SEQUIM — They’re homeless after years of construction.
But the actors, directors and designers at Olympic Theatre Arts, Sequim’s 29-year-old community troupe, are swinging into the home stretch this spring.
OTA has a big, old building at 414 N. Sequim Ave. where it used to stage plays, musicals and parties.
But city Public Works Director James Bay shut it down, declaring the structure unsafe while demolition was under way.
A “do not occupy” notice was posted on the theater door in February 2007, and OTA’s volunteers packed up their production of “Auntie Mame” and took it across the street to the Sequim High School Performing Arts Center.
Then the troupe got to work on a complete makeover of its main stage.
As construction progressed — slowly — OTA staged show after show at other venues around town.
Two years and one month later, the new 160-seat theater is nearing completion. The fire sprinklers are up, the seats are lying on their sides ready for installation, and the room awaits city inspection.
“We are so close,” said Loren Johnson, OTA’s business manager.
He’s filled with anticipation for the new theater’s debut and for something that’s closer on the horizon. Johnson is director of “True West,” OTA’s next play to open April 17 and close April 26 at the Guy Cole Convention Center in Carrie Blake Park.
He’s also a costar, portraying Lee, an alcoholic drifter at odds with his screenwriter brother, Austin.
The play, by Pulitzer Prize winner Sam Shepard, is a departure from OTA’s fare of the past many months.
Elaine Caldwell, the OTA trustee in charge of fundraising for the new main stage, calls “True West” R-rated.
She wondered whether this is a good time to stage a drama “for mature audiences,” since what the troupe needs now is large audiences.
But Johnson’s belief in “True West” is as clear as a Southern California summer day.
“This is something with meat in it,” he said. “It’s about duality: art as a business versus art as an ideal, the myth of the ‘old West’ versus the new West, and sibling rivalry,” between Lee and Austin.
The small cast, composed of Patrick Irwin as Austin, Jayna Orchard as Mom and Ric Munhall as Saul Kimmer the movie producer, will inhabit a set designed and built by Paul W. Thompson, a veteran of the Chicago theater community.
Thompson was busy constructing the “True West” set on Monday afternoon while Johnson attended to OTA’s financial matters.
Membership up
Ticket sales for the troupe’s November dinner theater production were down from 2007, Johnson said. But membership has grown from last year, to 170 supporters.
Donations toward the new main stage, meanwhile, have steadily flowed in, added Caldwell, who’s known for her determination when it comes to raising steep amounts of money.
“With labor, materials and in-kind donations,” plus cash contributions, “we’ve raised $1.3 million,” for the project, she said.
Another $160,000 is needed to finish the electrical system so that the theater can open this fall.
OTA’s “Take a Seat” campaign, in which patrons donate $1,000 for one or $1,500 for two theater seats to be inscribed with their names, has been a hit, Caldwell added.
“We have 40 seats left, of 160,” she said.
Caldwell is also moving into her second year of providing another type of seating: wooden indoor/outdoor benches adorned by local artists.
“The benches are coming,” Caldwell almost sang on Monday.
OTA gala
She’ll display the freshly decorated seating in the Irrigation Festival Grand Parade along Washington Street May 9 and bring them in for auctioning at the OTA gala on May 19 at 7 Cedars Casino.
Last year’s benches sold for hundreds of dollars apiece — the relatively small, but crucial, bits of the fundraising puzzle.
Johnson hopes to see OTA’s gathering hall, a room smaller than the main stage, open for performances in September.
Caldwell, with her usual exuberance, put in one more pitch for the May 19 gala, the troupe’s biggest fundraiser.
It features an auction of entertainment packages and other gifts, with music by jazz singer Tracy Blume.
Last summer, OTA’s main-stage project won a $98,000 grant from the federal Housing and Urban Development Department after a sustained effort by Johnson, Caldwell and the rest of OTA’s board of trustees.
Caldwell hinted that OTA may be in line for another financial shot in the arm from a source she’s not quite ready to name.
“Some big things may be coming down the pike,” she said. “We’re working up to our final thrust here.”
For information about OTA productions and opportunities to support the troupe as a donor or volunteer, phone 360-681-7326 or visit www.OlympicTheatreArts.org.
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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.
