In a wide-ranging discussion, leaders of Virginia Repertory Theatre fielded questions from the community during a 90-minute open forum tonight (Oct.7) at the Virginia Rep Center on Hermitage Road. The town hall event was also held to thank the more than 1,300 donors that have donated to the organization since Sept. 19, when it announced it needed $600,000 within two weeks or it would be forced to close.

Representing VA Rep was Managing Director Klaus Schuller, Artistic Director Rick Hammerly and the chair of VA Rep’s Board of Directors Martha Quinn. The nonprofit is the largest theater company in central Virginia and produces shows in three venues throughout Richmond.

Schuller kicked off the forum on a positive note. “It’s been quite a few weeks,” he said. “We did make, indeed break, our fundraising goal. We are working on [a] final number that is substantially higher than the $600,000 we set out to fundraise.”

Subsequent questions covered everything from the broad strategy for keeping the organization solvent moving forward to whether the nonprofit pays the city of Richmond for security.

“Because of our financial difficulties, Virginia Rep is going to have to shrink in the hope that we can then re-grow with our audiences,” explained Schuller. “We’re not changing our mission … we are going to continue to provide professional, top-tier adult theater programs, family programs and programs for children.

“All three of those missions will shrink … because we cannot, and will not, have deficits on the level we have just experienced or that were initially projected for the season to come.”

While exact specifics were not always shared, the leaders made several promises throughout the night. A big commitment was to eventually resume touring operations, a core function of the company since its inception that has been paused in recent years.

The forum was held at VA Rep’s Center for Arts and Education, the former Scottish Rite Temple on Hermitage Road, and was attended by close to 100 people with roughly 60 additional attendees tuning in via Zoom.

“One of the things on the table – and it would be irresponsible for it not to be on the table – is possibly the sale of this facility,” said Schuller about the Scottish Rite Temple on Hermitage Road.

The disposition of the new center, purchased almost exactly two years ago, came up several times during the forum.

“One of the things on the table – and it would be irresponsible for it not to be on the table – is possibly the sale of this facility,” said Schuller. “That’s not the desire… [but] we have very real needs and, if we can’t recapitalize this organization, we run the risk of, six months to a year from now, having the same discussion.”

Other details revealed during the forum were that VA Rep is working with nonprofit consulting firm Warren Whitney to improve its internal operations and that it is also going through a rebranding effort.

“We have to take this moment to reintroduce ourselves to Richmond and tell people why they should care,” said Schuller. “And the reason you should care is because we are the largest professional theater company in central Virginia and we are of, by and for the people of Richmond. This is your professional theater.”

Forum attendee Bo Wilson, a local playwright and actor, hoped the transparency exhibited at this event would continue. “I heard a lot of stuff that I wanted to hear,” he said. “And I continue to like that I’ve never seen Klaus [Schuller] even blink at a question. I’ve never seen him look like he’s fishing or buying time. I’m really impressed with that.”

Wilson also said he hoped VA Rep would continue to offer similar forums in the future: “I could see a whole night like tonight just on programming or the corporate giving environment.”

For his part, Hammerly promised exactly that.

“’I’m grateful that we’re finally doing one of these; [it’s] long overdue,” Hammerly said in his opening remarks. “I hate that it takes a crisis to make this happen [but] that will not be the case in the future. I hope we get to have these regularly because we want to know what people are thinking.”

VA Rep said that a complete recording of the event will be available online within a day or two. Style Weekly will continue to cover this story as it develops.