COMMUNITY THEATERS
RENOVATION IS ONLY PART OF THE JOB; VOLUNTEERS NEEDED TO RUN THEM
PUBLISHED ON February 19, 2010
By ROSS COURTNEY YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC
Retiree Kathy Aubrey works just as hard at Prosser's Princess Theatre as she did at her old job.
Only difference is she doesn't get paid.
Aubrey, a retired office manager for a landscaping firm, and her husband, Rob Siemens, take tickets, sell popcorn and move props for the downtown theater and the nonprofit drama troupe that runs it.
"Saturday nights, you'll find us here cleaning until 1 o'clock in the morning," said Aubrey, one of two executive directors of the Princess and business manager of Valley Theater Company, a community acting troupe aiming to purchase the 90-year-old hall.
This month, the Princess -- a centerpiece of Prosser's downtown renaissance -- will celebrate its third year since its renovation and reopening after more than 25 years collecting dust. Boosters in Wapato and Toppenish also have plans to make over theaters in their city centers.
In addition to providing communities with a symbol of identity, historic theaters are credited with giving people a reason to visit their struggling downtowns.
"Often in a small town we hear, 'Ugh, there's nothing to do,'" said Candace Andrews, capital campaign chairwoman for the Valley Theater Company. "We are really trying to be that go-to place."
"They give downtowns a sense of place," said Richard Sklenar, executive director of the Theatre Historical Society of America in Elmhurst, Ill.
But as Aubrey's rolled-up sleeves testify, renovating a theater is only half the battle.
People still have to run it. And in small towns, that means volunteers.
Take heart, though. Plenty of historic theaters in the nation have made it work, Sklenar said.
"It's not something that has to be a reinvented wheel. There are people doing this all over the country," said Sklenar.
In fact, he couldn't think of a single renovation effort that went for naught, though many theaters are not as busy as they could be.
Sklenar's office is in the York Theatre, a once-shuttered, single-screen movie house anchoring downtown Elmhurst, a suburb of Chicago with 45,000 people. The privately owned theater now has nine screens with matinees starting every day at noon.
Success requires creativity, hard work and good shows, Sklenar said.
Some theaters are owned by community acting groups, such as the Valley Theater Company. Others are owned privately and operated by management firms.
The Valley Theater Company is attempting to raise $400,000 to purchase the Princess from owner Mercer Canyons Inc. The troupe has first dibs until July 31.
So far, the group has $8,000 with a pledge of $200,000 from Prosser's Whitehead Foundation if it can come up with the other half, Andrews said.
The volunteers have one huge head start, though: They don't have to renovate.
"It's not like we need to come in and put in a light system, it's already there," said Rick James, executive director of the Princess and business manager of the theater company.
But efforts to restore the Princess were not without setbacks. The building had sat mostly vacant since the 1970s when a nonprofit group began raising renovation funding around 1991. That effort faltered in mid-construction, however, and caused backers to default on a $545,000 federal loan.
In 2005, Mercer Canyons, a Horse Heaven Hills family farming business, bought the building and finished restoration in February 2007. The family refurbished the theater to help the community, but it never wanted to run the theater, said Rob Mercer, president of the company.
"That's sort of not our line of business," Mercer said.
Private entrepreneurs Rich and Deb Wallace purchased it later that year and opened a pizzeria in the adjacent banquet hall, but they struggled to consistently fill the theater seats for movies and concerts.
About a year ago, they turned both portions back over to the Mercers.
Groups in Wapato and Toppenish still have all that restoration work to do.
A group of volunteers in Wapato has designs on sprucing up the 93-year-old downtown Liberty Theater.
One of the organizers, Debbie Manjarrez, said the group needs to install seats, a concession stand and rest rooms that meet state disability requirements.
Until 1992, the building was used as a video rental store, and the nonprofit group has hosted some receptions in it over recent years.
"It's not like it's been mothballed forever," she said.
Manjarrez believes the community will fill the seats. Wapato lacks a performing arts facility, and community groups have requested to use the Liberty. High school plays and annual Missoula Children's Theatre performances are now held in the 55-year-old Wapato High School cafeteria.
Meanwhile, Toppenish Middle School counselor Oscar Martinez has purchased one of Toppenish's theaters and is renovating it in his free time, raising money by renting it out for weddings and quinceañeras. It's also named the Liberty, as were a lot of theaters built in the early 20th century as a nod to World War I sentiment.
Fundraising efforts probably will never end for local theaters.
Even well-heeled, professionally run facilities such as Yakima's Capitol Theatre rely on donations.
Built in 1920, the Capitol was gutted in a 1975 fire but was painstakingly restored. It is now preparing an ambitious expansion that will help revitalize Yakima's downtown.
About 15 percent to 20 percent of the Capitol's $2 million budget comes from philanthropic contributions, said Steven J. Caffery, theater CEO. On average, other similar theaters take in 40 percent of their budget from donations.
"There's not a theater in the country that I'm aware of that's cost-effective," he said.
The Capitol is owned by the city of Yakima, which contracts with the nonprofit Capitol Theatre Committee to manage it with paid employees.
Not all theaters play movies, either.
The Capitol typically doesn't play movies and many historic theaters limit their showings to classic films.
License rights are expensive and favor distribution companies over theaters. Even suburban multiplexes often make more money off popcorn than ticket sales for new blockbusters, said Sklenar of the Theatre Historical Society.
Second-run movies, those that have been in theaters for a few weeks, may be cheaper, but not all distributors want to mess with contracting them for single-screen theaters.
Still, some small theaters make movies work.
Films bring in more than one-third of the revenue for the historic theater in Dayton, Wash. -- yet another Liberty -- owned by the nonprofit Touchet Valley Arts Council, said Lisa Ronnberg, the group's president.
The organization purchased the theater and renovated it as one of the final pieces in a sweeping downtown revitalization for the Columbia County seat, said Ronnberg, also the executive director of the Dayton Chamber of Commerce.
Much like the Princess, Dayton's Liberty includes an adjacent meeting and banquet hall, while the group fills the seats with plays, concerts, meetings and dinners. Sellout crowds are common.
But movies are the most consistent draw.
Blockbusters arrive at the Liberty's single screen within two months of box office release and are shown six times throughout a weekend. "It's Complicated" screened on Valentine's Day weekend, while "Up in the Air" is on tap this weekend.
The group is considering investing in a digital projector.
All for a city with 2,700 residents.
In Prosser, with twice the population, the Princess has no projector.
Using a DVD player, volunteers have held Saturday kids' movies in conjunction with the Prosser Farmers Market and are in the middle of a classic film series, including "West Side Story" on Feb. 27.
A projector could cost up to $20,000, though James, the co-executive director, hasn't really explored the price much because his group doesn't yet own the building.
Meanwhile, they have had considerable luck filling the theater's 250 seats for other events. They stage their own plays and host concerts. They even showed Boise State University football games to allow local fans to follow the careers of Prosser High School graduates Kirby and Kellen Moore. Fundraising dinners in the adjacent banquet room, Sunday church services, luncheons and weddings round out the Princess' dance card.
James said attendance is good for some events, not so good for others. But the theater company is running a $1,200 profit this year, proof to him that a volunteer-led theater can make it in the small town.
Still, he acknowledges the Princess is competing with local sports, Netflix and multiplex cinemas in Sunnyside and the Tri-Cities. Also, it must compete with other local nonprofit groups, such as those raising money for the Walter Clore Wine and Culinary Center, renovations to the city pool and a Boys and Girls Club.
"The entertainment business, which is basically what we're in, it's an iffy business," James said.
