COEUR d'ALENE - After 46 seasons, it's unclear if the show will go on for Coeur d'Alene Summer Theatre.

Citing low ticket sales, Roger Welch, the theater company's artistic director, and Michelle Mendez, the executive director, announced in a letter distributed Tuesday that at the end of this summer's run of shows, the curtain may not go up again for another season.

They are appealing to the public for help.

"We need donations for this year. We need to hear that people want to keep us around," Mendez said. "When your ticket sales decline so much, you have to ask (the community), 'Do you still want to come?'"

Individual ticket sales were down 40 percent this year.

The number of season ticket holders has been dropping steadily for the last eight years, Mendez said. She attributes the decline, in large part, to the age of most theatergoers.

"A majority of our audiences are seniors, and a lot of these people are aging out. They can't make it to the theater any more," Mendez said. "We've been working very diligently, for four years, to develop a younger audience."

But it's a challenge, she said, because younger people are less familiar with live theater and musicals, and there are many alternate entertainment options available.

Mendez and Welch, CST's only full-time, year-round employees, are asking theater fans to pledge that they will purchase season tickets for next year's summer season. No money will be collected, however, until they have a better idea if the performing arts organization will continue operating.

A nonprofit corporation since 1984, CST relies almost exclusively on public support for its operations with nearly all of its revenue coming from ticket sales.

The announcement of the organization's possible closing comes as they prepare for the opening of the final show of this season, "9 to 5: The Musical," which opens Thursday and runs eight times through Aug. 25.

By the end of the run of "9 to 5," Mendez said they expect to have an indication whether there is enough support to continue theater operations.

CST is the oldest performing arts group in Idaho. The company runs a 12-week season each year from June through August, staging 36 performances at the Schuler Performing Arts Center on the North Idaho College campus.

"It's easily $10,000 a night to do a show," Mendez said.

The theater company's 2011 990 nonprofit tax return, the most recent available, shows that CST's total revenue for that year was $940,000 and expenses were $34,000 higher. They were able to break even that year by pulling from a very small reserve fund. Now, all of CST's reserve money is gone, Mendez said.

It is the only arts organization in the area that relies solely on ticket sales for revenue, Mendez said. They have been exploring ways of diversifying their funding sources, but haven't been able to do that quickly enough, she said.

Mendez acknowledged that they've received support from various local corporate sponsors, but said that doesn't fill the gap.

"The theaters in Seattle have the backing of companies like Boeing and Microsoft," Mendez said. "We just don't have those types of corporations around here."

Donations can be made on the CST website, www.cdasummertheatre.com

Info: 769-7780