COEUR d'ALENE - The show won't be going on for Coeur d'Alene Summer Theatre, at least for now.

Citing low ticket sales, the cash-strapped, nonprofit professional theater's board met Monday, and by a 9-5 vote, decided to suspend operations.

"CST currently owes more to our creditors than we have cash in hand. Based on what a majority of the board believed, it was unreasonable to assume that the debt load would do anything but increase in the foreseeable future," wrote Joe Anderson, CST's board president, in a statement issued Wednesday. "Our board collectively was not willing to continue to solicit individuals and businesses in the Coeur d'Alene community for donations without being able to simultaneously offer a fresh face and revised vision for our organization."

There are other hints in Anderson's statement that CST may reorganize and reopen. He wrote that the board hopes to be on "a path towards a renewed theatre organization in the near future. We hope that path is characterized by fresh ideas, fresh management, heightened accountability, and a realistic vision that we are working for the community... and not the other way around."

CST produces four musical theater shows each summer on the stage of North Idaho College's Schuler Performing Arts Center, and maintains a box office in the building.

The theater closing comes two weeks after Roger Welch, CST's artistic director, and Michelle Mendez, the executive director, alerted season ticket subscribers to the theater company's financial woes. It was disclosed that the theater needed $150,000 to break even for summer season. An ensuing fundraising effort quickly brought in $58,000.

"I'm devastated," Welch said to The Press on Wednesday.

Mendez, the organization's director for the past four years, and Welch, who served in his position for 20 years, were told Monday evening, following the board's decision to shutter the theater, that they no longer had jobs. Mendez and Welch were CST's only full-time, year-round employees.

Welch questioned some of Anderson's statements made on behalf of the board, particularly the claim that the board worked to resolve the theater's financial problems, and that they did any fundraising.

The only fundraising efforts, he said, were made by himself and several local actors, including Ellen Travolta, not the board.

Welch said he cautioned the board for years that they were headed toward fiscal failure.

"A nonprofit board cannot rely on 95 percent of their income from tickets. It's not what anyone does," Welch said.

He said that he and Mendez recognized there might be a problem this year during "Big River," the first show of the season. They went to the board and requested an emergency meeting, but the request was denied Welch said.

"I know they have every right to do this, but I offered them a plan and two major fundraisers. I told them (during Monday's board meeting) if we do these things, we'll actually come out with a profit," Welch said. "Then, I was dismissed from the meeting."

Welch said his annual salary, after 20 years, is just over $50,000, and he offered to take a $20,000 cut in pay.

He said he thinks the board decided to close the theater "because they wanted to go on without me."

Because CST's stage is part of a publicly owned facility on the NIC campus, a Press inquiry revealed that NIC President Joe Dunlap received a communication from the CST board on Monday afternoon, prior to the CST board meeting. Dunlap was told that the CST board meeting could result in a request that the college change the locks on the box office and theater, and to be prepared to do so, should the board decision go that way.

The CST board meeting began at 4 p.m. and between 7 and 8 p.m., Dunlap received a text message from Anderson telling him to move forward with the lock change immediately Monday evening.

Peter Riggs, one of the board members who voted to keep the theater open, said he wasn't surprised by the board's decision.

"That seemed to be a growing sentiment," Riggs said.

He said that each time he and the other board members who wanted to keep the theater going came up with an idea to do something to put the organization back on track, the board members who voted to close the theater opposed the plans.

Riggs said he asked the nine board members to resign rather than disband CST: "I said, 'There are those of us who believe it can be saved. You are free to walk away."

"The other thing that was hard for me to understand was that there was no attempt to reach out to vendor partners. There wasn't a consideration to try to reduce the amount owed through negotiations with the vendors."

Riggs said he and others are dedicated to continuing the CST tradition of offering live musical theater in the Lake City.

Actress Ellen Travolta told The Press Wednesday that she's "heartbroken and disappointed."

She and her husband, actor Jack Bannon, have been involved with CST since 1990, for three years even before they moved to Coeur d'Alene.

"It's our history," she said.