Bob And Ro Productions To Close

Bob and Ro sent out a message to their supporters and subscribers:

Dear Friends,

After twenty-five years of triumph and tragedy, utter joy and deep sadness, of great success and financial despair, of lasting friendships and betrayal, and most of all, of artistic achievement, we have come to the realization that it is time to hang up our tap shoes and say goodbye to theatrical production.

This means that Bob and Ro Productions will no longer be producing shows at the Studio Theatre and that our planned production of "Camping With Henry and Tom" will not happen.

...We want to extend our most heartfelt thanks to all those wonderful and talented artists, technicians, box office staff, stage managers, and actors who shared their skills with us over these fantastic 25 years and especially the last two and a half. Without you, there would be no theatre.

We would also like to express our gratitude to those wonderful people who donated their own money to help Bob and Ro Productions at the Studio Theatre get started and continue for two and a half years. Your support has been invaluable.

Lastly, we would like to thank our very supportive Board of Directors, both past and present. Jeanette, Simon, Jackie, Gerri, Ruth, Gene, Al and Lydia. Having a supportive Board of Directors made these last two and a half years a joyful experience.

We can't say we are skipping merrily into retirement. First of all, we can't say that because we don't feel particularly merry at this moment. Secondly, we are trying to avoid that word, "retirement" and leave the door slightly ajar for the opportunity for us to work in some other producer's theatre. So we'll just say this...

THANK YOU ALL, WE LOVE YOU! IT'S BEEN A HELL OF A RIDE!


With our deepest gratitude,
Bob and Ro

Right now is a hard time in Sacramento theater. The rapid expansion in the number of theaters, a trend that really got underway in the 90's, ran headlong into the Great Recession. I worried about the timing of Bob and Ro's new venture, and it looks like there was reason to worry.

I'm reminded of the Galapagos Islands, and the evolution of the Giant Tortoises. The brutal swing of feast and famine - El Niño and La Niña - created conditions that led to island gigantism. Only large creatures have sufficient capacity to outlast the famine to the better days beyond. Thus, the tortoises grew over the eons to amazingly-large sizes: because they had to, in order to survive!

When DMTC collected all its energies and resources and moved into its new theater in 2005, I wondered whether its comparative large size would be help or a hindrance. Was it a moment like the end of the dinosaurs, where size was an impediment, and only the small and swift mammals would survive, or was it a moment more like the tortoises in the Galapagos Islands, where the small and swift perish first? The answer was important, because I could sense hard times were just over the horizon.

The experience in Sacramento so far suggests a bit of both. The collapse of Civic Theatre West proved dinosaur-sized theaters can fall victim, but the collapse of theaters like Bob and Ro shows that small size is no panacea either.

I think DMTC made the right decision in its particular ecological niche to imitate the Galapagos Tortoise. Whether that strategy works for other theaters in the Sacramento area depends on that fickle ecosystem, and what it allows.