Setting the Stage

>>After playing in baseball games as a high school student, Scott Saxon used to leave the diamond and head for the auditorium, where he would be an usher for school musicals. Today a Pittsburgh Steelers calendar sits on his desk at the Barbara B. Mann Performing Arts Hall, and he bemoans the fact his beloved team didn't repeat as Super Bowl champions.

But once he starts talking about bringing new and diverse programming to Southwest Florida's largest performance hall, his past and present sports interests fade and Saxon, 36, becomes so enthusiastic that he shifts in his chair and straightens his brightly-colored tie, punctuating his animated speech.

"This business is like holding a live wire," he says. "Sometimes it's good, sometimes it's bad-mainly it's good-but really it's the excitement that I love."

He took the position as general manager of Mann Hall in September after spending 12 years in management posts at theaters in upstate New York. While serving just one year as the executive director of The Palace Theatre in Albany, N.Y., the venue saw increases in ticket sales of 35 percent, number of performances of 30 percent, and rental income of 66 percent.

Such success came as no surprise to those at Professional Facilities Management, a Rhode Island-based company that has been operating Mann Hall since 1991 and is contracted to continue to do so until 2010. The firm recommended Saxon for the job in Albany, only to hire him away to Southwest Florida one year later. It manages the day-to-day business of the venue, but Edison College owns the building. According to Saxon, the annual administrative budget is about $1.4 million.

Although the profit margins in the theater business are relatively low, he says ticket sales have increased in the past three to four years.

"Broadway has been very successful [at Mann Hall] and that's a credit to [predecessor Mary Bensel] and the staff here; they worked really hard to build it to where it is now, and I want to fill in around it," he says. "Bringing the larger shows has increased ticket sales and, to a lesser extent, revenues. The margins in our business are relatively low, so despite the increased ticket sales, most of the additional income is taken by the shows. That being said, the hall is better off financially than it was three to four years ago."

Such figures validate the push to bring headliners and larger productions to the facility, despite some criticism that the booking strategy would force some local groups to find alternative performance venues.

"There are many different organizations filling the different needs of the arts scene in a variety of ways. The Barbara B. Mann Performing Arts Hall fills the need and niche for high-name, professional traveling theater, which we really don't have anywhere else in Lee County," says Louise Senneff, executive director of the Lee County Alliance for the Arts. "All you have to do is look at their packed houses to see there is a need, so they're doing exactly what they need to be doing."

The Barbara B. Mann theater is one of only seven in Florida that can accommodate the onstage and support-facility needs of The Lion King, the largest traveling theater production that has reached the area. From mid-January to the beginning of March, 143 people and 23 semi-trucks full of equipment set up camp at the Fort Myers facility, the largest of its kind between Tampa and Miami, with seating for 1,900.

Saxon's happy about that; one reason he left The Palace Theatre was its limited capacity kept it from being able to present Broadway productions. However, there's more to Saxon's plans than adding such shows. He hopes to increase the number of summer events-not an easy task since the performance schedules, dictated in large part by decision-makers in New York City, generally shifts to amphitheater tours during those months.

"There isn't as much out there for indoor facilities during the summer, but there are certainly some shows and that's what we want to increase," Saxon says. In so doing, he hopes to deepen roots in the community. "We want to be seen by the locals as the destination of choice. To a business that's based here, I think the winter residents should be gravy. We want the locals to be our bread and butter."

Another priority for Saxon is to increase programming for children, making it easy for school districts to focus on classroom instruction and FCAT preparation while the hall offers a supplemental educational component. Discussions are under way to bring the popular productions based on American Girl dolls and Go, Diego, Go Live! The Great Jaguar Rescue, based on Nickelodeon's popular Nick Jr. television shows. He hopes to increase the number of performances for children at Mann Hall from five a year to eight to 10.

Saxon's mission to introduce kids to live performances proved fruitful when 1,800 children attended an Opera Naples performance at the hall last November. "There were probably some kids who said, 'Hey, opera's not for me,' but they understand now. They've seen it, they've experienced it and that's more positive than adding things to your MySpace page," he says.

For Saxon, the payoff is the knowledge that he's fostering a greater appreciation of the arts. "At the very end of the show, I love to listen to people when they're leaving. You can tell a lot about the show-how much people liked it and how good it was-by the buzz, and you don't have to hear anything specific," Saxon says.

If the buzz that surrounded The Lion King is any indication of things

to come, the Barbara B. Mann Performing Arts Hall will continue to be the talk

of the town-and that's music to Saxon's ears.