Help Support the Reboot Giggle Dam Dinner Theatre

Hi Everyone, it's AJ. I've been the business manager of The Giggle Dam Dinner Theatre Ltd. since Mark Friebe took over sole ownership. I am also an Executive Director of the Greater Vancouver Institute of Performing Arts Society.

For the past 21 years, the Giggle Dam Dinner Theatre has entertained guests with its weekly comedy shows. We survived floods, fires, and an 18-month COVID shutdown. Recent events have caused the Dam to fall behind on its obligations and ultimately we had an issue with our Landlord that caused them to terminate our lease.

In short, we owed the payment for our annual property tax, which the Landlord claimed was over $20,000.00. During our flood closure from March 2022 until November 15, 2022, our original lease had a term that required the Landlord to abate the rent. Our building was sold to a new Landlord, who forced us to sign a new lease in May that removed the rent abatement clause and they advised us that if we didn't immediately start paying rent, despite the fact no rent was due, they would "lock the doors."

We paid over $18,000 in rent from March 2022 onward that ought to have been abated (meaning because the building wasn't usable due to the flood, we don't have to pay rent). This amount should have been applied to the annual property tax bill. The Landlord also agreed to accept the payment for taxes, if any, upon the Giggle Dam receiving its final insurance payment from the flood. Despite this, the Landlord served a formal notice that gave us just 7 business hours to come up with the property tax amount and when we didn't, they terminated our lease. Landlord would say the property tax was late and they were not required to abate the rent, along with other claims. We, and our lawyer, obviously disagree.

All of this is unbelievable to us, especially since we've been at the same building for 21 years. Until COVID, we had never been late with a property tax or rent payment. We are taking legal action in the Supreme Court of British Columbia and have hired a big downtown law firm to take the case.

The termination of our lease led to a lender we had a line of credit with to call the loan and require us to liquidate our assets. These assets are for sale through an auction taking place on March 23, 2023. The Giggle Dam has no control over the auction and will not receive its proceeds.

We love entertaining all of you, and we've had many offers of help and support from many sources and are working on a plan to reopen a Giggle Dam-like comedy dinner theatre, but we need your help!

This fundraiser has several goals, including:

We wish to be absolutely upfront that the future of a potential reopening is uncertain, but we're willing to try. We need to purchase the assets from the auction worth saving, transport them, and store them, and it all has to happen quickly. We could do all this work and still not be able to reopen, in which case the focus of this fundraiser would shift to the legal battle to recover damages against the Landlord. The case should be filed with the Court in the next week or so.

Mark has been without income from the Giggle Dam since January and will need help with living expenses.

Who Adminsters the Money?

A new theatre would be accomplished by The Greater Vancouver Institute of Performing Arts Society, which was the society we created to run our summer day camps in 2021. The Society doesn't owe any obligations to any party. The Go Fund Me platform indicates that the beneficiary is a person, this is simply the person who has signing authority for the Society. All funds are transferred directly from Go Fund Me to the Society.

We will be making it a first priority to save the costume room and upper prop storage at the auction. We will also be assisting Mark in whatever comes next. If we are not successful in opening a new theatre, the funds will be allocated to assist with the litigation costs and Mark's living expenses. In short, you are donating to assist Mark and the Society relaunch another dinner theatre and to right the wrongs that were done to him.

Many people have asked if we could start a fundraiser, so they could help. If we can raise enough funds to either purchase the assets or buy new ones, there is a chance we might make it.

We love you and thank you all for your support. We will post regular updates to the fundraiser and Facebook.