The North Carolina Theatre                        PRESS RELEASE          FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE February 23, 2024

The North Carolina Theatre has been Raleigh’s largest professional theatre company producing live musical theatre for 40 years. With profound sadness, the NCT Board of Directors announces that it must implement a financial restructuring by seeking protection under Chapter 11 and suspending the remainder of its 2024 season. As a beloved theatre company housed within the Martin Marietta Performing Arts Center in downtown Raleigh, NCT has been recognized throughout the nation as a beacon of professional performing arts in North Carolina. The financial restructuring is a necessary step toward rebuilding and revitalizing The North Carolina Theatre for the future.

NCT will join multiple prominent live theatres across the country that have either closed or sought bankruptcy protection resulting from external forces during and after the pandemic, including significant increases in production costs, loss of corporate and personal sponsorships, decline in subscription sales, and a slow return of audiences to live venues. The NCT Board of Directors, with assistance from NCT staff, made extraordinary efforts to secure additional funding, and NCT re-scaled production to bring down expenses. Unfortunately, those efforts did not result in the ability to continue producing live theatre at this time. As a part of the reorganization plan, NCT will continue its efforts to secure substantial public funding to supplement its funding from ticket sales, sponsorships, and donations.

During the reorganization phase, NCT plans to continue the day-to-day operations of the NCT Conservatory, training and fostering educational growth with students ranging from beginners to pre-professionals in acting, dancing, and voice performance.

NCT plans to emerge from reorganization as the premiere regional theatre, producing performances that blend professional Broadway actors with talented local youth and adult actors in North Carolina. The Chapter 11 reorganization process will allow NCT to eventually resume its new model of producing more cost-effective productions in the smaller, more intimate A.J. Fletcher Theatre. NCT hopes to emerge at the end of the restructuring phase with the ability to provide some form of credit to those who purchased tickets for future shows. NCT sincerely apologizes for this hardship and inconvenience to our devoted patrons, benefactors, and stakeholders. The NCT Board requests grace, patience, and generosity from fellow patrons and subscribers during the reorganization phase.

More information will be available in the coming weeks at nctheatre.com. Inquiries can be sent to nct@nctheatre.com.