Why Virginia Rep needs to raise $600k or close its doors forever

Central Virginia's largest theatre company may have to close its doors for good if it does not get an "immediate infusion" of at least $600,000 within the next 11 days.

Virginia Repertory Theatre announced Thursday that "turmoil" around leadership changes last year, as well as patronage numbers not recovering to pre-pandemic levels, led the theatre company into financial chaos.

"It's a gut punch," said Klaus Schuller, who's been Virginia Repertory Theatre's Managing Director for just seven weeks.

"As we've come to the end of our fiscal year, we learned that our anticipated deficit from the last season, which we had hoped would be about $500,000, was well over a $1 million," Schuller said.

As of Sept. 27, the theatre had raised more than $475,000, thanks to more than 700 donors.

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