We would love if every weekend there is something happening at the theater.” Her sentiments echo a variation on a theme suggested by Baker: “Our eventual goal in a couple of years? We would love it if VLT was never dark. As recently retired board president Karen Scheeland puts it: “As part of the changes, I see a turn toward a whole new plateau for the theater, one that attracts and embraces younger audiences and members.” The slate of other scheduled productions are both ambitious and intriguing. Over the final quarter of 2022, VLT will present a handful of other productions on the new main stage and in its smaller Stage Left theater. It’s about finding your way in the world. “ Little Women,” says Welch, “really retains the feeling that people connect over time. And yet, according to Welch, the big-draw musical was an ideal vehicle for reopening VLT to public audiences. In complicated ways, says Welch, revisiting the previously canceled play meant confronting emotional trauma born of the pandemic-based cancellation. Welch resurrected her musical stage vision for Little Women, incorporating seven of her original cast members. The cancellation period lasted over two years. The postponements eventually morphed into cancellations. Then the Covid pandemic struck! Little Women and all other upcoming plays were put into a holding pattern. That March, director Kari Bolden Welch and a cast of 18 were days shy of their opening performance. Little Women the Musical was originally slated for presentation at VLT in spring 2020. “And to be as accessible to as many members of the community as we can while maintaining our identity as true community theater.” The remodel created an open area above the stage and expanded workshop, wardrobe, and set storage areas. “Our changes are intended to bring as many people along with us as possible,” says Baker. The focus of her job has been to steer VLT through both the physical remodel and the board’s recently rewritten operational rules. Recently, VLT’s board hired Jessica Ruth Baker as the theater company’s first executive director. VLT is a non-profit organization whose history of success has been carried largely by an unpaid board of directors in combination with a core group of fewer than 100 official VLT members who annually contribute $20 and volunteer work hours. In the coming year, construction will also expand the theater’s undersized workshop, wardrobe, and set storage areas. VLT now has a two-story, 40-foot-high fly house. Until the remodel, VLT never had an open area above the stage - prized space commonly known as a “fly house.” The legacy stage ceiling was too low to allow for suspending sets that could be lowered to the stage for scene changes during a performance. Improved house lighting, a front lobby redesign, and a passageway that allows actors to cross unseen to off-stage wings have also been added. Upstage performance space has expanded to include 8 feet of added stage depth and side stage “gallery” ramps extending into the audience area. There’s also increased wheelchair-accessible audience space and a new sound system for hearing-impaired patrons. The remodel delivered 200-plus new wider, more comfortable seats on a tiered, stadium-style audience area with improved line-of-sight stage views. And so, in early 2020, VLT’s board and dedicated financial backers pulled the switch! Very Little Theatre recently completed a $1.6 million physical remodel and operational reorganization. We’re talking about putting into motion a major $1.6 million combined physical remodeling and operational reorganization. But three years ago, when that conversation began again in earnest, it made sense to re-evaluate the theater’s entire direction. There has been talk of remodeling VLT for the past 20 years. But as the VLT board and members have long noted, aging facilities, stage design, and funding can all be limiting factors. Most VLT supporters recognize that age can be a powerful indicator of maturity, skill, dedication, and a host of other key artistic values. More certain, however, is that VLT is among the oldest continuously operating community theater companies in the nation - it has occupied its current home at 24th Avenue and Hilyard Street since 1952. It’s been suggested that Eugene’s Very Little Theatre, founded in 1929, is the oldest existing community theater group in the United States. Share this page: Share post on Facebook Tweet this post Share post on Google+ Pin this post
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