Staff Blog
941 Theater’s Doug Sakmann speaks about the future of the theater and benefit plans
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| Photo | Mark Stehle |
If your weekend went from celebratory to bleak at the flick of a wrist and a missed pitch, things were worst elsewhere. Rumors ran rampant about a suicide attempt at The Fire (true, according to Fire boss Derek Dorsey who said “an individual who was not a regular patron at The Fire made a tragic attempt on his life near closing on Saturday night, he died later at the hospital”) without any further confirmation. There was an injury to a member of Black Landlord (true, but only bad enough to miss the AfroPunk fest). The least physically painful of the rumors was the one that found 941 Theater in Northern Liberties closed due to violations from an incident last week where the venue had allegedly served alcohol.
941’s Doug Sakmann, fresh from setting up a benefit the benefit for his theater/live venue — which will take place November 21 at the Starlight Ballroom (460 N. 9th St., 215-769-1530) — told me there was beer served and L& I indeed did shut them down. Temporarily of course, unless they can’t raise enough money for the violated codes or catch up on the monies missed (not to mention operating expenses like rent or electric). Still, all of November’s shows as well as Halloween’s gig were canceled.
It’s been rumored that 941 had been in danger of closing for a little while due to the costs associated with keeping the facilities up to code and the licenses up to date. But things are tough all over.
”Not wanting to see this happen, before we got shut down we had recently come up with a better business plan and were working on ideas for a fundraiser,” says Sakmann who says that some of 941’s permits had expired and that they were in the process of renewal.
“The building is zoned for industrial use so we have to apply for a use permit for commercial zoning variance, which has to be approved by the Northern Liberties Neighborhood association. In order to regulate our operations and approve this, the NLNA sets forth a number of provisions and restrictions including a one year variance at a time that has to be renewed annually, and also regulations on our liquor policy. Not wanting to see another bar in Northern Liberties, the NLNA did not allow us to apply for a liquor license. But we agreed we could occasionally give out beer or liquor at 21+ events as long as we were not charging for the alcohol, similar to a First Friday type event,” says Sakmann. “We were unaware however that by charging a cover charge at the door, the Liquor Control Board construes that as technically charging for alcohol, even if it is being given out for free. Apparently in order for us to give out alcohol, the event would have to be totally free, which we did not know and obviously we can not afford to do. So the Liquor Control Board got wind of an event we were doing with free beer and sent in undercover cops. They shut us down due to the beer we were giving out and then saw that our permits were not up to date and slapped further violations on the premises, forcing us to close until our permits are processed again which is at the end of November.”
And now, 941 is not able to do business for a month, in addition to mounting legal fees for processing and expediting the permits. “If we don’t pay the city’s expedite fees we wont be able to open until February, keeping the fire security and other aspects of the theater in good standing so we pass inspection when we do reopen along with all of our other weekly and monthly bills associated with running the theater,” says Sakmann. Either way, Sakmann adds, it all adds up to a lot of money — like $12,000 before the end of the month.
The aforementioned November 21 benefit takes place from noon to 6 p.m. at the Starlight Ballroom. It’s still in the planning stages but bands will definitely be on the bill. Previous to that Sakmann says: “Anyone who wants to lend a hand, donate money or has any ideas on how we can raise more money can contact us at booking@941theater.com.”
RELATED: 941 Theater in danger of closing
I wanted to be clear that the Northern Liberties Neighborhood Association has been one of the biggest supporters of the 941 Theater and we would not be open with out them. They are looking out for the best interest of the neighborhood and we respect that. We do not want this article to be misconstrued as the NLNA being the cause of closure for 941. I misspoke when I said “Not wanting to see another bar in Northern Liberties, the NLNA did not allow us to apply for a liquor license.” In our original conversations with NLNA, we came to the conclusion that it would be not a viable option for us to have a liquor licence for several reasons, one of which being that we were opening a theater and not a bar. We then worked out the terms of our liquor policy with the NLNA based on this. It was our misunderstanding of that policy that caused the Liquor Control Board to come down on the 941 Theater.
In any case, we now have a much deeper understanding of the Liquor Control Board, Licenses and Inspections and the general laws of Philadelphia. We hope to have the 941 Theater open again in December, bigger and better than ever, but it’s going to take a lot of time, effort and money to do so. We are working towards a fundraiser for November 21st, details to follow. In the meantime, you can donate money to the cause at:
http://www.projectedarts.org/donate.htm
If you have any further questions or would like to be involved in some way, please contact us at: BOOKING@941theater.com
- Doug Sakmann, 941 Theater