The show must go on: Albuquerque Little Theatre seeks funding for repairs

Albuquerque’s longest-running community theater, Albuquerque Little Theatre (ALT), is persevering in the face of a series of recent setbacks, including an HVAC system failure and roof damage.

“We are looking for support to keep our doors open,” Brian Clifton, a comanaging director of ALT, said.

Established in 1930, ALT has weathered tough times in the past, from the Great Depression to COVID-19, but it now finds itself facing another difficult challenge. The theater is seeking $100,000 to cover operating expenses and much-needed repairs.

Patrons may visit albuquerquelittletheatre.org to read more about the giving campaign, called “Theatre Needs a Hero: Be Ours.”

“Before COVID hit, the theater was at its highest point. We were selling out just about every show that we had,” Clifton said. “Then, the pandemic hit, and that stopped everything. We were just starting to recover from COVID, when, this summer, we got hit with a bunch of different issues.”

First, the HVAC system stopped working.

“We had to cancel the performance of our last show of the season, because the air conditioning completely went out. It was a sold-out performance of ‘Beautiful: The Carole King Musical,’ and we had to cancel it,” Clifton said. “And then, I think, word-of-mouth got around that we didn’t have air.”

Clifton said ALT rented “a bunch of standalone air conditioners to get us through the summer,” but not all local theater-goers realized that they were continuing to put on shows, let alone that they had rented air conditioning units.

“I’m not exactly sure what happened,” Clifton said, “but we launched right into our summer rep series, and audiences were affected from there on out.”

Clifton said it would be a tragedy if the theater had to shutter its doors, considering how much ALT has meant to generations of New Mexicans and the history it represents.

“Vivian Vance from the ‘I Love Lucy’ show got her start at ALT. We have her Emmy in our lobby. Don Knotts was there and Ann B. Davis from ‘The Brady Bunch.’ We’ve had quite a few pretty famous people over the years,” Clifton said.

The building itself is historically significant. Built in 1936, it was a project of the Works Progress Administration under the aegis of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal.

“The Albuquerque Little Theatre building where we are at currently was the first WPA building in the state,” Clifton said.

Older buildings, of course, require more upkeep.

“The building is 90 years old, so there’s just a lot of repairs and upkeep that have been needed for a while, that we just haven’t been able to afford,” Clifton said.

Still, the theater is forging ahead, with their next play — Mary Kathryn Nagle’s “Manahatta” — slated to open on Oct. 3. And Clifton is confident that local theater lovers will step up and help them out in their time of need.

“I know that we have a very vibrant, supportive community here, and there’s definitely the resources here to be able to help us,” he said.