Auditorium scheduling raises concerns

Supporters of the Glacier Symphony and

Chorale are expressing concerns that for the second year in a row,

no concerts are scheduled to take place in the Whitefish Middle

School auditorium during this summer’s Festival Amadeus.

Instead, other than an outdoor concert

in Depot Park, all Festival Amadeus events from July 31 through

Aug. 6 will take place in the O’Shaughnessy Cultural Arts Center,

which many agree is a fine theater, but too small for a full

symphony.

The Whitefish Middle School auditorium,

also called the Whitefish Performing Art Center, offers 454 seats,

compared to about 300 at the O’Shaughnessy, which has been

characterized as a theater in the round, or a black box

theater.

Some symphony supporters are pointing

their finger at the Alpine Theatre Project, which holds a contract

giving them exclusive use of the auditorium in summer, but the

theater group’s president says ATP did not flatly turn down

GSC.

Whitefish attorney Sean Frampton, who

became ATP board president last September, said a school board

member accidentally approved GSC’s request to use the auditorium

for two nights in early August. The dates, however, conflicted with

ATP’s production schedule.

When the ATP board found out, Frampton

said, they offered GSC five different date options for use of the

auditorium — including the one they originally requested — but GSC

turned them down. According to ATP’s offer, GSC had to be willing

to either perform with stage sets for the next ATP production in

place, or pay to have them removed.

Frampton said ATP estimated it would

cost $8,000 to pay union wages for actors, musicians and sound and

light technicians for one week if an ATP show was delayed for a

week. Many of these professionals travel to Whitefish from New

York, he explained.

ATP is a nonprofit theater group,

Frampton explained. About 40 percent of its money comes from ticket

sales, and the rest comes from donations. The ATP board passed a

resolution about three months ago saying it will share space in the

auditorium with other groups so long as it doesn’t lose money.

Contract talks

ATP’s contract with the school district

was negotiated in 2005, more than two years before the auditorium

renovation project was completed. School superintendent Jerry House

explained that the school district’s goal was to make the

auditorium available first for school activities, secondly for

major users such as ATP, GSC and the Whitefish Theatre Company, and

lastly for other groups.

Frampton’s law partner at the time,

Frank Morrison, represented ATP in the negotiations. The former

Montana Supreme Court justice is the father of ATP founding member,

artistic director and star of many ATP shows, Betsi Morrison. In

addition to lining up dates for ATP, Morrison negotiated a contract

for “The Institute at Whitefish,” a group that would bring national

leaders here for seminars and meetings but never materialized.

House noted that the Whitefish Theatre

Company, which manages the O’Shaughnessy, wasn’t interested in a

long-term contract with the school district. He also pointed out

that the school district is not in the entertainment business, and

the school district wanted a long-term contract so money could be

set aside to repair or replace things like carpets, seats and sound

and light equipment.

The contract signed by House and

Morrison and approved by the Whitefish school board gives ATP

exclusive use of the auditorium from the third Sunday in June to

the third Sunday in August at $100 a day. The contract and an

addendum negotiated by Whitefish resident Marshall Friedman is good

for 10 years and can be renewed twice for five years each time,

potentially giving ATP exclusive use of the auditorium in summer

time until 2025.

The contract is silent on subleasing,

but House says the school district is looking at how ATP allows

other groups to use the auditorium in summer time — like the

Western Governors Association last year. The school district is

also interested in having ATP tack on a $1 surcharge to each ticket

to help pay for long-term repair and replacement costs. ATP has

already tacked on a $1 surcharge to help pay for the auditorium

renovation. Fundraisers for the renovation project said they

received about $8,000 from ATP from last year’s ticket sales.

The Whitefish school board discussed

some of these ideas during their Jan. 25 meeting. House and a

committee of school board trustees will meet with Frampton and

other ATP board members sometime in mid-February.

Fundraising

An important consideration in

negotiating ATP’s contract, House said, was Morrison’s offer to

donate $500,000 to the auditorium renovation project. No comparable

offer was made by GSC, House pointed out, adding that GSC is not a

local organization. Morrison, however, died in January 2006, and

the project never received the $500,000 pledge.

The middle school auditorium, which has

held performances since it was built in 1938, was completely

renovated when Central School was torn down and rebuilt into the

current middle school. Renovating the auditorium cost about $5.2

million — all raised by community donations.

Project leaders explained that building

a new auditorium facility could have cost up to $10 million, and

restoring the old building showed support for the city’s cultural

past. The fundraising goal, however, hit the roof in August 2006

after the construction bid came in 76 percent higher.

John Kramer and Richard and Carol

Atkinson led the fundraising effort — mortgaging their homes to

back the effort. By July 2007, donations had come in from more than

800 families, ranging from $1 to $600,000.

“Students sold shaved ice in the cold

weather at 50 cents each and raised $244,” Carol Atkinson reported

that summer. “The kids have been really active in fundraising. It’s

their school.”

By the time the auditorium opened to

the public in October 2007, fundraisers were still more than $1.1

million in the hole. A big push, including Richard Atkinson’s

famous Old Man Walking fundraising effort, helped organizers pass

the $5 million mark by October 2010. By then, more than 900

families had donated to the renovation.

Whitefish resident Dick Solberg is one

person who believes publicly-funded facilities like the middle

school auditorium should be made available to various community

groups, such as Glacier Symphony and Chorale. During last year’s

Festival Amadeus, the two orchestral events were held in the

Christian Center, in Kalispell, instead of Whitefish. GSC reported

a significant drop in attendance at those two events.

“I think the community members who have

built, raised monies and now support this state-of-the-art venue

would like to see its doors flung open to welcome the Festival

Amadeus this summer,” he said in a recent letter to the editor.

The auditorium project is not the only

civic project funded by donations from the Whitefish community.

Other examples include the O’Shaughnessy, Whitefish Community

Library, The Wave, Stumptown Ice Den, David Olseth Memorial Skate

Park, and Hugh Rogers Wag Park.