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T.H.E. Theatre finds new home
Ansley Buck / Staff Writer
The Human Experience Theatre
recently moved into its new home, only two spaces down from
it’s original location.
T.H.E. Theatre is now at 1047 Broadway, in the old Payless Shoe
Store at the corner of 11th Street and Broadway. Currently
finished in the new building is the main hall, backstage area,
and upstairs lobby, concessions, and bathrooms.
Future renovations include transforming the downstairs to
include a lobby/gallery, additional bathrooms and concessions
stand. In addition, administrative offices, technical, and
costume shops will be part of the new facility.
Ron Brown, manager of T.H.E. Theatre and administrative
assistant to the company’s board of directors, noted that the
main reason for the move was a shortage of space.
“One of the big reasons was that we’ve been in operation for
almost nine years now, and our audience has grown from twenty
people a night to almost seventy, and the building just wasn’t
big enough anymore. The size of our house is actually twice the
size of what it was over there. Over there we were comfortably
seating sixty people, and we get 120 here at tables.”
The hardest part of the project was fundraising.
“We’ve been working on this for two years. Fundraising,
because we’re a non-profit organization, was difficult in the
beginning. They had a program here called Columbus Challenge,
and a lot of money was raised to support the Springer [Opera
House], the performing arts, and stuff like that. Unfortunately,
a lot of people who gave to that assumed that all of the
performing arts were a part of that, and we were not,” stated
Brown.
When asked why they were not included in the Columbus Challenge,
Brown replied, “I’m not sure. I don’t know if there was a
procedure we missed out on or something. But even today, I’m
surprised at the amount of people that did not know we weren’t
included.”
The idea of doing dinner theaters is another subject for
interest, with the company doing it in their own way.
“It is set up for dinner theater. We do use tables in all our
shows except for the children’s shows, and people bring their
own dinner. We’ve tried to serve before, but found that we
can’t feed everybody. We have people bring in everything from
Burger King to pizza to going to the Olive Branch and bringing
something back over to cooking at home,” claimed Brown.
Brown also believes that this will not only serve as a community
theater to Columbus, but also be a place for learning.
Brown said, “I think it will be a community theater where it
is open to anyone that wants to audition, anybody who wants to
learn how to do costumes, anybody who wants to do set design and
building sets, directing. We have had several plays done by
local playwrights. I think the basic crux is that this is a
learning tool. It’s another venue for people who want to act,
and who may audition at the Springer but can’t do a show.
There’s another opportunity for them to come and do a show
here”
T.H.E. Theatre is currently during their children’s show,
Cinderella. The show opened Feb. 18 and will run through March
5.
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