Beloit's New Court Theatre drops the final curtain

By STEVE BENTON ( Contact ) Thursday, Feb. 12, 2009

Podcast Episode

WCLO's Steve Benton reports on the decision to shut down professional theater in Beloit

BELOIT — The nine year run of Beloit's New Court Theatre has come to an end.

Actor and Artistic Director for the company, Colleen Burns, says this is not a unique problem for Beloit. Other theater and performance venues are facing similar problems.

She says just as planning was getting underway for the tenth season, they realized corporate sponsorships were drying up. "It's a perfect storm" says Burns.

She says the New Court Theatre Board of Directors saw dark clouds gathering as they ended the 2008 season with a $6,500 deficit. She says combined with a lack of sponsors, the writing was on the wall.

Burns says their may be other attempts at professional theater in Beloit once the economy turns around. New Court Theatre, under the leadership of founder Josh Burton, began in 2000.

Before you post a comment, consider this:

Note: GazetteXtra.com does not condone or review every comment. Read more in our User Policy Agreement

Keep it clean. Comments that are obscene, vulgar or sexually oriented will be removed. Creative spelling of such terms or implied use of such language is banned, also.
Don't threaten to hurt or kill anyone.
Be nice. No racism, sexism or any other sort of -ism that degrades another person.
Harassing comments. If you are the subject of a harassing comment or personal attack by another user, do not respond in-kind. Hit the "Suggest Removal" button on offensive comments.
Share what you know. Give us your eyewitness accounts, background, observations and history.
Do not libel anyone. Libel is writing something false about someone that damages that person's reputation.
Ask questions. What more do you want to know about the story?
Stay focused. Keep on the story's topic.
Help us get it right. If you spot a factual error or misspelling, email newsroom@gazettextra.com or call 1-800-362-6712.
Remember, this is our site. We set the rules, and we reserve the right to remove any comments that we deem inappropriate.

Post Comment

Commenting requires registration.

News:

Opinion:

Blogs | Columns | Political Cartoons | Polls

Sports:

Multimedia:

Community:

Births | Couples | Obituaries | Death Notices

Blogs

Blog List | Latest Blog Entries

Services:

Reader Rewards | Retail Locations

Copyright ©2007 Bliss Communications Inc. All rights reserved. Use of this material and this site are subject to the GazetteExtra Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Content may not be published, broadcast, re-distributed or re-written.