Green: Wagon Wheel funding efforts focus on longterm sustainability

“We’re trying to recuperate. We’re really trying to get funding in to really have that sustainability for years to come,” Green said last week in an interview for In The Know, the public affairs show heard on Kensington Digital Media radio stations.

Crowds have been good in the past year, but the theater also has had some big ticket repairs for the adjacent White hill Manor, which serves as a residence for actors during the summer season.

Much of those expenses have come from two sources: The innkeepers tax revenue, which is controlled by The Kosciusko County Convention, Recreation and Visitors Commission and local appropriations from money provided to the city and county from the American Rescue Plan Act.

Green is a native of Montgomery Alabama and has had a passion for theater and youth education over her entire career. Her decision to move to Warsaw came at a time when she was considering another job in Richmond Virginia.

A friend suggested she consider the job posting in Warsaw.

I’ve lived in big cities and mid-size cities … but this is my first smalltown experience and it’s been a joy. It truly has,” Green said.

She said she likes the attributes that come with a small, rural community, for her and her son.

“Everybody has been loving. He has a village, I have a village, and that’s important to me, opposed to what I would have gotten in Richmond, which would have been different.”

Green said the theater will soon embark on a bold new vision that will be announced later this year.

“I don’t want to give away anything too soon but we’re excited about these plans. We’ve really put a lot of thought this last year into really mapping out the needs of the theater and what that would look like without having to shut down our summer season,” Green said.

She said plans will be unveiled within a few weeks.