A Legacy in Light – Case for Support
Introduction
The pillars of any vibrant community include the educational facilities, health and hospital systems, opportunities for social and religious experiences, strong financial institutions, competent police and fire protection and, as important, access to the arts. The Ritz Theatre is woven into the fabric of the community and plays a critical role in creating a higher quality of life by enriching, educating, and entertaining the people of Northwest Ohio through the arts. In addition, the economic, cultural and social impact of The Ritz is far reaching and essential to the health of Tiffin and the surrounding area. The impact, importance and historical presence of The Ritz cannot be overstated.
Mission
For generations, The Ritz Theatre has been creating indelible memories in the hearts of our neighbors in Tiffin, Northwest Ohio and beyond.
The Ritz is a non-profit performing arts center, committed to enriching lives through high-quality programs that entertain, educate, and enhance life through unique entertainment experiences.
We offer a regenerating reprieve from life’s demands through special opportunities to enjoy an afternoon with your children, a night out with your spouse or a weekend event with friends.
Whether you enjoy dance, comedy, music, live theatre or family events featuring shining stars, rising stars or the star in your family—our goal is to makes these events available and accessible.
The Ritz is a special destination where relationships are strengthened and memories are created so that you too regard The Ritz Theatre as YOUR destination for live entertainment.
History
Early in the 20th Century, a new phenomenon was changing the way people were spending their leisure time. Motion pictures. Silent movies. Some venues mixed them with orchestras or organ music, some included live performances during intermission. But make no mistake…the movies were a transformational social and cultural experience.
Movie houses in those days were grand…dubbed movie “palaces” imitating the great European opera houses and concert halls of the 19th Century. The movie theatres became an experience in themselves, offering fantasies and visual excursions to ancient Egypt, a Chinese palace, or a Persian garden.
Downtown Tiffin had four grand theatre houses, the grandest was The Ritz…anointed as “Tiffin’s quarter million-dollar movie palace.” Opening night, December 20, 1928, more than 1500 patrons packed the theatre to listen to the Ritz Quality Orchestra and greet the modern marvel…movies.
Its Italian Renaissance design is preserved today, as are the fixtures of solid brass and black onyx marble walls. The inner lobby mimics the outside of an Italian villa, while two marble staircases lead the audience to the balcony, where hand-painted stencils of red, teal and yellow create the feeling of a trellis in an outdoor garden. Seating 1,260 patrons, the audience has a sense of intimacy with each production.
A mammoth 1,200-pound chandelier, made of 20,000 Czechoslovakian crystal pieces, hangs impressively from a dome of sky blue. It is a masterpiece even by today’s standards.
The Ritz is the only one of the four theatres in Tiffin that remains. Renovated in 1998 to restore it to almost its original condition, The Ritz celebrates a time gone by while providing modern performances
The Ritz Theatre has continually addressed the cultural and entertainment needs of the community, along with an ever-expanding program of educational opportunities. It has been well documented that access to cultural events benefits a community in building a higher quality of life. Further, the economic impact of The Ritz has brought millions of dollars into the community when factoring in dining, overnight visits and more.
The Ritz continues to be an asset of the community, both historically and culturally. Recognized nationally, The Ritz’s reputation for quality programming, community involvement, technical capabilities, and unique historic venue attributes serve to attract artists and patrons alike.
The Ritz draws patrons from a 75-mile radius of Tiffin, Ohio and beyond.
Programs
The Ritz offers programming that appeals to a variety of constituencies, with entertainment from all corners of the globe. Bringing these events to Northwest Ohio provides access to different cultures, art forms, and entertainers that would otherwise be available only in major metropolitan areas.
Artists that have appeared at The Ritz in the past five years include Chicago, Josh Turner, Michael Bolton, Donny Osmond, Clint Black, Tom Jones, Amy Grant, Tommy James, Gordon Lightfoot, LeAnn Rimes, David Crosby, Graham Nash and many more. Sharing the stage with these major internationally renowned entertainers are The Ritz Players and the Ritz Teen Thespian Guild which offer people of all ages a shot at “stardom.”
Each year, for more than 25 years, school children and their teachers throughout Northwest Ohio have enjoyed and embraced The Ritz Theatre Discovery Series. The performances are one-hour long and offer a connection to our past along with a cultural adventure. It was founded with the premise that live theatre can be magical and needs to be introduced to children at an early age for a lifetime of enjoyment and cultural appreciation. Annually, thousands of children from a seven-county region, along with their teachers, attend Discovery Series events. As arts education in public schools declines, it is increasingly vital that The Ritz fulfill its mission to the community by supplementing the schools’ arts curriculum.
The Ritz Discovery Series is designed to present programs, selected from national touring productions, with subject matter that can be easily connected to current curriculum or added in imaginative ways. These performances provide young people with a sense of community by giving them shared experience to elicit creative thinking, empathy, and lively discussion. Special study guides precede each performance offering ways to reinforce the experience with the classroom.
More than 8,000 children have participated in a Discovery Series Event. Annually, attendance increases, while ticket prices have remained a modest $6, thanks to the generosity of a sponsor. The Discovery Series is one of the education programs for which The Ritz received an Arts Education in American Communities grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.
This outreach activity is considered essential to our communities and offers the schools age-appropriate performances that shape young minds through exposure to theatre.
The Ritz Summer Theatre Camp provides a week-long intensive theatre workshop for more than 100 area youth in grades 1-12. Founded in 1997, it provides our children with a chance to perform at The Ritz, in addition to rehearsing and learning about acting from nationally recognized professionals. Volunteers and staff teach age-appropriate workshops to expose children to all facets of theatre, which serves to allow children to explore and develop an interest in the performing arts. The cost for this week-long adventure is $150.
The Ritz Players are an award-winning community theatre organization that strives to present high-quality performances staged at The Ritz. They believe in the power of live theatre to ignite the imagination, to stimulate thought, to offer an avenue for creative expression, and to provide entertainment. Through their productions, workshops for young people and outreach programs, they integrate theatre into the lives of the people who encounter their organization.
The Ritz Teen Thespian Guild gives area high school students the opportunity to find new ways of self-expression, while encouraging participation in live theatre. As school budgets tighten, school systems are forced to make cuts in program funding. Typically, the arts are the first affected, with the school’s theatre program among the first to suffer and, if there is a choice, the school’s “non-musical” production gets the ax. For the past four years, high school students from the region join forces to put on one production in the fall. With directions from Ritz Theatre staffers, they choose a play, raise money for production, distribute audition notices, select a director, and have three performances, live, on stage. Since the program’s inception six years ago, membership has swelled to more than 50 high school students annually. The Ritz’s supplementing school arts programming has provided these students with an option that otherwise would not exist.
Friday Night Live series, founded in 2005 as the First Friday Series, hosts an eclectic selection of artists in an unplugged performance environment. Each Friday Night Live will feature two or three regional entertainers that may include a folk singer, jazz musician, aspiring singer/songwriter, belly-dancer, or another artist performing in a different genre. These events are staged in The National Theatre at The Ritz and seat up to 80 patrons.
Monday Night at the Movies series, which presents films from the Golden Age of Hollywood once a month, has developed a small but loyal audience. The goal of the series is to celebrate The Ritz Theatre’s rich history as a movie palace, and to present classic films the way the filmmakers envisioned them.
Community Resource
The Ritz is considered the “go to” organization for cultural performance and education. Its unique venue is home to a number of other organizations serving Northwest Ohio. In Motion Dance School and Dance Unlimited engage The Ritz each year for their annual productions. Tiffin University and Heidelberg University each present performances every December. The Ritz has reached out to the community to ensure maximum utilization of the theatre. Non-traditional uses of the theatre also include the high school yearbook photo sessions, memorial services…and even weddings!
Further, The Ritz has donated thousands of dollars in tickets and gift cards in the last 20 years to other non-profit organizations to assist them in raising funds for their essential work in our community. We are also proud to participate in VetTix, an organization that provides free tickets to veterans, active service members and first responders.
The current Ritz operations are as lean as ever, with only 5 full-time staff members and a large volunteer organization that provides staffing for the box office, house management and other essential functions. In 2023, the estimated national value of each volunteer hour was $33.49, (Independent Sector Report 2024), the value of 225 volunteers providing 12,000 hours of service totals $401,880.
The Ritz not only fills the cultural needs of our community but also provides access to the theatre for a variety of activities that also enhance the cultural fiber of our service area.
Challenges = Opportunities
Performing arts have long relied on external donations and grants to support operations. As an industry standard, ticket sales typically provide 50 percent of operating expenses. The Kennedy Center in Washington, DC earns less than 50 percent of their operating income while the Lincoln Center in New York City earns about 45 percent of its annual income from ticket sales, theater rentals, sponsorships, concessions, and advertising sales.
The Ritz, in 2023-2024, earned $970,771 in revenue from operations with operating expenses of $1,375,143. Thus, the income earned covered 70 percent of operating expenses. Grants, contributions and other unearned income raised the number to $1,283,413
The Ritz is financially healthier today than it has been in years because of debt reduction from $2.7 million in 2004 to under $240,000, instituting fiscally responsible programming, and improving internal controls.
Currently, more than $715,000 is held in an endowment managed by the Tiffin Charitable Foundation.
Our Vision
With the successful completion of this campaign, The Ritz Theatre will be in a break-even position, with the potential to begin saving any surplus from operations. The endowment will double, thereby ensuring future viability and assisting with an infusion of cash if needed, or staying in the endowment coffers, thus continuing to build the corpus. Any remaining debt will be manageable, with the ultimate goal of elimination.
Furthermore, a healthier financial position will allow for continued growth in season presentations and an expansion of educational programs, thereby giving more to the community.
Continuing the Experiences
The Ritz now finds itself in a position to raise funds to provide cultural opportunities for our Northwest Ohio communities. The goal of this campaign is a modest $1 million, which will be earmarked for capital improvements, endowment, and operations.
Conclusion
The Ritz is an essential cultural, economic, and educational hub for Northwest Ohio. Without it, the community would realize a void for generations in opportunities to learn and enjoy the arts, while engaging in historic preservation. Few towns have historical icons remaining, functioning and in good condition. Thankfully, Tiffin had the prudence and vision to preserve, not only its heritage, but its culture in The Ritz. It’s important to continue the tradition and cultural experiences.
