NON-PROFIT: Theatre Lawrence

Theatre offers Lawrence community culture while contributing to local economy.

| 2016 Q3 | story by TARA TRENARY | photos by Steven Hertzog

Actors, directors in rehearsal for A CHORUS LINE

Driving down the stretch of highway from Wichita to Lawrence, one might not even notice a pickup truck with a 9-foot gorilla head in the bed along with the giant gorilla’s paw appearing periodically from under several large, flapping tarps. But what if it was the 1970s? An old pickup, a hippie at the wheel, a storm swirling in the background. The pickup breaks down, it begins to rain, and the driver is forced to hitch a ride back to Topeka to get some help. A Journal-World photographer anxiously waits back in Lawrence for the truck’s arrival so he can take photos of this new and exciting local endeavor: This scene was the beginning of what we now know as Theatre Lawrence.

Once known as the Lawrence Community Theatre, Theatre Lawrence is a nonprofit organization governed by a board of directors and run by a small staff of dedicated employees. It partners with a large number of volunteers (about 986 people right now volunteer through the volunteer program), numerous local businesses and organizations, as well as the local community to offer quality theater to community members and others from all over the country. It puts on six to seven productions a year (seven this season, including “Rocky Horror”), which includes eight to 16 performances per production. “Lawrence is a wonderfully talented community [of people]who come from all over,” says Mary Doveton, executive director and founding member of the theater. “There’s never a time when we don’t have something going on in the theater.”

In addition to its normal lineup of extraordinary performances, Theatre Lawrence also offers a concert series, a pianist in the fall, traveling groups that go out into the community and perform, kids programs throughout the year and every single week during the summer, as well as performances on the Baldwin Dinner Train about once a week. It gets involved in local civic celebrations like the Kaw-Boom Fourth of July Festival, the Zombie Walk and the Festival of Magic and Mystery. It also partners with local artists and provides a canvas for them to exhibit their art during each of the seven yearly productions. “We provide artists with a really good patron base to share their art with,” Doveton says.

Funding for the theater comes from ticket sales, intermission revenue from the concession area The Cove, student fees, building rental, grants, donations and underwriting from local business partners. The theater also raises money by renting out unique set pieces and costumes to other theaters and community members. The rental side is currently a small revenue stream but one theater leaders hope to boost in the future.

Director Judy Wright inspects costumes during rehearsal for A CHORUS LINE

In the beginning, Lawrence, Kansas, had no community theater. In the 1970s, a group of locals with a kitty of $500 decided to change that. The gorilla and paw driven from Wichita to Lawrence: props for the first performance ever put on by the then-named Lawrence Community Theatre, “The Secret Affairs of Mildred Wild,” by Paul Zindel. The play had “strong scenic needs,” Doveton explains. Not only did they need King Kong, they also had to construct a break-away wall for him to climb, and the mechanical paw had to carry Mildred across the stage. But props for the set weren’t the only hurdles founding members faced.

Rehearsals were spread out all across the city; set construction was done outdoors in the elements or indoors and subject to leaky roofs and flooding; and storage was scattered throughout town in basements, barns and garages. The performers only moved into the Arts Center (now the Carnegie Building) the week before the performance, and they had to first put up all seating risers and chairs before constructing the sets. Only then could rehearsals begin. “It was quite an undertaking to get things up and down for each show,” Doveton says.

In the beginning, the theater group performed all over town: a melodrama at the South Park gazebo, T.S. Eliot’s “Murder in the Cathedral” at Trinity Episcopal Church, dinner theater at Teepee Junction. “We were kind of gypsies really until 1984, when the building on New Hampshire became available,” Doveton explains.

When a local church moved out and decided to sell the building at 15th and New Hampshire streets, Lawrence Community Theatre members raised funds to purchase their new home. Local architect Larry Good and theater consultant Charles Lown created a plan to transform the church into a theater, and community members helped restore and renovate the church, and make it over into a theater. “It was a real community effort,” Doveton says. “Charlie Oldfather [local legend and former KU law professor]was up on a ladder painting. He was covered head to toe in black paint!”

Lawrence Community Theatre, with 156 seats, opened in 1985 on New Hampshire Street with an original script by local playwright John Clifford called “I Was Right Here a Moment Ago.” More than 215 different productions were performed in the old church, ranging from musicals such as “Hello Dolly” and “Chicago” to mysteries such as “Arsenic and Old Lace” and dramas like “Wit” and “To Kill a Mockingbird.”

In December 2003, a fire started by a faulty lighting fixture in the costume storage area caused $150,000 damage to the theater, destroying nearly two-thirds of the theater’s costumes and inflicting extensive smoke damage to the entire building. Already too small to accommodate the ever-growing theater group, theater leaders began to explore options to expand. “There was no way we could sustain or grow the program in the old building,” Doveton says.

A Chorus Line dancers rehearse in the mirror studio at Theater Lawrence

With the help of an architect, theater leaders visited theaters in other cities, spoke to other theater members, consulted with Lawrence Community Theatre patrons and volunteers, and decided the intimacy of the current “thrust” stage (seating on three sides of the main playing space) was what everyone wanted. “This is unusual when compared to the typical proscenium stages (audience on one side and the main playing space being separated from the audience space by a wall with a large arch cutout), but in many ways better,” says James Diemer, technical director at the theater. “A space as intimate as ours has some distinct advantages over the larger houses.”

So with the “thrust” style decided upon, planning for the new theater began. The Free State Group offered a Challenge grant for land located in the Bauer Farm development, at Sixth Street and Wakarusa Drive. The new building would include a 300-seat theater, an education wing with three dedicated classrooms, support and storage space, lighted parking and improved comfort and accessibility. The theater counted 568 generous individual, corporate and foundation gifts totaling $7,200,000 to make the dream a reality. This included a $1-million Challenge grant from the estate of Mabel A. Woodyard, of Phoenix, Arizona, and a $497,000 Challenge grant from the J.E. and L.E. Mabee Foundation, of Tulsa, Oklahoma. The lead gift was a $1-million donation from philanthropist Tensie Oldfather, followed by other private and foundation donations.

After nearly 30 years of performances in the old church, Lawrence Community Theatre changed its name to Theatre Lawrence in 2010.

Theatre Lawrence, in its new location on the west side of town, offers programs for all ages. It works directly with children by providing after-school classes, beginner, intermediate and advanced classes, outreach events and “School’s Out, Theatre’s In” workshops throughout the year. Much of the programming is geared toward first through fifth grades, but programming for middle- and high-schoolers is also available, as well as volunteer and opportunities for young adults and college students.

Creativity emerges during the mask-making session of a TL theatre camp. Photo credit Theater Lawrence

“Our youth education program is unique in our ability to engage local/area youth who may not have had any theater experience before,” explains Hailey Gillespie, youth education director. “It is a truly engaging, fun and supportive environment.” She says children develop basic skills such as teamwork, public speaking, healthy self-expression, communication, confidence, self-awareness and empathy. “But also, we are opening their imaginations to the truly vast opportunities and joy theater brings to our lives.”

The theater also offers programs geared toward local seniors, such as the Vintage Players, a senior citizen acting troupe organized in 2001 that takes performances directly to the audiences. The group visits retirement communities about 20 times a year, as well as performing at clubs like Kiwanis and Optimist, and events such as reunions and birthdays.

Retired and semi-retired yet very active, members of the Vintage Players usually join to try something new or challenging. “Some have no intention of actually getting onstage and performing, but as they attend meetings and share the laughter of reading material, they are soon putting their toe in the water of ‘acting,’ ” says Mary Ann Saunders, director of the Vintage Players.

Some of the Vintage Players’ members who prefer not to perform get involved in other aspects, including the “Kids at Heart” project, where members go into local elementary school classrooms each month and read to the students. They then guide the kids through a re-enactment of the story. The goal is to increase students’ ability to read with expression, to visualize the story and see cause and effect, as well as to learn character development and progression of the plot. “Plus, it’s just a lot of fun for all of us,” Saunders explains. “Many of the Vintage Players have grandchildren who live some distance from them, and this is a great way for them to connect with kids.”

The Vintage Players receives donations for their performances and depends on those donations to keep their group going.

Theatre Lawrence partners with multiple local community groups and organizations, which many times coincides with the production in progress. It also is active in joint projects with Lawrence artists, the library, quilters groups, the Jewish Community Center, KU School of Law, The Lawrence Boys and Girls Club, Parks and Recreation, Spencer Art Museum and Downtown Lawrence, among many others.

The theater is also a source of tourism, bringing in business for the Lawrence community through buses arriving from out of town to see shows, groups renting space for small conferences and people from all across Kansas and other states coming to enjoy not only the theater but also the town’s restaurants and hotels. “There are going to be direct financial contributions … there are also going to be indirect economic indicators,” Doveton explains. “People need to understand that the arts are a business, and the arts contribute strongly to the economic atmosphere of any community they are in.”

This “business of art” known as Theatre Lawrence has become an integral part of the Lawrence community over the years, one residents have come to depend upon when they want to escape their everyday lives for a brief time. “There is something about going to live theater, an experience you can’t get at home watching a DVD,” Doveton says. “Theater is one of the things that still brings all ages and backgrounds together to make the same thing happen.”

In September, Theatre Lawrence will open its 40th season with “A Chorus Line,” which is directed by Judy Wright, former development director and assistant vice president of KU Endowment. With an extensive background in theater and directing, and a history of directing for Lawrence Community Theatre, she brought the idea of doing this show to Doveton knowing it would be a huge challenge and “triple threat”: dancing, singing and acting. But she says her passion for the production, going back to a performance she saw on Broadway in 1975, makes all the hard work worth it.

Wright says communities like Lawrence that have a good, strong community theater are communities full of people who are very well-educated, love culture and want to have the opportunity to be a part of that culture. “What community theater does for communities is give people, adults as well as children, the opportunity to participate in that theatrical experience that they would never have the opportunity to do … to come together with a group of people to create, through a collaborative effort, a piece that will move humanity.” She believes theater is important because it “opens a window to the human condition and gives people an opportunity to experience something they might not have already experienced, and have a better empathy toward their world afterwards.”