The Soldotna City Council passed a resolution that provides for up to $25,000 from the COVID-19 relief special revenue fund to the Alaska Children’s Institute for the Performing Arts (also known as the Triumvirate Theatre) for the purpose of producing an outdoor community theatre production at Soldotna Creek Park this summer. During last summer, the theatre utilized a grant of $55,110 to produce a free, outdoor community production of “The Little Mermaid”, which ran for two weekends in Soldotna Creek Park.
Council Member Justin Ruffridge told the Soldotna City Council:
“Unfortunately, to provide such an event, it costs some dollars. Last year, we had some CARES funds that were available and were surprised by the outpouring of support for that event. At the request of Mr. Rizzo and myself, we are requesting the potential to grant funds up to $25,000 for the purpose of producing an outdoor community production. The goal of that is to make a sustainable operation through the fact that we will ask for renumeration in the amount of a pay what you can model, so this is still free for those that want to come and see the show, however, donations are accepted and this will help keep our costs down.”
Joe Rizzo with Triumvirate Theatre believes having these community productions will be beneficial to the community:
“This is a great opportunity, as was mentioned, for us to see how much this will cost. We’ve already, obviously, cut this budget down immensely. Triumvirate, for our part, we just don’t want to lose any money on it. We don’t want to make money on it, but we don’t want to lose any money on it, especially right now, we can’t really afford to take that chance. We’re asking the city to partner with us and make that possible so that we can try it out again. Let’s see how many donations that we get back.”
Ruffridge told the council that the vision for this event matches closely with the city’s Envision Soldotna 2030 Comprehensive Plan, which aims to develop and encourage the arts and cultural services and facilities to preserve and promote the area’s history.
Resolution 2022-010 passed the Soldotna City Council.