Part III: Dream for Estes Park — 2008 
Materializing the Estes Park Performing Arts Center

  By Janice Mason

Trail Gazette Editor’s note: This is Part III of a series about the proposed Estes Park Performing Arts Center. Thanks to the enthusiastic members of the performing arts community, the vision has begun to take shape, and 2008 is the year they hope to raise the final funds necessary to make the Estes Park Performing Arts Center a reality. Part I was from the perspective of Christopher Wood, chairman for the Supporters of the Performing Arts, Inc. (SOPA), and was published in the Dec. 21, issue of the Trail-Gazette. Part II expressed the views of SOPA treasurer, Greig Steiner, and was published in the Dec. 26, issue.

Giving meaning to the words, “the show must go on,” local performers have shown great patience for years, expressing their talents from venue to venue across Estes Park. Having a place to call home (the Estes Park Performing Arts Center) means the labors of their creativity will be rightly presented, at last.

Claudia Irwin directs the Oratorio Society of Estes Park chorus and orchestra, and the Estes Park Chorale. This year, the Oratorio Society performed Handel’s “Messiah” for the holidays, celebrating their 20th anniversary. The Community Church of the Rockies was filled to capacity for both performances.

“How would it feel to have a performing arts center?” she said, “Joyful, a relief, grateful, I think these words would apply. It would be joyous to have a real home and not to have to ‘rent’ or, in most cases, rely on the goodness of other organizations for the use of their facilities. And they have been most generous. It would be wonderful to be able to reciprocate.

“It would be a relief, as anyone who has rented and then built their own home would relate to, when you finally move in and can put nail holes in the wall where you want. And finally, I would feel grateful that the community has shown its support of the performing arts in a very physical, tangible way besides their generous financial support of the various groups. In short, it would be like coming home and how can I describe the heart swelling way that feels.”

Kurtis Kelly works full-time at the local library. He performs, writes and serves on the board of the Fine Arts Guild of the Rockies.

“It may sound like a cliché, but there is a certain kind of magic that happens in live theater,” said Kelly. “The performers begin to feel it as they connect with the psyche of their characters in rehearsals. It happens again when the sets and backdrops are placed and painted, and when people begin wearing costumes. It’s certainly there on opening night, when there’s a nervous stillness in the auditorium, the hum of conversation in the lobby, and it’s just minutes before a real audience takes their seats. If all goes as planned, it’s there in the live performance. I enjoy strolling through the auditorium after a show when the audience has left, in that stillness, knowing that something very unique has happened: a group of talented people have worked hard, performed at their best, and an audience has been taken on a journey, all in one space.

“Looking at the plans for the proposed Performing Arts Center, and having experienced the wonder of live theater in our town, I am truly excited to believe that the best days and nights of that theater ‘magic’ are yet to come. The plans and pictures show a very high-quality, comfortable performing space. Many people have been working hard for many years to see this vision come to fruition, and now it seems more promising than ever.

“The center will stand as a place for theater, music, dance, special lectures of all kinds, and much more. Who knows what touring cultural events we might host there? It’s a space that invites our town to dream big. It’s a space that says, ‘On this special spot on the earth, great things will happen.’ And, if you’re like me, it will be a place you’ll want to return to again and again.”

The Supporters of the Performing Arts, Inc (SOPA) is a non-profit group that is leading the effort and working in conjunction with the Town of Estes Park and other local non-profit agencies to build a state of the art performing arts venue in Estes Park at the Stanley Park fairgrounds. For more information or to make a donation, visit www.estesparktheater.com.

See the Jan. 2, 2008 edition of the Trail-Gazette for Part IV.