Local groups priced out of library theater

Here’s hoping an economist attends tonight’s meeting of the Las Vegas-Clark County Library District Board. The trustees could use a primer on the principles of price elasticity of demand.

It’s a pretty simple concept: As the price of a good or service changes, consumer behavior changes accordingly. An especially steep price increase can chase off customers entirely. Businesses understand this. Governments seldom do.

The library district board will consider correcting the colossal mistake it made in response to the deep revenue declines of the Great Recession. It tried to recoup some of its vanishing tax collections by significantly boosting theater fees at the Summerlin Library and Performing Arts Center, assuming the community groups that used the hall would have no choice but continue doing business there.

Early this year, Broadway Bound put on a two-week run of “The Wizard of Oz” at the Summerlin Library, paying $3,700 in rent for its performances. Director Michael Vojvodich told Jan Hogan of the Review-Journal’s View News that under the new rates, the same show would cost $27,000, an eight-fold increase. So Broadway Bound staged its most recent production, “Bye Bye Birdie,” at the College of Southern Nevada’s North Las Vegas campus for $13,700.

Signature Productions, another community theater group and Summerlin Library staple, is prepared to move its shows to another location, perhaps Sun City Summerlin, if the huge fee increase isn’t brought down to a more reasonable level.

“When they (the library district) force everybody out, that’s not a good thing,” Karl Larsen, president and founder of Signature Productions, told View News. “I mean, this is a public facility.”

The Summerlin Library theater was built nearly two decades ago specifically to bring the public together. Community groups, in turn, have provided residents with reasonably priced entertainment and attracted large numbers of people to the library, giving them access to culture and literacy under one roof. But the library district has put all that at risk. Far from boosting its bottom line by tens of thousands of dollars, the district will have an empty theater and an even bigger budget hole if it doesn’t dial fees back. Community groups can’t impose those massively higher costs on their audiences. The public won’t pay $60 or $70 per ticket to see the production values of community theater. For that price, they can watch professionals on the Strip or at downtown’s Smith Center for the Performing Arts.

Library district staff plan to recommend a reduced fee structure at tonight’s board meeting. Theater groups plan to address the board, and they’d like their supporters to attend as well. The meeting starts at 6 p.m. at the Clark County Library, 1401 E. Flamingo Road.

The library district has its own costs in operating and maintaining the Summerlin Library theater. Community groups certainly should cover those costs. And there’s nothing wrong with the library district wanting to make a few extra bucks to offset the costs of other programs and services enjoyed by the public. But trustees must find a price that reflects what the market will bear. What’s on the books now doesn’t come close.