The North Carolina Theatre (NCT), which is the largest professional theatre company in Raleigh, North Carolina, has announced it is filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, due to external forces during and after the pandemic. While the company undergoes financial restructuring, the remainder of its 2024 season will be suspended. 

According to a statement from the theatre, NCT's staff and Board of Directors worked to secure additional funding and lower production expenses. But they were ultimately financially unable to continue programming as planned. As part of Chapter 11, the theatre will be allowed to continue operations while paying down its debts and financially restructuring. During this time, NCT will continue to work to secure public funding; it currently receives revenue from ticket sales, sponsorships, and donations. 

NCT is one of many regional theatres that have struggled financially as a result of the pandemic. Factors like increased production costs, loss of corporate and individual donations, decline in subscription sales, and a slow return of audiences to live venues contributed to NCT's financial crisis and that of several other regional theatres nationwide. On the same day NCT announced it was filing for bankruptcy, longtime Broadway and Off-Broadway producer Second Stage Theater announced it had been pushed out of its Off-Broadway theatre due to rising rent.

READ: How Non-Profit Theatres Are Trying to Save Themselves. And the Theatre Industry

While it is temporarily halting productions, NCT will continue programming at the NCT Conservatory, where students are trained in acting, dance, and voice. The company eventually plans to return to producing in its smaller A.J. Fletcher Theatre, at an undisclosed date.

Visit NCTheatre.com for more information.