SEQUIM — There’s nothing like a happy ending to start your Monday morning well.
And this ending is part of a new beginning: Olympic Theatre Arts’ new main stage got a major infusion of cash as the company reached its $100,000-in-100-days finish line.
Friday was the official final day of the campaign to match a $100,000 loan made back when the community theater’s future seemed threatened.
On time
The goal was reached on time, and a little more money had come in by Monday, reported a relieved Elaine Caldwell, orchestrator of the drive.
It’s been a long and tortuous trip to this point.
In February 2007, then-Sequim Public Works Director James Bay shut down OTA, which had begun demolishing part of its building at 414 N. Sequim Ave. in preparation for a brand-new, 162-seat playhouse.
Deeming it unsafe, Bay posted a “do not occupy” notice on the front door, and OTA’s production of “Mame” had to pack up and move to the Sequim High School auditorium.
The building plans needed overhauling, and it looked as though the project, and OTA, might not survive.
As OTA’s board and volunteers regrouped, Elaine and Bob Caldwell lent the troupe $100,000 and deferred the interest till late 2009.
“Every once in a while, a person finds themselves in a position where they can make something important happen,” Bob Caldwell said of the loan, adding that a bequest from Elaine’s deceased brother, Norman V. Plyter, put the couple in that position.
This spring, the Caldwells decided to see if they could inspire theater lovers to join them in their support.
If OTA could raise $100,000 in matching donations within 100 days, they promised to turn their loan into a gift, free and clear.
That played out, and then some: As of Monday, contributions totaled $108,630.25, said Elaine Caldwell. The gifts ranged from $50 to $5,000 all the way up to one $10,000 check from a donor Caldwell declined to name.
“The community wants this theater. And it is theirs,” she said. “We are the stewards.”
As the 100-day campaign neared its climax last week, OTA business manager Loren Johnson rolled out the new season of productions, starting with “Same Time Next Year,” a romantic comedy, opening Sept. 25.
That show and “Doubt,” a drama to open in mid-November, will be the first inside OTA’s Sequim Avenue location since the city closed it down some 29 months ago. The pair of productions will be staged in the intimate “gathering room,” Johnson promised.
Then, on Feb. 5, the curtain will rise on the musical “Cabaret” and on OTA’s main stage — the culmination of $1.6 million in donations and grants some four years.
Construction
Right now, however, Caldwell and her crew are getting the place ready for Carpenters for Christ, a volunteer team of construction workers from the American South.
They’re scheduled to arrive Wednesday and spend 10 days working on the building’s interior.
This is the carpenters’ second trip to Sequim; they helped lay the foundation for the main stage back in April 2007.
“It’s hard to know how to thank the public” for giving more than $100,000, Caldwell said.
Then she added that she’ll start by inviting them to the annual members-and-supporters picnic in the theater’s backyard Aug. 15.
For information about OTA’s 2009-2010 season and how to support the theater company, visit www.OlympicTheatreArts.org or phone 360-683-7326.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
