Clear Space Theatre Co. sees record-setting year in 2024

Clear Space Theatre Company held its annual meeting May 14, and while the final site for a new home wasn’t revealed, numbers show that by just about every measure, 2024 was a record-breaking year for the Rehoboth Beach institution.

Joe Gfaller, managing director, and David Button, artistic director, presented the supportive crowd with a number of data points from last year.

There was 44% growth in subscribers from 2023 to 2024, with a little more than 24,000 people seeing a show in 2024, said Gfaller. The current theater only seats 170 people at one time, he said.

Contributed income, ticket sales and other income were all up, said Gfaller. All things considered – eating at restaurants, hotel stays, shopping – the theater estimates its economic impact to the surrounding community was more than $1 million last year, he said.

Button said Clear Space prides itself on offering a year of shows that are made to sell tickets. Last year, there were 167 main-stage performances. All but three or four were sold out, he said.

Button said the theater continues to reinvest in itself, including the installation of a new sound system, stage automation, projection stage design and assisted listening. Additionally, he said, there were 358 art institute students and about $13,000 given in youth scholarships.

It appears 2025 is off to an even hotter start for Clear Space.

Subscriptions are up 30%, attendance is up nearly 18%, summer presales are up 96% and five performances have been added because of popular demand, said Gfaller.

Additionally, in 2025, there have been 251 donations of $25 or more made at the time of ticket purchase, said Gfaller. That’s up from 34 donations over the same period in 2024, he said.

As for the theater’s new home, entering the evening, everyone in the room knew theater officials had narrowed down their search to two locations. One is in Rehoboth Beach, off Christian Street, on property owned by the city, but currently occupied by the Cape Henlopen Senior Center. The other is within the municipal limits of Lewes, but on private property.

Gfaller began his presentation by saying he and Button weren’t there to answer the question of where the theater has chosen to locate its new home. He also said the theater wasn’t going to put a deadline on when that news will come because data is still being collected.

“This isn’t going to be a sprint; it’s a marathon,” said Gfaller.

Currently, the theater is undergoing a cost analysis of both sites, which is expected to be done by the end of the month, said Gfaller. It’s going to cost millions of dollars at both sites, but it could be a difference of millions of dollars between the two, he said.