Tacoma Little Theatre: ‘The roots go deep’
ROSEMARY PONNEKANTI; The News Tribune The News Tribune
In 1918, Tacoma was bustling. Streetcars shuttled commuters, Alexander Pantages had just opened his glamorous vaudeville theater downtown, and under President Woodrow Wilson the post-World War II American economy was booming.
And in the Stadium district, a group of local thespians founded the city’s first community theater: the Tacoma Chapter of the Drama League of America, made up of two sub-groups – the Civic Drama School and the Tacoma Little Theatre.
The first production, George Bernard Shaw’s “You Never Can Tell,” was mounted in 1919. Ninety years later, TLT – the only surviving member – is the oldest continuously operating theater west of the Mississippi, as far as can be known. And since last July, it has pulled back from the brink of near-disintegration with a new director, committed board and an upcoming all-comedy season.
When TLT was formed, its premise was the study and cultivation of theater as a way of building community. From the start the theater offered classes and readings as well as performances, moving from First Congregational Church to the current building on North I Street (the former Tacoma Motors shop) in 1940. The first musical production was staged in the early 1940s, and the 32-foot motorized turntable that’s still in place today was installed.
Shows were fewer during the Depression and World War II but the organization continued. TLT productions over the years have ranged from opera to Agatha Christie, from standard musicals and Shakespeare to controversial works such as “The Emperor Jones” (1930), an indictment of slavery featuring full nudity.
Throughout the years, times went up and down. But last July saw what current director Scott Campbell calls “a 90-year nadir.” Expenses overran revenue by over $75,000, compared with an excess of $19,000 just two years before. Season ticket holders were down to around 500 from between 1,500-1,800 three years prior. Donations were down from $67,000 in 2006 to $48,000, and David Duvall, who had been the managing artistic director for 18 months, was fired by the board.
“It was a difficult time,” says Micheal O’Hara who joined the board at the time and became president last October.
The reasons for the decline vary, depending on whom you talk to. O’Hara partly blames Duvall, saying that production costs were too high. Duvall, for his part, maintains that he brought his season in $15,000 under budget, paying some of his own expenses with personal savings, but that no extra fundraising had been done by the board. He also complains he wasn’t allowed access to financial information or authority to manage staff. Those on staff at the time say they weren’t getting paid, and some walked out; Duvall himself has a $6,000 claim in place for unpaid salary and expenses.
Judy Cullen, who directed TLT from 2001-2006 and now manages production for the Broadway Center, says that neither director nor board knew how to run things: “Having a board that does its work is crucial. A lot of people thought they knew what needed to be done, but if they had, it would be thriving.” Regarding Duvall as director, Cullen says: “I was surprised at the choice they made. He’s very talented musically, but in that leadership position you have to be able to draw people together.”
Cullen, who acknowledges that TLT has had a lot of debt in the past, also thinks there’s a bigger challenge facing any theater of that size. “There’s a glass ceiling of a half-a-million dollar budget,” she says. “Under that, it’s an organic, community-based theater. Above it, you go semi-professional. TLT hovered there for too long, and never had the board to take it beyond that point.”
Enter Scott Campbell. After eight months of capable salvage work by interim director Doug Kerr, the 46-year-old Campbell was hired by the TLT board (which had also largely changed hands) as permanent managing artistic director. Fresh from the associate directorship at Lakewood Playhouse, Campbell had seen (as, coincidentally, had O’Hara, who had been board president at Lakewood until 2006) how that community theater had pulled itself back from hard times. A talented actor and Tacoma native, Campbell also has plenty of business experience, and, says Cullen, is a “people person.”
So what’s the solution to TLT’s woes? Comedy, collaboration, community, and a clean slate, according to Campbell.
First up is a 2009/2010 season of all-comedy. “People need to laugh right now,” says Campbell, saying he intends to offer Tacoma what it needs, a response that “was missing before.” He’s also planning a more out-of-the-box second-stage season to appeal to a burgeoning younger crowd.
Collaboration with other theaters is another part of the renewal: The current show, “Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story” features a director and lead actor from Theatre Northwest, while “A Tuna Christmas” in December will be a co-production with Lakewood Playhouse, starring Campbell opposite his Lakewood counterpart Marcus Walker.
“Collaboration sends a good signal to people in Tacoma,” says Campbell. “It says we’re a lot stronger when we work together.”
Building community is a third step. Decisions like moving TLT’s drama classes back in-house from Grant Elementary will rebuild audience, donor base and volunteers, says Campbell. For a community theater that relies on some 250 volunteers, including an unpaid cast, that’s a big issue.
Finally, TLT is working with a clean slate. The staff is lean, reduced to an education/operations manager, an office manager/box-office assistant, and a part-time box-office manager. There’s also a new box office and financial system, replacing a past haphazard record-keeping system.
“All the talented performers are coming back,” says Campbell. “Subscribers and ticket sales are picking up. We have no place to go but up.”
But can TLT really work? After 90 years, is community theater something that Tacoma still supports, especially during a recession?
Absolutely, says Judy Cullen. “TLT’s saving grace is that there are people in the community who really care about it. The roots go deep, people are connected.”
Campbell agrees: The theater boasts season ticket holders who have subscribed for 30 or 40 years. Volunteers are bound up in the company, like Lakewood Council member Pad Finnegan, whose mother used to perform at TLT as a teenager, meeting Finnegan’s father there.
Performers return year after year, such as Tom Birkeland, who began drama classes at TLT in 1956 as a boy, and who has been acting in productions since 1964. “It’s so much a part of the Tacoma area,” says Birkeland. “The only way they’ve survived is through the support of the community.”
“We’re a big historical asset to the community,” says Campbell. “And as people live their lives in an increasingly non-human (electronic) way, there’s a need for human interaction... When there is great upheaval, that is the time for theater, when we can respond and people feel that in their lives.”
Rosemary Ponnekanti: 253-597-8568
rosemary.ponnekanti@thenewstribune.com
Lakewood Playhouse enjoys renewed success There’s another venerable community theater around town that has weathered difficult times and once again is going strong: Lakewood Playhouse turned 70 years old last year.
The Playhouse began in 1938 when two local women invited an actress from the Seattle Repertory Theatre to teach a drama class to Lakewood women. The group became the Lakewood Players – each performance at the Lakewood Theatre beginning with a dinner party and followed by a lavish cast party – the center of Lakewood’s social scene.
After moving to the DeKoven Inn in 1939, the Players suspended productions during World War II, moved locations and finally built the current Lakewood Playhouse near the mall in 1965.
After a downturn in the early 1990s, the Playhouse began to draw interest, and since 2001, when current director Marcus Walker took over, the company has seen a 30 percent yearly increase in the budget, and season ticket holders – which reached 800 this year. There’s a new lobby and ventilation system. Walker also restored the theater’s original in-the-round design, which he said is part of the Playhouse’s success.
“Apart from ACT and the Penthouse in Seattle, we’re the only ones in the region doing shows in-the-round,” Walker said. “We’re proud of it. It’s very intimate for the audience, and forces directors to be more creative.”
The Lakewood Playhouse audience comes mostly from the local community, including retired military folks, says Walker, though fans come from as far afield as Port Townsend for certain shows.
“We’re a community theater with professional ambition,” he said. “When I came, people would say, ‘I can’t believe I saw a good play at Lakewood.’ Now all the plays are good.”
The current show at Lakewood Playhouse is George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart’s “Once in a Lifetime” which Walker describes as a little-known spoof on 1920s Hollywood. Performances run 8 p.m. Fridays through Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays through June 21 at 5729 Lakewood Towne Center Blvd., Lakewood. For information, call 253-588-0042 or go online to
lptheater.qwestoffice.net.
Rosemary Ponnekanti: 253-597-8568
rosemary.ponnekanti@
thenewstribune.com
