[Music]
You're looking at the dome of the newly opened
overture center for the arts in downtown Madison.
The dome is spectacularly lit each night.
There's a performance.
And during the day, the dome is just as striking.
Letting the sun fill the center's rotunda area.
Hello everyone.
Welcome to In Wisconsin.
I'm Patty Low.
This week we're celebrating the arts in Wisconsin.
Specifically, performance spaces and places
throughout the state.
The overture center is the state's newest and will
be showing you more of its magnificence
throughout the program.
We'll also tour a performing arts center in Chippewa Falls
that owes its success to volunteers, a
wasa venue that has revitalized the city's
downtown and a mix of unconventional performance
spaces throughout the state.
Our tour of performance places and spaces is just ahead
in Wisconsin.
Major funding for In Wisconsin is provided by the people of
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environmentally friendly energy to keep homes, neighborhoods
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[Music]
The overture center is being constructed in two phases.
Work on the first phase took a little more than three years.
The second phase is scheduled for completion in 2006.
Medicine philanthropist Jerry Frouchy donated the entire
$205 million cost of the center in what is
believed to be the largest single gift to a performing
arts center in the country.
A performing arts center can really add to the
character of a community.
Nearly 100 cities and towns around Wisconsin
have recently developed or are currently developing
a performing arts center.
One example is Jamesville, which held a grand opening in early
September for its performing arts center.
The city restored the theater from the historic
Jamesville High School, keeping in place original
windows, plaster work and light fixtures.
Green Bay also recently restored a city icon into a
performance space.
Producer Joanne Garrett has that story.
[Music]
People kind of had a dream.
I won't say vision, but we're driven
to not have this be right.
This theater was built as a centerpiece.
The newest latest greatest technology at that time.
The Bell of the Ball.
The Fox Theater built in Green Bay
in 1930.
It wasn't Jim.
A city treasure.
They packed them in at this movie palace.
But the Fox fell on hard times and changed hands
during the depression.
It became the bay.
Throughout it all, this theater has been a fixture
in this town for nearly 70 years.
[Music]
It's designed to take you away from your normal life
and bring you to another exotic beautiful place just
for a small period of time.
Leah Gehring of PMI, the Theater's current
management group.
The style of the theater is called Spanish Atmosphiric.
The Gardens of Seville at Twilight.
That's what it's supposed to be.
You can imagine Kingford Man and Queen
Isabella strolling through it.
You could ask yourself, "Question, do I feel lucky?"
I'm repeating, we're not in Kansas anymore.
What about that?
We'll always have that.
Listen, George Bailey.
Don't you know me?
[Music]
This place made for memories.
Memories. For all the thousands
who made their way here.
To meet, to mingle, to have a little fun, a
few hours of pleasure.
I have memories of as a young child taking the bus
downtown to come to a movie here.
I have spoken to people who speak of their first date.
A high school graduation.
The theater was an integral part of the city,
a part of people's lives.
But over the years, the bay lost its lustre.
These beautiful walls were painted black.
Fictures like these, Juliet balconies and lights were
drywalled and painted over or taken down.
I remember it as a theater when it
was all painted black and the chairs and your feet
sticking to the cement floor and the glory days were gone.
The bay couldn't compete with the multiplexes in
the malls and in 1998, after nearly 70 years,
the theater went dark.
Enter Kramer Rock.
Leader of a dedicated group formed to
save their dilapidated gym.
Board President of what became the Meyer Theater Corporation.
It looked like hell.
It was a mess.
This thing looked like the wreck of the
Hesperus. How bad was it?
I actually called public television looking
for Bob Vee's phone number.
It looks gorgeous now.
But in the beginning, Rock's group
didn't even have the funds to turn on the furnace.
We rigged a furnace upside down to keep
heat moving.
I mean, we won't tell the code people
right now about a green bay, but just to keep heat in
the main part of the theater because obviously they
shut everything off.
So, it truly was touch and go.
Over the next four years, this resourceful group
found the resources, eight million dollars, including
a million dollar bequest from the Meyer family of green bay.
And a mountain of blood, sweat, and tears later.
The jewel has been reclaimed.
It's been really trying, but Jesus
been satisfying.
This place that has been such a fixture here
did not fade away.
In fact, it's hoped that the
effects of its renovation will fan outward and illuminate
a path for the city, providing a beacon for the
performing arts in green bay.
I get excited when I think about what this
could be in terms of a cultural hub not only for
theatre performing arts, but what you could do if
we could get an adjoining building turned into
an arts incubator.
Think what could happen if you could bring
the symphony that is housed somewhere else.
And if you could bring a community
theater and those other entities that are working
on the trunk of the car and they have the next door.
And everything would be here.
What a dynamic that would be.
And I think this is going to be the catalyst.
And if you bring people downtown,
capitalism will follow.
I know that sounds mercenary,
but if certainly the restaurants in this area have
found a distinct upcheck in their business whenever
we're open.
When the lights are on, they're busier
than the one we're not.
When the lights are on, the lights are back on in
this beautiful theatre.
Cue the applause.
Green Bay is hoping it's recently restored
theatre will trigger a downtown revival.
In Wassau, that's already happening.
Producer Art Hackett has that story.
Wassau is about to do what
few would expect from a city of 40,000 people.
The city's performing arts foundation is going to
stage a concert of 160 musicians from Keav before a
sold-out audience of 1200 people.
The venue is the grand theatre.
A 1920's vintage auditorium saved from the
wrecking ball in 1987.
A group of community members
got title to the building donated to them and raised
about two and a half million dollars to renovate
the plaster work and to redo the seats and to
make sure that the scenery didn't fall out of the sky.
But just a few years ago, this orchestra couldn't
have played the grand.
We could put 60 musicians and chairs and stands using
all of the available space on the stage and on both
sides so that some of the musicians weren't even visible
from the audience.
And there was no room for the
support equipment needed for things like Broadway shows.
When we did any about about five years ago, the
soundboard that ran the monitor panel so that the
people on stage could hear the music from the orchestra
pit had to be outside next to the truck in the
loading dock underneath viscuine plastic wrap.
Except when it was raining, the theatre staff could get
away with things like that because the grand
stood by itself with alleyways on three sides.
The design architect, Pete Van Dyke, looked at our
facility and said you're so fortunate.
You have this wonderful large big sister
in the middle and then you've got two little sisters on
either side that are they're not the same but they have
a wonderful symmetry.
It's like a bowling trophy.
To solve the space problems, Wassade decided to turn that
bowling trophy of a theatre to their advantage.
The space that we are standing
in was once an alley and it's what we did is
enclose the spaces among the three buildings.
On one side of the theatre there's now a hall that
can be used for bankwits.
On the other side there's an art gallery.
The arts facilities take up nearly the
entire block that makes it the arts block.
It's a simple concept with a
simple price tag originally estimated at $5 million.
The sales pitch was simply to allow this theatre to
be what it really could be.
In 1995, local attorney Christine Bremer and others
started the ball rolling on what would turn into a $17
million project.
It was a very easy sale pitch because
everyone loves the grand theatre.
Well you have to understand that every school
age child in the city of Wassau and the Wassau
School District and the surrounding school districts
have experienced performing arts in this theatre.
Very easy except for people like Linda Lawrence who was on
the city council at the time.
I mean he had to pound heads including mine to get us to
see that we should support.
When shown the plans for the arts block she was reluctant.
The arts should be funded by the private sector
or the philanthropist.
It didn't occur to most of us that the city is
really mandated to provide quality of life issues
other than parks and good streets and and arts really
really are the leader in that area.
The Kiev Symphony drew so many people there was a
waiting list for tickets.
People came early to have a drink at the arts bar.
It's in the banquet hall which now
doubles as an extra large lobby.
Lawrence says the arts block has created a downtown renaissance.
The project led to the demolition of some old
buildings across the street.
That area was turned into a town square of a sort.
We've had concerts on the square here for several
summers on Wednesday nights and this place is packed.
She considers it part of the arts block even though
there's really nothing there.
Because it really opens up the area visually.
It opens it up mentally.
We've seen a lot more small shops open and thrive and
I'm pretty safe when I say it's because of the success
of the arts block which is drawing more people back to
the downtown as a destination.
[Music]
Mononini's Mabel Tainter Memorial Theatre was built in
1889 by a lumberman and her Tainter in memory of
his daughter who died at the age of 19.
The construction took only one year and cost 105,000 dollars.
Over the past 100 years the theatre has hosted performance
events and speakers like Booker T.
Washington and Helen Keller.
We'll bring you more fun facts about Wisconsin's performance
spaces throughout the program.
But first more about the Overture Center.
I'm standing in one of the boxes here in Overture Hall
which is the crown jewel of the Overture Center.
Architect Cesar Pelle not only created the beautiful lines
you see here in Overture Hall but also incorporated a lot
of state-of-the-art acoustic and architectural effects.
The setter's vice president of programming and development
Michael Goldberg gave us a tour.
This is Overture Hall itself.
I really love this hall for one thing.
It's 2,000 seats.
It does not look like 2,000 seats.
I mean it just has a very intimate feel to it.
It gives the performer a sense of relationship and
connectedness to the audience.
The hall was built in the horseshoe configuration
to maximize the highest possible quality audio.
The organ which is a spectacular concert organ is a gift
of Pleasant T.
Rowland the wife of our donor Jerry
Frouchy is a very glorious concert instrument.
It's got 4,040 pipes.
It was built by Clice the organ builder in Germany.
The concert shell and the organ together is a single unit.
As far as we know is the largest
movable instrument in any theater in the world.
The panels in the ceiling, these little flowing
ceiling units are actually a very very thin aluminum
mesh and they are designed for sound to be
able to transmit through and back because a lot of
the reflective material for the acoustics to the
hall are up in the ceiling spaces.
The back walls of the auditorium
especially up above can be closed down with drapes to
increase the softness of the space, the absorbative
quality of the space.
But additionally we have these wooden panels
over here throughout the hall behind the boxes
and down below here are panels that can be raised and lowered
so that you can create softer or harder surfaces and change
the acoustics of the hall depending on what kind
of sound you want to have.
At the all levels of the hall there are seats available
for people with disabilities.
On the side ends of the rows there are what are
called transfer seats.
Seats where the arm drops down and people who are
ambulatory but need assistance in seating can
drop the arm and sit into the adjacent seat.
In other words a real multipurpose hall
and clearly a very beautiful and wonderful space in which to
listen and watch a performance.
Here's another interesting fact about the Overture Center.
All the interior and exterior walls
are made of French limestone and you can actually see
animal and plant fossils embedded in the walls.
It took about 300 workers at the peak of construction to put all
of Overtures elements together.
In Chippewa Falls there were fewer laborers
working to restore the Heidi Center for the Arts
but they worked with just as much heart and as producer
Liz Kurner tells us many of them were volunteers.
The old Catholic high school in Chippewa Falls perches
on a hill overlooking the Chippewa River Valley.
The building has been a prominent feature on
the city skyline since it was built in 1907.
It was a big building, it was an impressive building
on the outside with its pillars and it stood
up here on these till all these years.
McDonald Memorial High played host
to thousands of students in its heyday but in 1964 a
new school went up in town and the old building was abandoned.
Over the years neglect threatened to destroy
this historic structure.
Everything was just falling down, there were bats all
through the building and there were dead pigeons.
The floors were all buckled, the water had
come through the roof, the walls were all stained.
By the late 70s some people were ready to rip the building
down. Others argued to give it a second chance.
They wanted to create a performing art
center and the old high school was just the ticket.
We just didn't have anything that we could have some
lovely cultural activities going on for families
and their children to go to and it was needed.
I mean we just figured there was a big need for
for a center like this.
The community came out and forced to support the
new center.
To date they phrased almost two million
dollars to renovate the former high school.
A lot of people went to
school here, they had a great education, they
became successful business people, they wanted to give
back to the community.
They named it the Heidi Center for the Arts in
honor of a local family that helped fund the restoration.
Money also came from other local groups.
They were one of the most
exciting thing and it really impressed me as
the park elementary kids sold candy bars to
name part of the building.
So they paid a raise about, think about 15,000
dollars in candy bar sales.
The community came through in another important
way. People volunteered and drove to renovate the
interior. Chuck Card went to high school here in
the 50s.
I don't know, I guess I just, I think
that everybody should put back into the community
and that's where where you really get things.
Volunteers have helped restore every inch of the interior
from sanding and painting the woodwork to refinishing the
floors. So far volunteer hours have saved the Heidi
Center, three and a half million dollars.
This place would not be here
without the volunteers.
So much labor and time and energy has been put in
by these people, I call it blood, sweat, and tears
to get to where we're at today.
Well I think the entrance to the auditorium and everything is
really neat because they found these old windows
up in the attic and there are the little design
pains in the windows and so on.
And those were taken out and I imagine that they probably got
broke so often that they just put plywood panels in there and
those weren't even there when I went to school.
And then they found those up there
and they restored those and they replaced them
in the back of the auditorium there too.
The newly renovated Heidi Center opened its doors in
the year 2000.
Restoration work continues behind the scenes but
the community already enjoys a range of arts activities
from music and theater to art classes and exhibits.
The metamorphosis of McDonald High into the
Heidi Center for the Arts is positive proof of the
power of community.
This community is great.
They really take pride and
ownership of what they do in this community.
It's just a wonderful place to have
around you.
I live on the south side and I can
look out my window and see the lights on over here.
It just makes you glow inside to see that happen
because it was a long time coming but it's
here and it's happening.
The Stoten Opera House opened in 1901.
For 50 years the Opera House hosted
performers from around the country but closed in
1953 due to damages.
In 1983 a group of citizens
began raising money to restore the Opera House.
In 2001 the Stoten Opera House held its grand opening
after nearly 20 years of renovations.
The Overture Hall lobby features a window wall of 91 glass panes
each weighing 2,379 pounds.
They are the largest insulated glass panels in
any building in the world.
While many of the performing arts centers featured
in this program contain grand elements you don't
need grandeur to enjoy the arts.
As producer Frederica Freiberg discovered you can find great
performances in the most unlikely locations.
From an inner city Milwaukee nightclub turned over to
original poetry and song.
To Norwegian singers and dancers in an outdoor park pavilion in
the hills of western Wisconsin.
All the way to an up close theater experience inside an
Appleton Historical Museum.
These are some of the kinds of varied and
alternative performance spaces all around Wisconsin.
At Mecha Nightclub in the heart of the central city this
act is called liquid words.
It's part of a growing performance scene known
as spoken word artistry.
Original poetry, drama, rhythm.
Milwaukee has a strong scene.
There's a growing scene in Madison.
There's also a venue in Green Bay.
Nightclub owner Dasha Kelly says she wants to
provide a forum for the genre.
She is herself a spoken word artist.
My son died today.
Kelly transports the audience to her own place of personal pain.
She says her poetry is about expressing human messages
that connect people.
Other spoken word artists write for the sound and the cadence,
still others deliver political or social messages.
Smoke dot on crack cat children but the state took care of that.
It's such a thrill to be able to come down here and
relive like the past you know.
Oli Berg of Hickston is a world away from the
central city but enjoying his brand of performance in
the hills near La Crosse.
A nature center and historical farmstead
called Norse Godalen or Norwegian Valley offers a park
shelter for performances, a taste of the old country.
I've been coming down here and offered quite a few years,
thrashing us and shredding corn and then we danced old
time music and talked a little of Norwegian you know with
some of them good people and we always have a good time.
We've been doing some of the stay-at-home games they've been
publishing in the post-cresson.
At the Outa Gaming Museum history comes alive
with actors performing inside exhibit spaces.
This play relives the days of the polio epidemic
and the Salk vaccination.
Two hundred and four kids got polio from the
vaccine they were getting.
Actors say the audience is so close it can be
awkward but also rewarding.
When someone comes up to you and they want to tell you about
their experiences with what you are talking about.
Sure but he was still tied up
suspended underwater up.
That's really cool because that means they not only bought into
the like illusion of the play but they were emotionally
affected by it.
You get to see it more and
nobody's in your way.
Yeah you have a better view.
And you can hear.
Yeah.
Different spaces different places performance art in
all corners of Wisconsin.
For more information on performance venues
around the state check out our website portal
Wisconsin.org. The site includes an events
calendar feature stories and virtual tours of many
performance spaces around Wisconsin including the
Overture Center.
That's our program thanks so
much for joining us for this special episode of in Wisconsin.
We leave you with some of the sights and sounds of
the Overture Center.
[Music]
Major funding for in Wisconsin is provided by the people of a
lion's energy who brings safe, reliable and environmentally
friendly energy to keep homes, neighborhoods
and life in Wisconsin running smoothly.
A lion's energy offering
energy-saving ideas on the web.
[Music]