Nacht Theatre Consulting, LLC
lobby.jpg

About

 

Mission

The mission of my consulting practice has three components: purpose, core beliefs, and vision.

My purpose is to help make not-for-profit theatres more prosperous.

I hold four core beliefs:

  • live theatre is a great art form, perhaps the greatest;

  • good decisions cannot be made without timely, accurate, relevant information;

  • strategy matters; and

  • art should come before commerce.

My vision is to be recognized by managing directors, boards of trustees and the press in the United States as a leading financial management and strategy consultant to not-for-profit theatres.

 
 
 
WSJ-Arthur.jpg

Arthur F. Nacht

I am the principal of Nacht Theatre Consulting, LLC and I provide financial management services to not-for-profit theatres from a unique perspective: thirty years as a corporate financial analyst and executive coupled with a thirty-five year love affair with the theatre. My experience and skills rest on a strong educational foundation including a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in finance and a master’s degree in theatre management. I offer clients financial expertise coupled with a deep knowledge and appreciation of live dramatic art.

In 2001, I completed my career as a corporate financial executive. For fourteen years, I was Director of Financial Planning at Packard Bioscience Company as it grew to a $285 million revenue business. During that time, I built computer-based financial statement forecasting models and prepared analyses that were used by the chief executive officer for all elements of the company’s business planning. I also analyzed Packard’s worldwide corporate financial performance versus plan and designed systems for that purpose. For ten years, I was the principal of Corporate Financial Planning, Inc., a management consulting firm specializing in computer-based financial modeling for corporate clients. I have three decades of private sector experience preparing business plans, financial statement forecasts, performance metrics, and financial analyses for strategic purposes. 

I have earned three university degrees pertinent to my consulting practice: a BS in finance with honors from Syracuse University (1969), an MBA concentrating in finance from Harvard Business School (1971), and an MFA in theatre management from Yale School of Drama (2006). My three years of study at Yale focused on modern theories of strategic planning and how they apply to not-for-profit theatres.

In 2014, Alan Brown of WolfBrown Consulting and I completed a four-year project in which we evaluated the “Leading for the Future” initiative, a $15 million program funded by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. The initiative was developed and managed by the Nonprofit Finance Fund on whose website a summary of our work can be found. The evaluation required very close attention to financial statement reporting (both internal and external), the identification and tracking of performance metrics, and the evaluation of financial statement forecasts for ten not-for-profit performing arts organizations including five theatres, four dance companies, and one presenting organization.

I have held several theatre management positions including Associate Managing Director of Yale Repertory Theatre, Management Fellow at American Repertory Theatre at Harvard University, and Assistant Director of Marketing of Yale Repertory Theatre. For thirteen years, I actively participated in the management of the Yale Summer Cabaret, first as Managing Director in 2004, then as board member from 2005 to 2017, Treasurer from 2013 to 2015 and Board President in 2016 and 2017.