Last month, a northern Illinois theater announced its organization had a bank foreclosure notice. But now they have another, more hopeful, message.
Russ Brown, the executive director at Timber Lake Playhouse in Mount Carroll, said he didn’t think there would be a 2027 season.
“Once word got out, people started reaching out,” he explained. They started saying, ‘How can we help? What can we do?’ And when it became public, our community really stepped up in an incredible way, and that's the story I'm most excited to tell.”
Because of support the foreclosure has been settled and is in the process of being dismissed.
Brown said the theater’s financial struggles were ignited by the pandemic.
“We had a loss of income that was significant,” he said, “and we were being forced to survive at the end of the fiscal year on pre-sales for our next year. So, it was basically we were eating our own tail.”
The theater was more than $500,000 in debt. They raised that amount but have a goal of $1.1 million. Their annual gala brought in an additional $120,000 including a $25,000 match. There’s also a $200,000 commitment if a matching amount can be raised.
Brown said they are settling some remaining obligations and need to raise more money to get through this year. The next step is to build financial reserves.
