the new owners of the theater—the theater itself. ARTIE: And that’s exactly where you lost me. Run that by me again. MATTHEW: Okay. (He takes a deep breath.) Step Number One: Manny, you give Glory five hundred thousand. Call it a bonus, incentive pay, profit sharing, whatever. Step Number Two: Glory, armed with the five hundred thou, calls up Whitey Richardson at the Third Eye. She convinces him that she’s some rich patron of the arts and says she wants to donate a half mil to the theater. MANNY: Thus gaining one hell of a personal tax deduction. ARTIE: (Still confused.) But why does she have to give the money to the theater? MATTHEW: Because the church already has a buyer. The only way Whitey can buy the theater at the asking price is because the church has given him, in writing, first purchase rights. If anyone else tried to buy it, they’d likely get into a bidding war with the prospective buyer, and the price could go much higher. Everybody got it? (The other three nod their heads doubtfully.) Okay, to continue. Glory says she’ll only donate the money to the theater on the condition that Whitey turns it over to a management company. That’s Kingston & Klein. Now this is the tricky part—convincing Whitey to sell it to you guys for a nominal fee. But I think he’ll go for it because, first and foremost, he’s not a businessman. He’d like nothing better than to have the artistic freedom to produce the shows without worrying about paying the bills. So then we come to Step Number Three. Whitey then sells the theater to Kingston & Klein for a nominal fee and everyone lives happily ever after. I get to keep my dream job and Kingston & Klein gets D e s c e n d i n g
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