THURSDAY, AUGUST 29, 2019
THE CHRONICLE — 3
SPOTLIGHT
COMMUNITY
ACT 3, SCENE 1
An architect’s rendering of the theatre’s new facade once the project is completed in 2021.PHOTOS PROVIDED/SUSAN GOES
Cottage Theatre starts remodel
By Aliya Hall
Staff Writer
After years in the making,
Cottage Theatre is moving
forward with their remod-
eling plans. Although unex-
pected changes in cost over
the years required a differ-
ent strategy, Executive
Director Susan Goes said
this summer they are getting
started on their plan to grow
the long-term health of the
organization.
“Our ultimate goal is to
have this be the fi nest place
to see live theatre in Lane
County,” Goes said. “It’s
already a lovely facility and
this will really take it the
next notch.”
The theatre board has
dubbed this project “Act 3,
Scene 1” – a theatre refer-
ence that corresponds to
this being the theatre’s
third major change and the
fi rst stage of this project’s
remodel. Changes that will
be made during this stage
include replacing the old
seats with new ones for
comfort, repainting the
backstage area and putting
in half of the new fi re sprin-
kler system.
“What we’re doing this
summer is more modest than
we originally planned, but
we still plan to go forward
with the full project in a
couple of years,” Goes
explained.
In 2021, the renovations
for Scene 2 will occur,
which will focus more on
acoustics, including upgrad-
ing sound speakers and
systems, and installing a
hearing loop to support indi-
viduals with hearing chal-
lenges. The loop is the latest
support technology and is
compatible with most hear-
ing aids; music and voices
will come directly from
the sound system into their
hearing device.
“We do have a lot of
senior audience members,
including some long-stand-
ing patrons, that ultimately
get frustrated because if you
come to a play and you can’t
hear or understand what’s
going on, it’s not as fun,”
Goes explained. “So, I’m
really excited about what
that will mean for many of
our patrons.”
She added that she’s most
excited for the improve-
ments that will enhance
the audience’s experience,
which will really be focused
on adding more comfort-
able seats, improving line
of sight, and acoustics. The
Our ultimate goal is to have this be the fi nest place
to see live theatre in Lane County.”
The Cottage Theatre remodel will be happening in two phases, this summer the theatre rebuilt the stage fl oor,
repainted backstage and removed the old chairs; new chairs will be installed in September.
fi nal remodel will also add
50 new seats to the theatre.
The idea to remodel the
theatre started in 2011 when
the board was coming up
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with a strategy to increase
revenue for the theatre. After
surveys and focus groups
they concluded the best way
would be to support the long-
term health of the organiza-
tion, and they started to look
at what they could grow.
The theatre added show-
ings on Thursday, which
bumped capacity by 20%;
however, it has now been
averaging 95% capacity and
they needed to add more
seats. Seats were also on the
list because they were put in
used when the theatre was
fi rst built in 1998.
“We thought, while replac-
ing seats and needing to
grow revenue, let’s remodel,”
Goes said.
After looking at initial
designs and estimates, the
project in 2014 looked like it
would cost between $80,000
and $1.2 million. When the
theatre started funding in
2016, it received a pledge by
an individual donor, as well
as state funding through the
Cultural Advocacy Coalition.
In 2018, the theatre wanted to
add the sound equipment to
fi x the acoustics as well as a
new curtain, and received
more donations and grants,
as well as support from
Travel Oregon.
The theatre was aiming
for the four-month construc-
tion project to happen in the
summer of 2019, but in April
when the bids came back for
construction, it was an esti-
mated $2.5 million cost – $1
million over budget.
Goes said that they had
already started to move
costumes out of the theatre
and were ready for the proj-
ect to start. She said the
consensus was, “‘We just
have to do this. We’ve said
we’re going to do it, let’s just
go get a loan and we’ll fi gure
it out later,’ which was a
normal human reaction – but
when we got a loan offer on
the table and really looked
at the costs of fi nancing, we
said, ‘Okay, we are not being
prudent stewards here.’”
At this point, the theatre
is still accepting donations,
and community members
can get involved by sponsor-
ing new seats if they want to
help the fundraising process.
Despite forcing the proj-
ect into phases, Goes said
she’s looking forward to
what the remodel will
mean for Cottage Grove as
a whole. She said that the
reason they were able to
attract state funding was
because 70% of their audi-
ence comes from outside
Cottage Grove, and 11%
come from over 50 miles
away.
“We are conscious of the
role that we play within
Cottage Grove as sort of
one of the magnets for
visitors,” Goes said. “So,
there’s a spillover economic
impact and we’re really
excited about the (expanded)
role that we will play, that the
additional seating capacity
will allow.”