Each quarter, The Murphy Theatre tries to host a ‘Coffee and Donuts’ event to update the community on the state of the theater and upcoming changes.
Steve Burnette, Executive Director of The Murphy Theatre, started the Fall 2024 meeting by sharing that last weekend the theater officially finished their ‘2,000 Bulbs of Light’ campaign to restore their historic marquee. The event included a community comedy improv show, a marquee lighting celebration, and yellow cupcakes to symbolize the marquee bulbs.
Steve continued by sharing details about this year’s Christmas show. The Murphy Theatre is working with the company who shot ‘The Nutcracker’ in Wilmington last year with Ben Stiller to use the theater for the Midwest premiere of the movie, and have a live performance of The Nutcracker by the company involved with the movie.
Another update Steve discussed was that The Murphy Theatre will be in a commercial for ‘Ohio Goes To The Movies’ that will be shown in theaters across the state.
Next, Steve discussed two upcoming conferences The Murphy Theatre staff is attending, Max Expo and Ohio Arts Presenters, to learn how to be better stewards of The Murphy Theatre and decide acts for next year. They hope to increase programming for families and school events. Later, Amanda Martin, Associate Director, shared that these conferences help The Murphy Theatre build relationships and even get better deals on upcoming acts, which saves the theater money.
Before going into community questions, Steve announced The Murphy Theatre will be increasing Friday night movies in 2025, with the first Friday of the month’s movie being free for families thanks to sponsors.
Responding to a community question, Amanda gave an update on the retained Hotel and Lodging Tax. According to her, the income from the tax is first distributed to both The Clinton County Visitors Bureau and the City of Wilmington, who then distribute the funds to organizations that apply. The Murphy Theatre has a meeting scheduled for September 4, 2024 at 9:30am to discuss their quarterly ask for funds. The Murphy Theatre will be asking for $30,000 to help support their programming and repairs. Then, in 2025, The Murphy Theatre plans to change from a quarterly ask to an annual ask. Steve added that The Murphy Theatre applies for these funds in part because of how the theater helps bring in people to local hotels that contribute tax, not to mention additional business to local restaurants. Amanda finished by saying that the tax brings in around $160,000 annually.
Learn more about The Murphy Theatre and their quarterly public meetings at themurphytheatre.org
Comments