ATP and symphony compromise on auditorium scheduling

Two local performance arts groups have

found a way to share stage time at the coveted Whitefish Middle

School auditorium. Both the Alpine Theatre Project and the Glacier

Symphony and Chorale say they will have the space and time slots

they need in the auditorium for their 2012 summer seasons.

A scheduling issue came to a head last

year when the symphony requested to use the auditorium for two

nights in early August for orchestra concerts and Festival Amadeus

rehearsals. ATP, however, has a contract with the middle school for

full use of the auditorium during summer. They had planned to be

setting up for their production of “No Way To Treat A Lady” during

the symphony’s requested dates.

ATP’s contract, negotiated in 2005 and

approved by the center's advisory committee, gives the nonprofit

theater group use of the auditorium from the third Sunday in June

to the third Sunday in August at $100 a day. The contract is good

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

ATP executive director Luke Walrath and

artistic director Betsi Morrison say they knew it was important to

sit down with the symphony group almost as soon as last year’s

conflict arose to begin planning for joint use of the facility in

2012. Staff, board members and lawyers from both the ATP and

symphony came together this January to work out a scheduling

agreement that was finalized last month.

Alpine Theatre Project will close out

their production of “Little Shop of Horrors” on July 22, and

immediately begin pulling the set down so that the Glacier Symphony

can have its first Festival Amadeus rehearsal two days later on

July 24.

“There will be a lot to move out in a

hurry,” Walrath said. “But we want to work with the GSC.”

Alan Satterlee, executive director for

the Glacier Symphony and Chorale, said his group is altering its

traditional way of doing things as well, moving Festival Amadeus up

from the first week in August to the week of July 22-28.

“We prefer a longer gap between big

events, as this is only two weeks after the traditional Summer

Symphonic Pops concert at Rebecca Farm, but we can live with the

change,” he said. “We have many volunteer musicians who have other

commitments in the summer and big concerts are a challenge for the

musicians and music director John Zoltek.”

The plan covers only this summer, but

both groups hope a long-term solution can be worked out so the

mediation process is not required every year.

One rumor Satterlee would like to clear

up is that tension between the organizations over the summer

scheduling was what led to an end of the joint ONSTAGE production

last winter. The two groups had collaborated on productions of

“West Side Story,” “South Pacific,” “The Sound of Music” and “The

Music Man,” featuring singing and acting talent from Alpine Theatre

Project and the musicians of the Glacier Symphony.

“When we did joint planning for the

January 2011 possible collaboration, it was hard to find agreement

or enthusiasm for a particular show and Luke, Betsi, John and I

just decided to take a break,” Satterlee said.