The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
NEW LEASE ON LIFE
City assumes responsibility for 42-year-old youth theater, ending its financial struggles
MIDDLETOWN — The city now holds the deed to the playhouse that has served youth in the city for generations, under a deal approved Monday night 10-0 by the Common Council.
Passage of the resolution means Middletown, which will own the Oddfellows Playhouse building at 128 Washington St., grants the nonprofit group a 25-year lease at $1 a year to use the facility for its programming.
“It is enormous relief for Oddfellows and gives it a new lease on life,” said Executive Artistic Director Emeritus Betsy Morgan, who has been with the 42-year-old youth theater on and off for nearly 20 years.
The city will pay all the expenses under the agreement, Morgan said, and the organization won’t have to worry about raising enormous sums of money every year, between $35,000 and $40,000 a year in expenses.
“It’s a big relief not to have to pay capital expenses,” she said. “We won’t have to raise that just to keep the building open.”
Oddfellows will have exclusive use of its office, storage area and set-building room, she said. Public spaces, like the classrooms and the theater, will be shared equally with other arts organizations, said Morgan, who was executive director from 1982 to 1997, then left for 17 years. She came back as a volunteer executive director for two years.
“I returned in 2014 because it was about to go under,” Morgan said.
Morgan credited Mayor Dan Drew, who, when Oddfellows was in crisis in 2014, stepped forward to help. His former chief of staff and now Planning, Conservation and Development Director Joseph Samolis was instrumental in ushering the terms to fruition, she said.
“It has taken two and a half years, but it has all come through,” she said.
Oddfellows staff and stakeholders approached the mayor to discuss ways of trying to stabilize the organization, Samolis said.
“The main idea presented was the city taking ownership over the building so that the organization could focus on programming instead of ongoing maintenance of a large building,” he said.
After months of discussion, stakeholders arrived at a lease arrangement that would work for Oddfellows as well as open up the building for other arts groups to take advantage of the space, Samolis said.
“This opportunity not only helps stabilize a longstanding organization that has benefited so many generations of youth in Middletown, but it also gives growth potential to other arts organizations and theater groups in town,” he said. “It also has a positive economic impact on the community by fostering a culturally vibrant downtown that attracts people from throughout the state.”
The playhouse was founded by Wesleyan University students in 1975. For the first three or so years, Oddfellows had basic programming for local children, Morgan said. The first production was “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” she recalled.
From the beginning, the youth theater’s purpose has been a lofty one.
“One of the most important things they are getting is a cross-cultural experience,” Morgan said of the students. “Oddfellows, from the beginning, has been interracial and multiethnic on purpose. Part of its mission was to help erase the terrible divide that separates races and ethnicities in Connecticut — and in Middletown.”
Over the years, hardships have befallen the nonprofit.
“It suffered serious damage in a rain storm in 2010,” Morgan said. “The building that held the costume collection (on Main Street) collapsed a year or two later. So there were a series of disasters.”
Oddfellows was founded with a grant from the newly founded Middletown Commission on the Arts, said commissioner and MCA founding member Joyce Kirkpatrick during the public session of Monday night’s meeting, according to video footage.
“The grant was $250, and look what it started: a wonderful arts program that is the envy of every Connecticut town,” said Kirkpatrick in urging the council to pass the resolution.
Young people who have attended Oddfellows have made an impact in education, public service, retail, sports, communications and the arts, she said.
“It is a fabulous program that has been enjoyed by thousands of children and youth — and their audiences. These Oddfellows graduates have grown up and gone out into the world as citizens who contribute enormously to their communities — many right here in Middletown,” Kirkpatrick said. “The need for such positive activities is now, more than ever.”
“It is important to keep the arts community vibrant and it’s a good funnel for students to learn and then move on to careers,” Common Councilwoman Deborah Kleckowski said of the playhouse. “It provides a lot of arts opportunities, especially for students who may not be athletes. We need to provide opportunities for students to be creative and imagine.”
“It is a lifesaver. It absolutely is,” Morgan said of the deal.
At the meeting, Common Councilman Gerry Daley said he remembered when the playhouse was in the Odd Fellows fraternal organization building (now Thai Gardens) on Main Street. Both his son and grandson have taken part in the program, Daley said.
“Details of what department will manage the building, along with scheduling, will be worked on over the next few months as the mayor and the council construct the annual budget.” Samolis said.
The lease would begin July 1.
“Thousands and thousands of children have been part of programs and have had their lives changed,” Morgan said. “This really makes it possible for Oddfellows to continue for the next 25 years. We can’t look beyond that, but 25 years is still terrific.”
“The arts also provide an opportunity for students to learn about history, geography and culture, because when they do plays, they learn about food and dress, where these places are, and history,” Kleckowski said.
Morgan said she believes the deal will allow the Middletown to develop an allages community theater and arts center close to Main Street.
“I feel today as if, thanks to the city, we have a new lease on life. It’s exciting for Oddfellows, but I think it’s exciting beyond Oddfellows. It’s going to have a real impact on the community arts in Middletown,” Morgan said.