Spoleto enjoys record setting '99 receipts

By Wendell Brock

STAFF WRITER

Final numbers are in from this year's Spoleto Festival USA, and they are impressive. Attendance at the event, held May 28-June 13 in Charleston, S.C., was up 13 percent over last year, setting a box office record of $2 2 million, Spoleto officials say.

Meanwhile, the board of directors is beefing up next season's budget to $6.15 million, compared to this year's $5.48.

Why the growth?

 "I think that some of the performances were really exceptionally good and , in a way, better than we had any right to expect," said general director Nigel Redden. Even some of the riskier presentations turned out to be boxoffice winners.

As examples, Redden pointed to “Mamba' S Daughters," an experimental production of a 1939 play by Dubose and Dorothy Heyward by a downtown New York ensemble, and the U.S. premiers of Kurt Weill's "Die Burghschaft." Both shows sold out, as did "Ricky Jay and His 52 Assistants" and most performances of the Brazilian dame group Quasar Companhia de Danca and "Kwaidan," a puppet production that originated at Atlanta's Center for Puppetry Arts last year.

In a year in which there was no major interdisciplinary arts festival in Atlanta, Spoleto reported that its advance sales were up 62 percent and that group sales increased by 78 percent. The festival said it is possible to measure sales from the Atlanta market but that those numbers won't be available until later.

Programming for next year's fest May 26-June 11, has not been announced. But the first brochure is expected by October. To get on the mailing list, call 843-722-2764 or request it from www.spoletousa.org.

 

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