In the black and giving back

Expansion, education mark Eric Olmscheid’s tenure at Wharton Center

Now in his fourth year as executive director of Michigan State University’s Wharton Center, Eric Olmscheid is not quite content — that would mean letting his guard down — but he is pleased.

For the second year in a row, the venue finished the fiscal year in the black. The Club 750 event series, a frequent sellout, is expanding into new musical territory. Wharton’s educational programs have grown by leaps and bounds, reaching tens of thousands of students.

Before we go into details, let’s clear up the rumor going around that beer, wine and cocktails will be available at Wharton this fall.

It’s true.

“It’s no surprise that that’s the most frequent request we’ve gotten from patrons,” Olmscheid said.

With or without booze, the core of Olmscheid’s job is unchanged. He’s still charged with maintaining the high-level mix of Broadway shows, fine arts performers and variety acts the venue has presented for 43 years.

They say that show business is half “show” and half “business.” Olmscheid has had to keep an eye on both sides of the equation, balancing profitable, big-ticket shows like “Wicked” and “Hamilton” with a diverse slate of performing arts programming that may or may not turn a buck.

“Half of the performing arts is viable on its own, and the other half needs a significant financial subsidy,” he said. “We are constantly looking at each of those elements to make the whole budget work.”

Dropping popular acts like the classic rock ensemble Chicago (Nov. 12) or comedian Andy Woodhull (Nov. 6) into the schedule helps balance the budget.

But Olmscheid is looking for more lasting ways to expand the audience.

One step toward that goal is the expansion of the 100-seat Club 750 series in Wharton’s glassy Jackson Lounge, where table seating and food service create a cabaret-like intimacy modeled after Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola at Lincoln Center.

The series started with an eclectic slate of musical evenings two years ago and added comedy dates last year. This year, Club 750 goes full-on cabaret, with three Broadway-based singer-piano duos added to the mix.

“It’s a way of using the building in a different way, but more importantly, it augments the diversity of types of offerings we have,” Olmscheid said.

Audiences have responded enthusiastically. All of the events offered in the first two years of Club 750 have sold out.

“It’s been very popular with our audiences to sit up close to the artists and to see different types of art forms that wouldn’t be on our large stages,” Olmscheid said.

One of the most significant marks Olmscheid has made on Wharton is largely invisible to the casual Broadway or performing arts lover.

Olmscheid estimated that about 30,000 “learners of all ages” participated in Wharton’s 12 educational programs last season, “a significant growth from three or four years ago.”

He said Wharton dedicates over $1 million to educational programming each year.

In 2022, Wharton dropped its school matinee ticket prices to $1 in response to comments that schools were finding it hard to scrape together money for field trips.

More than 18,000 students attended Wharton’s school matinee series last season, compared to about 7,000 three years ago.

Support for the school matinee program comes from Wharton’s donor-driven Arts Within Reach fund.

“That’s been a huge change in the way we talk with schools and engage the schools,” Olmscheid said. “They still have to justify the out-of-classroom time and pay for buses, but that removes a big financial barrier.”

In his first year as director, Olmscheid and his team expanded Wharton’s Sutton Foster Awards for high school musical theater to cover the entire state of Michigan.

Last year, 72 schools from across the state participated in the program, up from 25 in Olmscheid’s first year, with over 90 productions adjudicated.

“That program has grown into a truly statewide education initiative, and that connects back to the idea of MSU being a land-grant institution serving the entire state,” Olmscheid said. “This is one small way we can have a footprint across the state in a meaningful way.”

The program produced its first big winner at the National High School Musical Theatre Awards, or Jimmy Awards, last year. Sutton Foster Award winner Gretchen Shope, a graduate of H.H. Dow High School in Midland, took the Jimmy for best performance by an actress.

“That was a fun feather in our cap for the work that’s being done in our state,” Olmscheid said.

He and his team have also developed a five- to seven-year plan to refurbish the 43-year-old Wharton Center in time for its 45th and 50th seasons.

Audiences have already noticed $5 million in improvements that began last year, from new carpets and handrails to new furniture, with improved dressing rooms, concession stands and acoustic enhancements on the way. A mix of donations and MSU facilities funds is paying for the upgrades.

After three seasons as executive director, tracking the slow recovery of musical theater and live performance from the disastrous COVID shutdowns, Olmscheid has come to a few tentative conclusions. Although ticket sales are “creeping” to pre-pandemic levels, he doesn’t expect that trend to continue on its own. It will take innovative and judicious programming to grow the audience further.

“Whatever bounce-back was going to happen has happened,” he said. “This is the new normal. We’ve all adjusted our habits and interests and resumed our lives accordingly. There’s no going back to anything anymore.”

On the donation front, there’s good and bad news.

“Most organizations are raising more dollars, but from fewer households,” he said. “Fewer people are being more generous. That’s great, but in the long run, we have to focus on broader philanthropic support.”

There is no cavalry coming to the rescue.

“We are tasked by the university to be an auxiliary unit,” Olmscheid said. “We don’t get direct support from MSU for programming.” The venue only receives support from MSU for building expenses or rentals for MSU-based performers like the Professors of Jazz or its symphony orchestra.

“We are on our own,” Olmscheid said. “We are functioning as if we are our own independent, nonprofit organization. To maintain that level of scale and, now two years post-pandemic, operate in the black, we feel that is a pretty big success story in the arts.”