around the country. In doing so, PACs manage to bring an incredible abundance of internationally acclaimed talent right into you own backyard...well, at the very least closer than having to drive into Manhattan if you don't live nearby.
Bringing this type of entertainment to the local PACs actually is important because each community is different; different demographics, different tastes, ethnicities and local nuances. For the PACs, having a sense of these differences is critical to their success.
Andrea Rockower, of the Bronx’s Lehman Center for The Performing Arts, for instance, describes her center this way: “Lehman Center is a community resource in which area residents of all backgrounds, neighborhoods, and income levels come together to celebrate their cultural traditions and the arts.” At Lehman there is a tremendous abundance of choices, ranging from the African Children’s Choir (comprised of Kenya and Uganda young people who have lost one or more parents to poverty or AIDS) to the China National Symphony, to the Slask Song & Dance Ensemble from Poland. Mix into that schedule Patti LaBelle, comedian Paul Rodriguez and a few fully staged, classic theatrical travelling productions like “A Chorus Line” and “Fiddler on the Roof,” and you immediately start to see the caliber of talent coming to you when you can’t get to them!
What is happening in most cases with the PACs is that the show is coming to you before or after it headlines on Broadway or in major venues in Manhattan.
Take the Performing Arts Center at SUNY Purchase College, just North of NYC. According to them, “performances are presented immediately before or after the same artists make appearances in the major concert halls in New York City. Many of these are artists are generally seen in New York City and our audiences appreciate and embrace seeing them without traveling into the city.” This “We-Come-To-You” approach is not only convenient, but very appealing to the status of the community, helping to stimulate a sense of local cultural pride not usually connected to small towns.
As an example, at SUNY Purchase, last season saw the World Premiere on one of their stages of Paul Taylor’s witty dance “Gossamer Gallants,” prior to its New York City debut at Lincoln Center.
Lobby of Purchase Performing Arts Center In addition to a diverse program and plenty of choices for all age groups, ethnicities and likes, there is the actual venue itself. PACs, from what we have seen over and over again, are modern, multi-stage centers with state-of-the-art facilities that can be used by host campuses, in house productions and rented by outside producers. They house art galleries, small black box and cabaret spaces, a main stage, and even state of the art cinema houses with brand new seating. Since many of the PACs are independently run non-profit organizations, generating income and maintaining stability during economically challenged times remains an issue. Careful programming planning, grant and corporate fundraising and revenue generating ideas are in constant demand. Major corporations and media entities seem to sponsor some of these PACs, with grants and donations numbering in the millions of dollars annually. With names like Chase, Con Edison, Delta, Time Warner, Verizon and many other multiple corporate supporters backing the PAC’s, it is obvious why the quality of the talent tends to remain relatively high in spite if increasing production costs. Still, the key to success is local audience participation and a healthy box office.
That’s why we at localTheatreNY.com have come to feel that PACs are so vital to this sense of, well... “Local Theatre.”
When you look around and see names like Whoopi Goldberg and Rob Schnieder mixed in with less produced play titles like the "Rimers of Eldritch," it really get's your attention. But as one PACs' marketing publicist says, "It is also the variety of genre from classical to quartets to children's shows that make a PAC so unique. It's also what makes it so challenging to market...these are drastically different audiences and so the reach has to be wide and far."
With that in mind, this year, we at LocalTheatreNY.com hope to bring more attention to all those PACs in Manhattan, the outer boroughs and the entire tri-state area. Our initial new Performing Arts Directory is just one step in our ongoing mission to highlight the many wonderful local productions available to us in the tri-state area. As this directory continues to grow in the months to follow, we hope you check in periodically to see what’s coming to you. We also hope you consider supporting your nearest PAC. See a show. Tell us about it and share it with friends. Take pictures at the PAC and we will publish them! If you know of any PACs missing from our directory, please let us know. (email AllianceHM@aol.com)
CLICK HERE to link to our New Performance Arts Center Directory.
Tuesday, April 30, 2013 at 12:09PM 
The Tony Award Nominations in 26 competitive categories for the American Theatre Wing’s 67th Annual Antoinette Perry “Tony” Awards® were announced this morning, April 30, by Tony winning-actress Sutton Foster and star of both stage and screen Jesse Tyler Ferguson, at the Tony Award Nominations Announcement sponsored by IBM. 
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