Bay Street Theatre housing issue nonnegotiable

Tracy Mitchell, executive director of Sag Harbor's Bay Street Theatre, has been learning something that almost anyone involved in live stage performances should know by heart -- timing is everything.

In her case, it's an almost quixotic quest to get people to lend her a house, or even a room or two, for next summer. No easy task, since that's when the housing market in Sag Harbor -- and everywhere else on the East End -- turns red-hot.

But it's also when she needs to find places to live for her thespians, directors, choreographers and set designers. According to Actors Equity union rules, it's a nonnegotiable problem.

So, on a sign outside the theater box office, there is a short but heartfelt appeal for people who own homes in the area to let her borrow them, for a couple of weeks or maybe longer. Any time between June and September. Even just a room or two.

"It's not wildly successful," Mitchell said of her program. "Summer is when we need it, and summer is when everyone uses their houses out here. There are some generous folks. One person donated an extra two rooms -- not the whole house -- but it was lovely."

Bringing Equity actors out to perform means sold-out shows, but it also means providing them with a place to live. And, if that place is more than a half mile from the theater on Long Wharf, Bay Street also has to provide transportation.

"If they [actors] have their own car, it gets easier," Mitchell said. "But a lot of city folks don't have cars."

There are some hotels and motels nearby, and several Sag Harbor homeowners regularly lease their houses to Bay Street. But, at times, that can turn into a game of chicken, as each side tries to figure out just when they have to stop negotiating over price.

As the sign in front of the Bay Street Theatre reminds people, it costs $800 a week to house and feed an actor. For Bay Street, it means renting 10 or 12 homes a season, adding about $150,000 to the not-for-profit group's operating costs.

And it's not just actors. The directors have to live in Sag Harbor until their play opens. The choreographer and set designers have to be accounted for, and even non-acting actors have to be there for a week of rehearsals before a performance.

"It really is a well-oiled machine out here," Mitchell said. "Our company manager looks at the whole schedule for the summer."