News
Breathing A Vision Into Life At The Basie
By Numa Saisselin, CEO, Count Basie Theatre, Inc.
October is National Arts and Humanities Month. To borrow a phrase from the National Endowment for the Arts, "A great nation deserves great art," and each year October has become a nationwide annual celebration of the arts and humanities in our great nation. Here in Red Bank, we will join thousands of communities nationwide in recognizing the importance of the arts and culture to their citizens' daily lives with the re-opening of the historic Count Basie Theatre after a four-month, $8 million renovation; the first truly significant improvement project in the theatre's history.
Robert L. Lynch, President and CEO of Americans for the Arts, the national coordinator of Arts and Humanities Month, says, "Everyone recognizes the creative and cultural value of the arts and humanities. National Arts and Humanities Month offers us a chance to celebrate the often overlooked economic, educational, and civic engagement values that the arts impart in our daily lives."
Over its 82-year history, first as a privately owned movie theater and vaudeville house, and since 1973 as a nonprofit institution, the Count Basie Theatre has been dedicated to serving its community by creating opportunities for every citizen to participate in and appreciate the arts. This particular October, we celebrate the thousands of community members who have made that possible over eight decades.
In 1925, Joseph Stern, the Burns and Schaffer Amusement Co. and Walter Reade, the original partnership that broke ground on a new theatre on Monmouth Street in Red Bank, had a vision. Even though there were already four other theaters in Red Bank (the Strand, Palace, Empire and Lyric Theaters), their vision endures; 82 years after first opening on November 11, 1926, the Count Basie Theatre is the only one of those five theaters still standing.
In 1973, a dedicated group of community leaders led by the late Bill Warters and the board of the Monmouth County Arts Council had a new vision, and arranged an anonymous private donation that enabled the theater to be purchased and preserved as a nonprofit organization for the benefit of the community.
The vision that drives the theater is ever evolving, changing with the times, and today, the vision that drives the Basie is codified in its mission statement: "To serve the people of Central New Jersey by providing a broad spectrum of quality entertainment and education programs that reflect and celebrate the diversity of the region; foster understanding and appreciation for the ennobling power of the performing arts; and create opportunity for cultural enrichment for people at all economic levels; to develop and maintain a world-class venue that enhances the enjoyment of these entertainment and education programs; contributes to the cultural and economic vitality of the community and the region; and honors the memory of Count Basie."
Breathing life into that statement is a team effort by literally thousands of people every year, from the hundreds of award- winning performers who play on our stage each year; to the 27 members of the Count Basie Theatre Board of Trustees, who govern the organization; to the 28 members of the Count Basie Theatre Foundation Board of Directors, who work with the theatre board to raise the funds to balance the annual budget and improve the building; to the 200 employees of the theatre and the foundation who operate the building day and night; to almost 2,000 annual donors; to the 200,000 patrons of the arts and entertainment who purchase tickets each year, and complete the equation that is central to the theatre's purpose: bringing artists and audiences together.
The last 10 years have been a renaissance period for the Basie, with annual attendance increasing from 17,000 at 54 performances in 1998-1999 to 197,000 at 197 performances in 2007-2008. The theatre's budget has been in the black for six consecutive years, and last year alone the economic impact derived by the community from the Basie's operations was $11 million.
Like the great artists who take our stage, and give us much more than we give them, as an institution the Count Basie Theatre tries to put as much, or more, into its community as it takes out in support. When the theatre re-opens on October 30, it is our hope that we have honored the contributions of all who have gone before us, and all who continue to participate, by making a significant improvement to our historic theatre, and to the fabric of our ongoing life as a community.
