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About Cottage Grove sentinel. (Cottage Grove, Or.) 1909-current | View Entire Issue (May 8, 2019)
COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL | WEDNESDAY, MAY 8, 2019 | 7A Theatre from A1 S entinel C ottage G rove www.cgsentinel.com @ cgsentinel @cgsentinel #cgsentinel Cottage-Grove-Sentinel PRICES VALID MAY 8TH THRU MAY 15TH, 2019 Hours: Mon-Fri 9:00am-6:00pm | Sat 9am-6pm | Sun 11am-4pm 118 Gateway Blvd., Cottage Grove (Next to Bi-Mart) • 541-942-7377 LOW COST Local & Metro Weekday Trips Professional Caring Staff Your Regional Public Transportation Service No elgibility requirements. 541-942-0456 southlanetransit.com everybody in the house can see them,” Goes said. “It makes this whole space us- able for acting, which it’s re- ally not [now].” Though plans also include taking about four feet off the thrust stage to make room for more seating, the new design will allow for about 12 more feet of space to work with on the back wall. “Because we’re gaining so much playing space, it works out,” said Goes. Final plans estimate the new house audience capaci- ty to be between 195 and 200 people. The house will also be getting a new acoustic treat- ment on its walls and speak- er system. Work with an acoustical engineer is expected to yield an enhanced house setup for spoken word. For the hearing impaired, plans are to install a “hear- ing loop,” which enables people with a “T switch” on their hearing aids to flip the switch and get a direct feed of the theater’s performance. According to Goes, this assistive listening technolo- gy will be extended not only to those with hearing aids. “Even if you don’t have a hearing aid that includes that built in feature, which all the modern ones do, you can use headphones with this system,” she said. “You can even have an app on an iPhone and literally tap into the sound.” Other upgrades will in- clude retrofitting of a fire sprinkler system, aisle light- ing, larger restrooms, and seating which meets Amer- icans with Disabilities Act standards. In total, the project will see a 2,087-square-foot building expansion from its current square footage of Chorus from A1 SOUTH LANE COUNTY FIRE & RESCUE The Only Emergency Medical Transport Service in South Lane County Call 541-942-4493 for info. FOR EMERGENCY DIAL 911 Serving South Lane County. www.southlanefi re.org than 100 singers. In its heyday, the division had even taken second place at the society’s international competition. Today, the group has a little more than 30 active members who will take the stage next month in Cottage Grove in a set of performances which will include quartets Social In- security and Four C Sons made up mostly of Cascade Chorus members who have refined their own acts. “The object of barber- shop is to do what they call ‘ring chords,’” Martindale explained, “which when you hit the chords exactly right to create an overtone, which is the desired effect.” Martindale’s quartet, So- cial Insecurity, blends the barbershop sound with co- medic performances and has achieved its own noto- Don’t Forget Mother’s Day! Sunday, May 12 at Shady Oaks Plants & Produce It’s the Place to Be!!! 9,197 to 11,284. This brings the theater a long way from its humble beginnings of performing under an army surplus parachute in 1982. The theater considers its “ACT I” as occurring in 1998 when its current facility was first built. Next came “ACT II” in 2006, which involved the expansion of its lobby and addition of a rehearsal hall. In the context of the the- ater’s steady growth, ACT III can be seen as an affirmation of the nonprofit’s continued success. “This is a project that we’ve really been working on of quite a number of years,” Goes said. “It has its roots back in 2011 when we did a huge comprehensive strate- gic planning process.” In the preceding years, the theater had actually been forced to turn people away as it sold out around half its shows. Despite this, the non- profit was struggling to keep a balanced budget. The price of running a volunteer theater includes costs such as costumes, set design and paying royalties to creators of shows — musi- cal royalties alone can range from $5,000 to $8,000 per production. The board of directors in the strategic planning process looked at income sources such as ticket sales, individual donations, show sponsorships and program ads. With stable participation of advertisers and sponsors each year and the sheer lack of bandwidth to do any more productions, these were determined not be via- ble growth areas. In donations, Goes said the theater has terrific sup- port and receives a reliable increase of three to four per- cent per year. This left ticket sales, but there was no interest among board members in bumping prices. “We don’t want to price ourselves out of the market,” said Goes, “We want to be affordable for as many peo- ple as possible.” Because revenue streams could not substantially be altered, members started looking at increasing capac- ity. In 2013 they hired GMA Architects out of Eugene to assess the situation and by 2014 they had chosen a de- sign. “Then we really spent a couple of years doing our internal homework,” said Goes. Though the summer of 2019 was finally selected as a construction date, con- structing costs have not stayed at original estimates. The price has skyrocketed from what was considered a $1.5 million project a year ago to its’s current price tag of $2.5 million. “So we are scrambling for dollars at this point,” Goes said. To cover the cost, the the- ater must take out a loan, but is also relying on grant money, $40,075 of which has already come from the Oregon Cultural Trust. The project is also being lobbied for by the Cultural Advoca- cy Coalition, a nonprofit ad- vocacy group that advances public investment in art, heritage and humanities. “We are part of a consor- tium of six arts construction projects that are lobbying for some lottery bond funding,” Goes said. Being part of the consor- tium increases the chances of receiving funding as the projects have already been vetted by the commission. Though Cottage Theatre was part of a similar con- sortium in 2017, it received less than had been asked for, prompting entry into this year’s cycle as well. As the new fiscal year nears, Goes hopes that the Oregon Legislature will find room in the budget for the arts among other contenders such as libraries and city in- frastructure projects. Helping its chances, the theater’s construction proj- ect has already been recog- nized as a possible economic stimulant. “Part of the reason that we got endorsed for this po- tential lottery bond funding is the potential economic development impact of this project,” Goes said. “Last year … only 25 percent of our audience had an address in the 97424 Cottage Grove ZIP Code. So, 75 percent of our audience is coming from somewhere else.” For a city looking to in- crease its tourism revenue, Goes believes numbers like these make the theater an- other oar in the water. “Lots of people go out to eat before a show and so that affects local restaurants,” said Goes. “The folks com- ing from farther away many times will stay overnight.” Goes added that about 10 percent of the theater’s au- dience travels more than 50 miles, which qualifies them as tourists according to the statewide tourism agency Travel Oregon. Subsequent- ly, the agency has given the theater a $20,000 grant to- ward the construction proj- ect. “So right now as an insti- tution, we are a magnet to Cottage Grove,” Goes said, “and it’s our hope that peo- ple, while here, might tour a covered bridge, eat at a restaurant, run across to Walmart to buy something.” With construction set to begin as soon as loans are approved, the theater looks to reopen its doors Oct. 11 with “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) [Revised].” riety by routinely placing in the top 10 of regional barbershop competitions. The setlist for the May 19 show will include clas- sics, showtunes and popu- lar numbers the crowd will recognize. “We’re doing our best to keep the ticket prices low so families can enjoy it,” said Friends of the Cottage Grove Carousel President Don Williams. Tickets for the event will be $5. Following the musical performances, an optional all-you-can-eat waffle dinner with four choices of fruit toppings and gluten-free options will be provided for an ad- ditional $8. Proceeds from the event will go toward the Cottage Grove Carousel, a recon- struction project which is inching toward comple- tion. “We’re moving the focus from construction to fund- raising,” Williams said of the carousel project. With about $90,000 re- maining to be raised before the carousel can plant itself in a temporary plot that will make it accessible to the public, Friends of the Cottage Grove Carousel are hopeful fundraising events like this will help them meet their goals. “We’re 100 percent vol- unteer,” said Williams. “We need to raise $1.3 million to find a permanent home for a restored carousel.” The carousel’s lighting, computer system, and tent cover are among the last items on the construction list, but the project will only be entering another phase with its own slew of challenges once those are completed. As a leasing agreement moves forward with Brad’s Cottage Grove Chevrolet to allow the carousel tem- porary space on its lot, the attraction must now look for a revenue stream. “When we erect it onto Brad’s lot, then we will have vendors that will come in and another generating opportunity for finances,” said Friends of the Cottage Grove Carousel Vice Pres- ident Alice Nowicki, “but there are still all those un- knowns.” Other potential costs such as staffing and secu- rity systems have yet to be explored and will like- ly continue the need for fundraising and donations of skilled labor. “We desperately need volunteers,” said carousel board member Linda Sex- ton. As well as accepting vol- unteers, the group is en- couraging locals to sponsor items such as the horses and chariots on the car- ousel. Over the next sev- eral months, a number of fundraising events are also scheduled to take place. “We want to have it op- erating by summer if at all possible,” Williams said. Tickets to the Cascade Chorus performance can be found at the Cottage Grove Sentinel, Book Mine, Cascade Home Center, Chamber of Commerce in CG and Chamber of Com- merce and The Creswell Chronicle and Cascade Home Center in Creswell. Dentistry is our profession, people are our focus. Birch Avenue Dental Dentistry is our profession, people are our focus. Birch Avenue Dental 1325 Birch Ave. 541-942-2471 • General Dentistry We have a beautiful selection of • Implants flowers • perennials annuals • baskets and more! • Sedation located at 77380 Hwy, 99 S www.shadyoaksplantandproduce.com • Financing 1325 Birch Ave. Cottage Grove birchavenuedental.com 541-942-2471 Tammy L. McClung DDS • Park W. McClung DDS
