Local Performing Arts Center Potential Home Run

            In our town we have a new performing arts center.  It is a beautiful building.  The acoustics are world class. With room for more than four hundred people, the theater is large enough for most any program.  The seats are comfortable and there is not a bad spot in the house.  The lobby is large, crying out to host parties before and after a show.  The staff and volunteers are terrific.  But it is never full and often audiences are very small.  Why is it not thriving?

            There are some simple facts getting in the way of packing the theater.  It is at the end of a long and windingroad (to borrow a line from an act which will never play there), at the base of Mount Mansfield in northern Vermont.  It is one thing to drive the Mountain Road for a day of skiing and riding.  It is another to drive, at night, to the edge of Smuggler’s Notch and know you have to drive back down at the end of a long night’s performance. 

Ticket prices to performances have not been for the faint of heart.  This is not to say ticket prices are above market but just to acknowledge live acts are expensive.  And some are more expensive than others.  And finally we are a rural community.  It is hard to fill seats with consistency given our little town and the surrounding towns are, well, rural.  The entire population of Vermont is 600,000.  Think of the center of Boston spread over 3,000 square miles.  Not the most efficient way to fill a theater.

            There are as well some subjective barriers to making the facility work.  Is the vision to satisfy a local market or is the programming aimed at visitors?  Some acts seem pretty esoteric for a ski town, which makes sense if it is part of a plan.  Is there is a clear programming philosophy or vision or even a set of themes to series of performances?  If the desired market is local is there enough advertizing? People are distracted, busy and do not pay attention.  Given this it seems the Center under advertizes.

            It will always be hard to make a performing arts center in a small town thrive but it is possible and important.  It is important for at least two reasons.  First, to have the best offerings of music, theater, film, comedy, you name it in our town is extraordinary.  It is nice to be aware of the best there is, it is good for kids to be exposed to more than what is normally available, it is good for the spirit to experience the best a human can do.  Maybe we’ll only miss it if it goes away but I hope instead we make it a fixture.  It can help define what we are as a community.  Second, performing arts can be a tremendous boon to a community’s economy.

            People like the arts.  Whether film, jazz, string quartet, comedy or circus festivals, gathering a number of acts of a genre and inviting the world to a wonderful place to the experience draws people, excitement and money to a place.  The Center can become a destination marketing pull in its own right.

            Just to compare, I offer two examples from Italy, a country not unaware of how to draw visitors.  Two small towns make the most of their theaters.  Spoleto in Umbria and Ravello on the Amalfi Coast draw worldwide audiences for their programs.  Each started with less than we have now.  Not only in Italy, but in every corner of the world small towns draw big crowds of people addicted to one thing or another. 

I can imagine an annual gathering of fans of anything we can think of.  Let’s assume we hosted a festival of Mingus or Coltrane fans.  They could find a home here.  Now Mingus fans might be too rowdy, but Coltrane fans, staying in every lodge and inn for miles around, having too much coffee at this shop or that, listening to music from the Bee’s Knees to Cork, could have the ultimate festival of music at our mountain at the end of a good long stay.  And that’s just an example.  People like to travel and like to have a reason to travel.  The performing arts center is a tremendous enabler.  Let's pack it.

            It is also true Vermont is packed with talent.  There are people in every corner of this old republic who can sing, dance, play, thesp, make jokes and even make a decent film now and then.  The Center could build programs to bring local folk from all over up to Mount Mansfield.  If we build it they will come.

            The other night I took my nine year old and her friend to see The Stradivari Quartet at the Center.  We sat in the second row, so close we could practically reach out and touch the players.   The girls were in awe.  If for no other reason the four performers were dressed beautifully -- black tie and ball gowns -- and the instruments were spectacular with a long story behind each one.  The girls did great, listening to the music intently, at least until the Bartok.  We left just at intermission, sneaking out and making our way on the snowy path to the car.  And then we saw behind the theater two people huddled against the cold, sneaking cigarettes.  "Hello," we called out, just to be kind, and when the two looked up we realized they were members of the quartet!  We talked for a bit in the cold, dark night.  The girls were starry-eyed.  They will remember the night for a long, long time.

             It could be the people responsible for the Center simply want something to entertain visitors already coming to ski at Stowe.  If the plan is for it to be more, it could be incredible.  We are blessed to have the Center and I hope it becomes a major destination for years to come.  Sometimes we do not notice the things we have but instead worry about what we don’t.  We have a gem here and should support efforts to make it shine.

David Rocchio lives, works and writes in Stowe, Vermont. (c) 2012 David Rocchio