Bigfork Playhouse's lease increase worries producers

A new contract that more than doubles lease payments for the Bigfork Summer Playhouse and shaves a month off the time the theater company can use the Bigfork Center for the Performing Arts has Playhouse producers concerned about the fate of their program.

“We’re struggling now,” said Summer Playhouse co-owner Jude Thomson. “Hopefully they’re giving us something to negotiate. This is a lot we have to negotiate.”

The new lease renewal contract also includes an annual 4 percent increase in the rent going forward.

Thomson and her husband Don have been at the helm of the Bigfork Summer Playhouse since the mid-1960s and have grown the program from a small professional group into one of the Northwest’s most respected repertory theater companies.

“This is a labor of love,” Jude said. “We’ve trained some pretty nice kids. We’re not getting rich doing this.”

Time is of the essence to negotiate a better lease, she added, because they need to schedule auditions and nail down royalty payments for upcoming productions.

“We need to know where we are,” Jude stressed.

Donna Lawson, chairwoman of the board of directors for the Bigfork Center for the Performing Arts Foundation, which owns the center, said terms of the new lease contract are indeed negotiable.

“Nothing is written in stone,” Lawson said. “It’s gotten blown out of proportion.”

The Playhouse’s five-year lease is up for renewal on Oct. 15, and a committee within the board of directors worked out a new contract that was presented to the Playhouse last month.

“This was the first part of the proposal,” Lawson said. “We haven’t even begun to do negotiations. I’m sure the Playhouse will continue. My parents would roll over in their graves if” the theater company were forced to close.

The foundation historically has fully supported the Playhouse.

In 1986, the foundation agreed to build a new home for the Bigfork Summer Playhouse when the 50-year old wooden structure was condemned by fire officials. Lack of a performance facility would have terminated a long history of musical theater that has become a pivotal part of the local tourist economy, as well as an opportunity for hundreds of professional and aspiring performers, designers, and technicians to perfect their craft, according to the foundation’s website.

The foundation raised $750,000 to build a new, 435-seat facility to house not only the Playhouse but also other cultural programs. The new theater opened in 1988.

In 2009, the Bigfork Summer Playhouse’s 50th anniversary, a new $1.1 million lobby was unveiled.

In addition to the Summer Playhouse, the center is home to the Bigfork Playhouse Children’s Theater and the Bigfork Community Players.

In a letter to the Daily Inter Lake, Playhouse supporter Ward DeWitt expressed his concern about the higher rent and shorter lease time.

“Anyone who knows theater knows that is preposterous,” DeWitt wrote. “There is no chance of recruiting excellent talent to this area promising performers only a couple of days a week, which ultimately will cause a decline in quality. The Playhouse is the mainstay of Bigfork, the hub that draws people to the area.”

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by email at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.