Stage Presence

Even for someone well-versed in drama, longtime national theater and performing arts hall executive Mary Bensel was shaken up a bit when she came to Sarasota 10 years ago.

The city of Sarasota hired Bensel in 2007 to run the city-owned Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall. The theater had been losing money for years, including a $1.7 million deficit in 2006 — when the economy hadn't tanked yet. Some area business leaders and groups had begun to question why the city was in the theater business anyway.

City officials tasked Bensel with one overarching goal: Turn the theater's multiyear deficit into a surplus. And do it fast. On what turned out to be the onset of a recession.

In taking the job, Bensel faced some immediate challenges.

First, to begin the process of matching revenue with expenses, she laid off a portion of the staff. That cast her as the cruel outsider among theater employees. On a personal level, meanwhile, Bensel had to adjust to the complicated maze of working for a city government, with Sunshine Laws for communicating and reams of paperwork for verifying everything. For that, she was the fancy outsider big city executive in a fish-out-of-water role among city bureaucrats.

All this, from someone who grew up with dreams of being on stage, not running things behind it. “I wanted to be a Barbra Streisand,” quips Bensel, “but that role was already taken.”

Bensel, a decade later, is cast as one of the stars of a successful show: The Van Wezel (pronounced van way zull) has been a leader statewide, and in some regards nationally, in several financial metrics the past five years. Revenue at the 1,741-seat hall, considered the world's only purple seashell-shaped theater and a city landmark, is up 33% since 2012, from $8.54 million to $11.4 million in 2016.

On a key metric for Sarasota taxpayers — can the Van Wezel stand on its own financially? — Bensel has led a transformation, from annual subsidy to annual surplus. The gross surplus was $1.28 million in 2015, for example, and $850,000 in 2016. Also, earned revenue as a percent of the total budget, which includes ticket sales, parking and concessions, has risen steadily, from 90.4% in 2010 to 96.1% in 2015, Van Wezel data show. Unearned revenue comes from foundations and grants. “People presume the city pays for this hall,” says Bensel, “and that hasn't been true in six years.”

Under Bensel's leadership, Venues Today magazine has named the Van Wezel the No. 1 Performing Arts Hall in North America six times, including 2017. The international trade publication compares hundreds of theaters on performance and event gross revenue metrics.

“Mary is innovative and creative and always looks for ways to get the facility in the black,” says Sarasota City Manager Tom Barwin. “She's masterful at putting a great season together. She's one of the best in the country.”

The Van Wezel's six-year run of a surplus is especially gratifying to Barwin, who meets regularly with Bensel. “For whatever reason, in the last few decades, whenever a city government runs something, people think the city will run it right into the ground,” Barwin says. “This is an example of the opposite thing happening. That's significant.”

Big Rolodex

Bensel's love of theater and performing arts is obvious with quick a quick glance around her office, between Broadway clippings and posters on the walls and theater-related knickknacks and tchotchkes on her desk.

That passion is an ally at the Van Wezel, which competes essentially on two fronts: One is to bring in Sarasota-Manatee area customers, who have a growing array of choices on where to spend their recreation and entertainment dollars. The other is to bring in top acts, going against places like the Mahaffey Theater in St. Petersburg; Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater and Barbara B. Mann Performing Arts Hall in Fort Myers. (Bensel was general manager of the Mann for a decade, from 1996 to 2006; prior to that she ran the Merriam Theater in Philadelphia for a decade.)

This is where Bensel's industry experience has become her biggest asset, says Van Wezel Foundation President and CEO Monica Van Buskirk. The foundation is a nonprofit, run separately from the performing arts hall. It raises money for education, capital improvements and theater programs. “Her national experience and contacts give her the ability to get major stars to come here, like Jay Leno,” says Buskirk, referring to the former late night TV star who performed at the Van Wezel earlier this year and in 2014. “She's also a tough negotiator.”

Booking better acts was a part of the Van Wezel turnaround, but there were other priorities in 2007. Bensel had moved from Fort Myers back to Philadelphia in 2006, and was working for a national theater organization when some officials from Sarasota called her about the Van Wezel leadership post. She took the job and headed back to Florida.

Bensel recalls she knew the position was going to be a financial challenge, but the level of problems came as somewhat of a surprise. “It was an uphill battle,” she says. “They didn't have any reasonable business operations. They had no profit and loss statements for (individual) shows. They didn't have any idea were each dollar went.”

The list of other problems exacerbated the financial issues. There wasn't enough variety in the shows, and there were little, if any, subscription programs. National touring producers and companies, says Bensel, “love subscriptions because it shows them people will come.”

Another issue Bessel says she discovered: poorly written contracts.

“I put in real business practices,” Bensel says. “We mark where every dollar goes on every show.”

Risk taker

While expense control has been important, so too, says Bensel, has been spending money the right way.

The hall did away with some general marketing programs, for example, replaced by targeted marketing, in print mailings and social media. “The person who will go see John Legend isn't the same person who will go see (Israel Philharmonic Orchestra conductor) Zubin Mehta,” Bensel says. “We do a lot of specialty marketing. This is not like selling potato chips.”

Other investments have come in the Van Wezel itself. The theater was built in 1968 and 1969, paid for by a Sarasota bond referendum and a bequest from area philanthropists Lewis and Eugenia Van Wezel. It underwent $20 million in renovations in 2000.

More recent improvements include a state-of-art Meyer speaker sound system; a new hydraulic system in the orchestra pit; new seats; and a T-coil compatible hearing loop system in the hall and box office. Overall, there's been at least $5 million in enhancements in the past decade, says Bensel.

There's a good reason for the investment, say theater officials. It follows the hospitality trend that the destination lately is sometimes not enough. “People are into the experience now,” Bensel says, “not just a show.”

That requires Bensel and her team to find unique shows and offerings for crowds — without blowing too much of the budget on one or two big gets. Some Broadway shows cost $500,000 to $700,000 to bring to town, while a band or individual concert performance could run $300,000 or so. These performance fees take the biggest piece of the Van Wezel budget, surpassing $4 million in fiscal 2015, according to theater financial documents. That's roughly 40% of all expenses for the year.

With that kind of money on the line, it raises the stakes for Bensel when she books acts and shows. These shows are booked 12, sometimes 18 months out, which only adds to the tension to get it right.

But Bensel doesn't shy away from the pressure. “We are in a risky business,” Bensel says. “I'm making the best decisions I can based on history, based on my experience, based on what I think people I want to see in the future.”