New Roof, New Paint, Super Volunteers & Contributors

During the last few weeks, the Empress Theatre has received a new roof, a fresh coat of paint in the lobby and other enhancements.

Empress patrons who came to see Babes in Toyland may remember all of the plastic sheeting in the north end of the house, especially near the sound booth, and some may even remember finding some wet seats in the back row. The old membrane roof on the north side of the building had been failing for some time, and a decision was finally made to replace the entire roof rather than keep trying to fix the leaks. The new roof should keep the water out in the future, but there is still a bit of work to be done to fix someof the things that were damaged by the leaks. The new roof was arranged by the family of Leo Ware.

A small army of volunteers dedicated their Saturday, and a few evenings of the last couple of weeks to moving props and costumes from the Empress basement to another storage location, patching walls, giving the lobby a fresh coat of paint, and installing carpet tiles in the prop room. Curtis Bailey, Michele Brown, Kathy Wilcox and a host of others whose names I don't have put in many hours of hard work. We thank all of these wonderful volunteers for their great work!

Michael Harman, a local youth frequently seen on the Empress stage, and son of Steve and Charlen e "Charlie" Harman, lead another group of volunteers who cleaned and organized the green room and installed some much needed shelving and lighting as his Eagle Scout project. Thank you, Michael and crew.

The Empress is fortunate to have so many willing and able volunteers and contributors. Without the hard work and financial contributions from you, the great plays and musicals just wouldn't be possible.

Capital Plan Phase I: Purchase the Empress Theatre

As most of you know, we're kicking off a capital project fund raising drive with a "super-colossal" yard sale at the Empress Theatre on the 4th of July. Since we're asking for donations, I think you probably want to know what the money will be used for. The overall project will be in several phases over the next few years, so I'll serialize it in several posts as the information becomes appropriate to release.

The first goal is to own the Empress Theatre mortgage free in five years or less.

The down payment is $20,000. We've already raised $8,000, so we need to raise another $12,000. We've set August 31, 2008, as the milestone deadline to make the down payment.

The total purchase price is $240,000. Once we make the down payment, we'll have to service a $220,000 mortgage. We'll need to raise enough to pay that off over five years. Of course, raising it sooner would be better than paying interest.

So the numbers on this part of the project are: $12,000 by August 31, 2008, and $220,000 (in addition to the $12,000) by July 4th, 2013 or sooner.

Since this is just one phase of the overall project, if we raise more than these amounts, the money will go toward our other goals. (I'll post more about them in future posts.) If we don't make the $12,000 milestone by the end of August, we will have to renegotiate our agreement with the Ware family.

4th of July in Magna!

We've been getting a lot of donations for the "Super Colossal Yard Sale," and the Tribune and the Provo Herald have both published our notices. Joline is going to need some help tagging and pricning stuff. We can use a couple more hands to help run the sale too. If you can help, call the box office and let Suzanne know!

In addition to the yard sale, we'll be selling concessions both in the parking lot and in the Empress Theatre lobby. And we'll be offering tours of the Empress, so bring your friends that haven't seen a show yet.

In the meantime, there are some other cool things going on in Magna on the 4th:

• Lions Club Chuck Wagon Breakfast from 8:00 to Noon!


• The Senior Citizens Center is having a rumage sale (We're the copycats!)


• The Arts Council of Magna is having an art show featuring local artists in the Magna Chamber of Commerce building


• The annual Magna-tude parade will start at 12:30. Laura Bedore will be announcing the parade from near the Empress!


• All of the normal Copper Community Park Festivities will be be happening, including the carnival.


• Fireworks after dark.

Old Glory in her rightful place atop the Empress

Last Fourth of July, I noticed that the Empress Theatre has a flag pole directly above the sign. I also noticed that there was no flag on it. I was aghast! Expecially since I had donated a flag to the theatre shortly after St. Patrick's Day.

Turns out the flag pole didn't have any of the rigging needed to actually fly a flag.

I made a promise to myself that I would get that fixed before Flag Day this year.

Well, the day before Flag Day was Friday the 13th of June. I wasn't superstitious before that day, but I am now!

Starting on Thursday evening, my kids started getting sick, one by one, until all but two of them were down. About 2:30 Friday afternoon, Amy called and said the baby had rubbed some muscle rub into his eyes.

When I tried to come home early to help out my very stressed wife, I discovered that the brand-new right front tire on my pick-up (a tire with less than 200 miles on it) was flat. It had picked up a staple. Jack was stuck and couldn't get under the frame of the truck. Finally forced it down and got it into position. A piece of the jack handle was missing. I had to call Amy to come rescue me with another jack and a portable air compressor.

Amy got sick later that evening, and I finally caught the stupid bug around 3:00 AM on Saturday.

So, I didn't get the flag pole fixed in time for Flag Day.

But... "Old Glory" flew for Father's Day!

Now to figure out how to paint the pole...

More Surprises

What do you get when a theatre cleans out its property and set storage, and needs to raise $12,000 in a big hurry? One Super-Colossal Yard Sale!

We are tentatively scheduling this mega event for July 4th in the theatre's parking lot. We've got a snow mobile, a couple of electronic organs, a fountain, and some other stuff, but (and this is the cool part) we need more stuff to sell. So all of you that agreed to clean out the garage for your Dad's (that's a hint for those of you who have no money for a Fathers' Day gift) this weekend now have something to do with all that stuff.

It's a perfect win-win-win!

Dad gets a clean garage, you get to make a donation to your favorite charity, and we get to sell the stuff to help raise the $12,000 we need to make the down payment on the Empress Theatre. And you'll feel so much better when it's done. Just bask in it.

Now for those of you who don't have garages, don't have fathers, or just want more to bask in: we need volunteers to put the whole show together. Call, email, text or stop me or Joline on the street to volunteer. But volunteer now.

This is going to be so much fun!

OHPAA Long Range Capital Plans

Rod, Joline and I (and Nolan for a few short minutes) met on Wednesday with Bob Bailey, a consultant, and a delegation from the county working to develop Salt Lake County's "Cultural Arts Master Plan" to discuss the future of OHPAA and the Empress Theatre.
We gave them a tour of the Empress Theatre and the Magna Hardware building, discussed what we've accomplished so far and what we plan to do in the future.
As some of you may already know, the Empress Theatre is the only live theatre serving the west side of Salt Lake County (HCT, located on 2200 W is actually east of the geographical center of the valley.) The only other live performance venue to serve the west side is the Usana Ampitheatre in West Valley City. The purpose of our meeting was to ensure that OHPAA and the Empress Theatre are included in the master plan so that we don't get bypassed as arts development monies are appropriated and locations for venues are chosen.
As part of the discussion, we talked about OHPAA's longer range plans. We still need to purchase the Empress Theatre from Leo Ware's estate beofre our purchase option expires in August. We are also working on purchasing the old Magna Hardware building right nextdoor to the Empress. That building includes the parking lot to the west and the alley easement that runs from the Empress to 9180 West and the building that currently houses Walgamott Realty. Further down the road, but not much further, we are looking at acquiring the old Dyches Drug building across the street.
The hardware building will be rennovated for use as a set construction shop, costume shop, storage and possibly some office space. We might also open the upstage wall of the Empress Theatre stage to communicate with the hardware store building to allow us to move scenery back and forth between the two buildings rather than take it through the lobby as we do now.
The 6000 square foot main floor of the Dyches building would be used as a rehearsal hall, classroom, reception area, and possibly a small eatery and gift shop. We could also use that building as a black box theatre or for non-play type performances like our show choir or for events like dances. (Despite the overwhelming preference for an outdoor party with live entertainment, I still want to have a formal gala. Probably in the winter. Fortunately, we can do both!)
Finally, the parking lot west of the hardware store would be paved and marked, while the alley behind the Empress Theatre and the hardware store would either become additional parking or would be landscaped for outdoor events. And we'd probably add the parking behind the Dyches building as well.
All told, it will take about $750,000 to $1,000,000 just to purchase the buildings and do enough of the rennovation to allow us to open them up. We'll have to decontaminate the meth lab in the Dyches building, tear down that eyesore on top, and fix the roof. And probably double that to actually complete the project. But I think it is well worth the effort for both OHPAA's sake and for Magna's.
These plans are still in the development stages, and haven't even been voted on by the Board yet, but I thought folks would like to know what we're looking at in the future.

The Value Beyond the Price of Admission

Every now and then I am confronted by someone who complains, as did a commentor in today's Tribune (see the comments associated with the letter): "What is it about dance, theater, opera and symphony, that they can't finance themselves like so many other artistic genres?"

This person is probably suffering from a common delusion that most of the operating money for live theatres like the Empress and organizations like OHPAA come from government grants. For the record, OHPAA received a whopping $3,000 in government subsidies last year; compared to over $500,000 in donated cash, volunteer labor, and materials from private sources and over $70,000 in earned income from ticket sales, etc. And that was just our first year of operation. We expect to make about $150,000 from ticket sales this year.

Nevertheless, the question is valid and deserves an answer. I think however, that we must first reframe the question slightly. Dance, theatre, opera, and symphony and all of the other performing and fine arts are all able to "finance themselves," but they don't do it strictly from the money collected from admission to events or sale of artifacts. These art forms are funded by a combination of "earned income," sponsorship revenues (from the sales of advertising and promotional partnerships) , and donations or grants from private and public sources.

For what it's worth, TV, movies and even professional sports wouldn't make it on admissions alone. They need sponsors and they get subsidies too! There is just a different mix and visibility, as well as different production & distribution efficiencies.

Next, I think we need to ask the question: Why is this this model used? This question is really two questions: What are the alternative models and why is this model chosen over them? And Why does this model work at all?

We can take up the first question at a later time, but for today, lets examine the 2nd. Why is it that "dance, theatre, opera and symphony" can finance their art and the operation of their venues with tax subsidies and private donations?

What value exists in the performing arts that justifies governmental subsidy programs like the Salt Lake County Zoo, Arts, and Parks program or a grant from the Utah Arts Council or the National Endowment for the Arts? What prompts a charitable foundation like the George S. and Delores Dore Eccles Foundation to establish arts as a philanthropic focus? What inspires a private donor to write a check for several thousand dollars and give it to an organization like OHPAA? And what's up with all the donated labor and time?

I have my thoughts on this, but I think I'm going to leave the question open for today. Instead, I'd like to hear your ideas about why it is even possible for a performing arts organization to acquire funding beyond what it can earn from the sale of tickets. Click on the comment link below and tell me what you think.

Empress Theatre Rennovation Pictures

If you've been to the Empress Theatre for a show, you've probably heard the story of how Leo Ware purchased the building in 1987, then worked for 17 years to retore and rennovate it into the live theatre it is today. These pictures document some of that story.

This is what the Empress looked like early in Leo's work on the theatre. Note the triangular marquee over the sidewalk. Leo believed that the marquee was added after the building was finishished originally, because the neon tubing used in it wasn't readily available in 1917. Salt Lake County ordered the marquee removed in order to lift the demolition order.

In the second picture, you can see the original doors and a small box office. The box office was probably removed in order to make the front wall of the building seizmically stronger to satisfy the county inspectors. The box office and the double swinging doors in front of the theatre today were installed as part of the Dadnapped set and were left behind at our request.
A fire and rotting wood had caused the #3 roof truss to fall to the floor on the east side of the building. Leo had to lift this truss, install gussets to hold it and the other 4 trusses in place, and reinforce all 5 trusses in order to restore the roof of the building. The fallen truss is over what is now the stage floor.


After Leo removed the sloping (or raked) original floor, he decided he needed to put in a basement for dressing rooms, a green room, and other "back stage" uses. The doors to the theatre were too small to get any power equipment through, so Leo dug the basement by hand, using a pick, shovel and a wheelbarrow. He went through several temporary workers, but found that they "couldn't keep up with a 70 year old man."
This is a picture of Leo, was extracted from a video called "Rebirth of the Empress" shot somewhere in 1999. Leo is seated on what appears to be the south seating risers. In the video, Leo quips, "I enjoy solving problems. I've got a lot of joy over these 12 years. More than I wanted! But I'm just looking forward to the day when you people out there can share the joy."

Thanks Leo.

BTW, to see more pictures of the Empress Theatre restoration and rennovation extracted from the video, visit http://picasaweb.google.com/tbwimmer/LeoWareEmpressRestoration