A Statement from Georgia Ensemble Theatre on the Closing of the Atlanta Lyric Theatre

Along with the entire Atlanta theatre community, we mourn the loss of a sister company, the Atlanta Lyric Theatre. In the wake of the pandemic shutdown, the Lyric has bravely battled the same obstacles that all of our industry has faced—reduced attendance, reduced funding, rising costs, and difficulty hiring. The dedicated staff gave their all in trying to find creative solutions to the financial challenges. Season subscribers remained faithful through the shifts and postponements that were made in an effort to conserve funds. But the world around non-profit theatre has changed, and without the return of funders, donors, and individual ticket-buyers, each of us is operating on a knife-edge. Sadly, the financial foundation required to continue the company’s work was not available, and they were forced to close their doors.

Over its 42 years in Atlanta, the Lyric (originally founded as the Southeastern Savoyards, an operetta repertory company) produced musicals and operettas that ranged from huge, splashy Broadway hits to lesser-known pieces that expanded their audiences’ experience with musical theatre. They brought great art and great entertainment to the north side of metro Atlanta and filled a special niche by being the only company in town to produce musicals exclusively. Thousands of patrons made the trip to Emory, the Ferst Center, the Strand Theatre, the Studio on the Square or the Jennie T. Anderson Auditorium to engage with musical comedies and dramas from Cats to Chicago to The Mikado. The shows produced by the Lyric regularly sold out their 600-seat house in the years before the pandemic shut-down.

Hundreds of Atlanta artists launched their careers on the Lyric stage (including some who have gone on to take their talent to Broadway or Hollywood). Hundreds of other artists spent the majority of their careers with the Lyric. For the last several years, the Lyric has been ably led by Mary Nye Bennett, a fierce and inspiring artist & leader who we are also proud to call a friend. We send our sympathy and support to Mary, along with Company Manager Stephanie Polhemus, Technical Director Joseph Swift, and Box Office Manager James McCune.

The loss of the Lyric has rattled all of us. Arts organizations around Atlanta and the nation are in similarly precarious straits, and we know that we’re all just one big setback away from a similar fate. Although it was unavoidable, and it was the right decision, it was not our choice to have our industry closed for so long, losing over a year’s worth of income. Some of the changes theatres have had to make since 2020—such as hiring more understudies, instituting stricter safety protocols, deepening the artistic pool, and adding video streaming capabilities—are actually good for our industry, and we’re glad to make them, but those changes have been costly. Audiences are wary and unsure about venturing back into theatres for various personal reasons. Individual donors have less money to give to the arts. Funders have turned their attention elsewhere. Many of our best artists have left the city or left the industry in an effort to make enough money to support themselves and their families. The pipeline of designers and technicians coming out of college and into our community has all but dried up. The cost of lumber to build sets and fabric to create costumes has risen sharply. And when we raise ticket prices to compensate for rising costs, some audience members are excluded from attending or choose not to return.

We at Georgia Ensemble Theatre offer our support to the Lyric’s staff and artists in whatever way we can help. We extend a friendly invitation to the Lyric’s patrons to visit us at Georgia Ensemble Theatre—we’re not far away, and we’d love to have a chance to connect with you. And we encourage everyone who’s ever enjoyed a song-and-dance number of any kind to give whatever you can to a performing arts organization near you. It will take all of us working together to save our industry. The Lyric is gone, and we mourn its loss. We will continue to share joyful memories of the art created there. And inspired by those memories, we will rescue and preserve our local arts organizations that remain.

To make a donation to a theatre you love, visit their website and look for a tab that says “Donate.” Or check here for a list of local theatres and how to contribute: https://bit.ly/save-ATL-theatre (this list is being updated).

And if you haven’t been to the theatre in a while… We’d love to see you again!

Sincerely, Anita Farley & the staff of Georgia Ensemble Theatre