Englert and ICCT News

Those in Iowa City (or who just like to look at the Press Citizen online) may have seen this article announcing that a contract has been signed between ICCT and the Englert Civic Theatre. Our productions of Fiddler on the Roof and My Fair Lady will take place there next season. We’ll also have a fundraiser this summer. So that’s good news. The bad? The deal is just for one year at this point. The really bad? Our beloved president can’t (or won’t) do a good job of selling ICCT to the press. Check these graphs out:

Early on in the Englert renovation project, Buddin said community theater members were told that they would just have to pay a small fee for performances because of the group's large contribution of $50,000.

Some leaders in the initial grassroots effort to restore the Englert even told members that they would have partial ownership, she said.

There isn’t a true statement in either sentence. We weren’t told we would pay a small fee – in fact, the deal as negotiated is probably a lesser charge than what we had negotiated before. The key there is that a deal was negotiated before, and the current board wasn’t willing to honor it and we weren’t willing to do what we had to do to get them to honor it. And nothing was ever said about partial ownership. Nothing. Jeebus, I was there for almost every meeting for close to a year and a half. You think I would know if anyone would.