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GROUP: (SINGING) Jordan water-- Jordan water-- black and cold-- black and cold-- chills the body-- chills the body-- not the soul-- not the soul-- I want to cross-- I want to cross-- Jordan water-- Jordan water-- in a calm time-- calm time, calm--

TOM WEBER: That is Austine Van and the cast of Spunk during a rehearsal of the play, which opened last night at the Penumbra Theater in St. Paul. My colleague Euan Kerr had a story about this show earlier this week. It's online at mprnews.org. The premiere marks a rebirth after the theater canceled shows last year after financial difficulties nearly closed the lauded African-American company. Penumbra is alive today because of an outpouring of support, including 1,400 donations that met a fundraising goal of more than $340,000 in December.

With such a near-death experience, I spoke this week with artistic director Lou Bellamy, who founded Penumbra 37 years ago, about what he's learned from the ordeal and what he's doing to ensure the company never returns to such a crisis point.

LOU BELLAMY: Theater is perpetually dying. [CHUCKLES] It's always dying. There's always a crisis. And the last one that we encountered was a time that made us really stop and take stock, both of ourselves, our community, our extended community, our mission. All those things, when you're in terrible trouble, they tend to be shaken.

And so you question almost everything. One of the wonderful things that happened is out of that testing, that sort of trial by fire, we found support and friends and positive things that I don't think we ever would have known had we not have sunk to that level.

TOM WEBER: But did you go to bed one night thinking, gosh, this place really could close.

LOU BELLAMY: You know, I did, and I knew that and felt that it was a possibility. And it's strange because when I talk with other people, good friends of mine, actors, company members, and the public, I'll say, you know, this is really serious. We're in some tough trouble here. And they'll say, you know, you'll all-- you'll pull through. You always do. And I'm saying, this is a little different. I see the writing on the wall. And unless we can sort of re-envision ourselves and relate to these new challenges in a positive way, we won't be around. And so it was very, very sobering, but again, very invigorating to find out that somebody cares.

TOM WEBER: Well, they certainly started taking you seriously though when you canceled two shows.

LOU BELLAMY: Oh, yeah, yeah.

TOM WEBER: But wasn't part of the problem, if you call it that, based in the success from I Wish You Love, the Nat King Cole show?

LOU BELLAMY: Well, I don't think it was one could hang it on a particular artistic endeavor. There was an endemic problem. We were undercapitalized amongst a number of other things so that any waxing and waning of economy or anything else tends to just knock you off your feet. But we had increased our national footprint to the point where we're written about in the New York Times.

Our shows are seen all over the country now. And I guess one could say that we were looking farther out than we should have been and not paying more attention to what is right before your eyes. That's hindsight. I think that national footprint that we've built through difficult work and good, very good work has stood us very well because that's what we relied on for this turnaround.

I mean, people don't invest in something that is dying. People invest in something that is living, that they want to nurture, that they want to see grow. And that's what-- we seem to have caught the imagination of people who cared about what had happened but that wanted to see what was in the future.

TOM WEBER: In your worst moment, in the worst despair, you had to wonder if people didn't think they were investing in something that was dying. I mean, one of the responses was, let's have a fundraiser, right? Let's try to raise money. I wonder if there was that little voice that said, I don't even know if that's going to work.

LOU BELLAMY: I think that self-doubt is a terrible trap and that I'm accustomed, as is the culture that we portray on stage, accustomed to people not thinking very much of our ability to succeed. [CHUCKLES] So I'm used to the long shot, you know? I really am. And the important thing is, though, is that we made it, that we've got this wonderful show opening, Spunk.

And coincidentally, you know, it's so odd the way art always relates. You know, people look at the seasons I choose and they go like, how did you know that was going to be so relevant? Well, I really didn't. But this Spunk, for instance, is about hard times, tough times, poor people finding ways to survive through it. And it really reflects what we've come through.

TOM WEBER: $359,000 from more than 1,400 donors was one of the initial counts I saw.

LOU BELLAMY: I think it was more than that.

TOM WEBER: More came in after that?

LOU BELLAMY: Oh, yeah, yeah, it was more than that. That was the target. And I don't have those figures. Perhaps that's a good thing that I don't know all about the inner workings of the business as I used to, but--

TOM WEBER: So what now is your message to those 1,400 plus people who donated to you on the topic of now will that be sustainable?

LOU BELLAMY: That is a special kind of responsibility. Penumbra is really close to its community. We don't have closed rehearsals, for instance. People can come in anytime they want, watch what we're doing. So we intend to be part of that community. Our educational programs reach out to them, that sort of stuff. So if ever I felt a responsibility to an audience, to donors, it is stronger now than it's ever been.

These are my partners now. You see what I mean? We've gone through this together. And when people spoke to me last night, that's what they said, we're back. [CHUCKLES] We've been through this. And it was very, very touching.

TOM WEBER: But are there some structural changes you can point to that are now different and, in your opinion, will prevent the next need for another fundraiser like this?

LOU BELLAMY: Well, I hope that we've learned to be more conservative in projections, especially earned income projections. Those are the things that get you into trouble. When you get into trouble, the only thing you can do is cut, you know? You can always say, well, we won't do this. We won't do this. It's a little hard to find more dollars or more support. So certainly, our projections will be more conservative.

We will keep our seasons to-- they won't be as aggressive as they were before. You may see less mainstage offerings, but different kinds of offerings. Our educational programs are growing just, exponentially. They're really flying. So we're looking for ways to show those and share those with people. So there'll be a variety of things that will come to make up a season where it used to be all mainstage productions.

TOM WEBER: The we're dying and we need to do this and we're going to raise $360,000, that could seem like a one-trick pony. I wonder if this were to ever happen again, if you would have that same level of support.

LOU BELLAMY: We won't ever find out. [CHUCKLES]

TOM WEBER: And you can guarantee that?

LOU BELLAMY: I think so. I think that, you know, we've got a wonderful board of directors. We've got a lot of people supporting us. I think that to make the same mistakes again would tell someone that we haven't learned very much, and certainly, we have. So I would expect not to be in this same situation.

But, you know, it's-- Penumbra and theater are not the only sort of casualties from this economic climate. I mean, come on, you've got a housing bubble that, I mean, you know, people-- unemployment was rising. It looks as though these things are beginning to turn around.

But it's a mistake to think that arts are any different than any other part of the economy or the ecology in which we live. So if you see housing hurting, you can bet that arts are going to be hurting.

TOM WEBER: What then do you say to other small and community type theaters, lessons you've learned that they should heed?

LOU BELLAMY: Well, we're a culturally based theater with a social justice sort of a mission.

TOM WEBER: Mm-hmm.

LOU BELLAMY: And so we do what I think is excellent art, but we have those other things to do, education, social justice. So for us, maintaining mission and staying on point really, I believe, was the most important part of what we did. People would say, we want to save you. We want to help you. We value what you do and we don't want to see it change, and that's why we're doing this.

So my advice would be to stay the course. If you believe that you're doing something valuable and your community, is giving you the feedback that what you're doing is worthwhile, then you have to stay at that. No one said it was going to be easy. When we walked into this world or lifted into this world, first thing has happened, we were slapped on the [BLEEP] said, here, welcome, you know?

So that's the world that we're in. And I think that if you try to oscillate and move from one position to another, you'll miss people who are waiting for you at one spot along the track or another.

TOM WEBER: Even if that means fewer overall show dates and productions and things like that?

LOU BELLAMY: Yes. I think that mission and who you are and what it is that you hold dear is really important. We do titles, for instance. I don't know how many people have heard of Spunk. I would warrant that in Minnesota, there may be-- I don't know-- a couple hundred of them. Yet, we will have-- if the audiences that I'm seeing in previews are any indication, we'll have a few thousand people that are going to see that show.

They're coming to that show because they believe in Penumbra and Penumbra's mission and Penumbra's quality and production values, not about that specific show. And so you have to earn that. And you have to earn it inside your community. And you have to live up to it once you've sort of garnered that reputation.

TOM WEBER: That is Lou Bellamy, founder and artistic director of the Penumbra Theater in St. Paul. The show that premiered last night, Spunk, runs through April 7. We also linked to Euan Kerr's story about the show at mprnews.org Bellamy also tells me the Penumbra's board is working on a new business plan that will be ready and released this summer.