How Freeman Stage got its groove on

LeAnn Rimes changed everything.

There was an electricity in the air that Saturday in June 2011. Never had the Freeman Stage at Bayside, then in its fourth season of performances, hosted a national recording artist.

“It was total excitement,” recalled Doug Phillips, Freeman’s marketing and communications manager. “There was a buzz all over Twitter — LeAnn is eating over here or working out over there.”

That doesn’t happen anymore. Big-name acts make their way to southeastern Delaware so often nowadays, it no longer causes a stir.

The roster of performers at Freeman in recent years reads like a who’s who of contemporary and classic pop music. Here’s a sampling: Barenaked Ladies, Colbie Caillat, Hall & Oates, Sheryl Crow, Michael McDonald, the Beach Boys (twice) and Darius Rucker (also twice).

That transition from a sleepy community venue to a regional performing arts destination has fundamentally changed the nonprofit that operates the stage. Revenues are up. The staff has grown. Plans are in the works to expand the stage, add more seats and build a formal backstage area.

“We’re really bursting at the seams,” said Patti Grimes, executive director of the Joshua M. Freeman Foundation. “As you can see if you look at our calendar, many of our shows are sold out.”

One thing that hasn’t changed, though, is the foundation’s tax-exempt status. So, an average of two out of five of its shows are open to the public free of charge. It often charges less than comparable for-profit companies for tickets to mid-tier shows, covering the difference with its own funds.

The foundation also sponsors arts programs elsewhere, including an anti-bullying campaign that staged a one-act play and got students painting murals in local schools.

As Grimes sees it, the “commercial side” helps make possible the “mission side.”

“We created something that’s unique where we have the free or underwritten performer, and then we have these national recording performers,” she said. “We balance mission and unique experiences you might not have in this area.”

That formula has paid off. Since that pivotal 2011 season, annual attendance has doubled from 25,000 to 51,000 patrons, and revenues have tripled from $270,000 to $972,000.

A low profile

Despite the nonprofit’s financial growth and higher profile, the venue and the foundation have yet to evolve much beyond their early, shoestring-budget days.

The venue itself maintains something of a low profile. The only marker along Route 54 east of Selbyville is an electronic sign that shares its scroll with a neighboring Harris Teeter shopping center. The side road that patrons have to take doubles as the main entrance to Bayside, the sprawling upscale residential community that envelopes the amphitheater’s grounds.

Visitors park in an asphalt lot encircled by townhouses. A grassy esplanade rolls up to the stage, which looks like an overgrown gazebo. There are few concessions to artists’ comfort; a modest tent is pitched when a backstage is called for.

From the seating area, the 18th green of Bayside’s golf course lies about a 7-iron away. A man-made lake separates patrons from putters.

Born out of tragedy

To understand this unusual setting, it helps to know how the Freeman Foundation got started.

It was born out of tragedy. Joshua Freeman, the son of prosperous developer Carl Freeman, died in a helicopter crash near Dagsboro in 2006. To honor his memory and love of the arts, his wife, Michelle, created a foundation in his name the following year.

Joshua Freeman’s signature, which looks like an upside-down version of the Nike swoosh punctuated by a heavy dot, faces out from the roof of the stage toward the audience.

Building a venue inside one of the family’s developments made financial sense, keeping costs low as the foundation found its bearings, Grimes said. But the relationship has been cause for careful accounting, even barring the stage from sharing road signs with the community.

“We are good neighbors” with Bayside, she said, “but a whole separate entity.”

The foundation itself runs out of a Bayside townhouse a few blocks from the stage and donated to it by its sister organization, the Carl M. Freeman Foundation. Grimes’ office is an upstairs bedroom; a dresser-size copy machine occupies the breakfast nook.

Spreading the word

In 2012, The Baltimore Sun named the Freeman stage as the No. 1 “secret” of the Delaware coast. To the foundation’s board, still chaired by Michelle Freeman, the compliment felt a little back-handed.

“We don’t want to be a secret,” Grimes said at the time. “We want to be open to everyone.”

Attracting higher-profile acts, the board decided, would help spread the word about the stage itself. By 2014, of the nearly 50 stage events squeezed into Freeman’s three-month season, 10 featured national recording artists.

Ticket prices for large acts are anything but free. The mid-August concert headlined by Lyle Lovett ranged from $45-$80 to get in the door.

The 2,400-person capacity can provide an intimate, moon-lit setting for such major acts. But sometimes it can feel a bit too big, as it did on a recent Thursday night for a performance of “The Taming of the Shrew” by the Delaware Shakespeare Festival.

About 210 patrons peppered the grass in lawn chairs. (The free event was strictly BYOC.) Among them were Rena Patel and Bo McCallister of Salisbury, there for the first time on a married date night.

“I like the outdoor setting,” McCallister said. He turned to his wife, who is from New York City. “She’s used to plays and stuff. So I thought this would be a good surprise for her.”

It was.

Patel’s first impression: “Looks really nice.”

Foundation officials hope to make it nicer. They already have set aside at least $1.2 million for the planning phase of an expansion that could add covered seats, fixed audio components, a backstage and a wider stage.

Such plans remain in the “feasibility” stage, Grimes said.

jcox6@dmg.gannett.com

410-845-4630

On Twitter @Jeremy_Cox

BY THE NUMBERS

Since its pivotal 2011 season, annual attendance has doubled from 25,000 to 51,000 and revenues have tripled from $270,000 to $972,000.