Since the opening of its doors in 2014, the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts has become the cornerstone of the cultural identity of San Antonio – honoring all its historical pasts and pushing the borders with an ambitious and avant -garde model. At the helm is the president and chief executive officer Michael J. Fresher, who brought with him decades of experience in location and in financing institutions like the Bushnell to Hartford and the operations of the Connecticut of Madison Square Garden.
Under the direction of Fresher, the Tobin Center has redefined what a non -profit center of arts can be – without government funding, a series of Broadway or an endowment. With full-time lean staff, a vast network of volunteers and a business spirit that includes companies like Tobin Entertainment and 100A Productions, the Tobin survives not only in the post-code, but flourishing world.
In this conversation, Fresher is reflected on the history of unique origin of the center, its evolution through the pandemic, and how its programming philosophy “something for everyone” leads everything, from McCartney to Mozart.
(Image provided by the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts)
This interview was condensed and published for more clarity.
Tell me about the Tobin Center and its history.
In 2007, we were the largest city in the country without the center of entertainment arts. San Antonio had a theater, but it was a Broadway style theater. Thus, the city, the county and some very influential people in the artistic community met and decided that we needed a center of arts of the show. (He officially opened in 2014.)
Our model is a little different. We do not receive any government funding, which makes us unique in the central space of non -profit performing arts. We have no Broadway series. We have no endowment, which many non -profit organizations have. We have none of these safety nets, so we have to collect fundraising on more than $ 5 million per year. Many people in our company will say that it is impossible, but we have been doing it for 11 years and we have succeeded.
We house five resident companies, Opera San Antonio, Ballet San Antonio and the San Antonio orchestra. We have an orchestra for young people and a refrain for children. We on average two events every day, 365 days a year.
I am curious to know how you had to work differently from the competing sites to operate at this volume.
A theater has Hamilton Come for three weeks to make 24 shows. We have to book 24 different shows, and each of them must move in and move. Each program has a technology to build, each program has a marketing plan. We have an excellent high management and staff team. We only have 40 full -time passers -by. The others are part -time, internships, event staff. We have a body of volunteers of around 600 who are our ticket takers. This is how we made the magic takes place here.
Our theme is Tobin Purple. It is our color. We often talk about the way our staff bleeds Tobin Purple. It is a dedication to what we do.
We are limited in the number of events we can make, because we only have 365 days, so we have created another company called Tobin Entertainment in 2019, which books and markets show in 35 states and 88 cities. There are acts and titles that we will register in our partner places across the country, which is another way for us to generate alternative income. We couldn't do anything without our donors and sponsors. We have a very strong philanthropic community here in San Antonio which has supported us from the start.
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What did the original building look like?
The original municipal auditorium – this is the building that we have transformed – was an icon of the Second World War community. People have made their balls here, their graduates. There was a conscious effort to keep as much of this image as possible. There are three sides that have been preserved, almost like a Hollywood ensemble, literally held during the demolition. Inside, our world class show art center has been envisaged and built. It was important that we keep the facade to look like. We tried to keep our connection with the old municipal auditorium as valid as possible.
How have you been affected by COVID and where are you now in relation to the front period?
We were probably the only art center in the country's show that did not end during COVID, because Texas had different expectations as to the closure or not, so we did not do it. We kept most of our staff, but we knew about it because the problem we had at the time was to be satisfied. You can be open whatever you want, but if there are no shows, what do we put on stage?
We have made a lot of country music from Texas, with artists who could drive here. We have made cinema evenings and invited the community. We had never heard of this. I went to see my vice-president of the ops and I said: “Can our social distance from the soil make all the other lines disappear?”
Usually, when we can go to a flat floor, we can go to various configurations where the seats turn below in the basement, but everything is automated. In this case, could we make each other row disappear? Could we have 6 feet between each line? We could. We therefore configured it where each other row was hidden. Not just the band through, not just the sign that says not stay here, disappeared. And then, when we sold tickets to the shows during COVID, we would sell them by section. We were able to do it when no one else could.
In addition, we have Tobin Entertainment (a Booker Tour and Promoter founded in 2019), and we were able to help other buildings obtain shows before reopening. With the United States and other centers, Tobin Entertainment was able to pre-reserve these buildings which had no staff. It also came to my mind that if we had our own content, we could organize performance, so we created 100A productions. 100A is now in its second production season on our own rooms in our black box. They are all local artists, actors, stage managers, decorations designers.
The way we do business here is that we don't understand that we are just a small show center. We think a little bigger. This is what our motto has since the start.
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I watched your performance list from 2023. You have something to do with Mozart, then two days later, you have Alice Cooper. What is that said of your audience and the reservation strategy, in terms of content diversity?
This brings me back to 2014 when we opened the building. I didn't want to have an opening evening. So many people have played a decisive role in built this building and funded that if we had a big opening evening, only 1,700 people could come. This explained many other people, and it is not who we are.
We made 30 nights in a row. Every night was a different performance. The first performance was our local opera, our ballet and our symphony on stage together for the first time. After that, all of the hell came off. Paul McCartney, Renee Fleming, Jason Mraz, Carlos Santana, each type of gender you might think. I did not want this building, outside the box, a temple with high arts. This is not what San Antonio is. We studied our ticket sales and sold tickets to each postal code in the United States. We have sold tickets on all continents other than Africa.
Our little -known slogan is “something for everyone”.
