SEQUIM — The chairlift is too shaky.
The money’s not there yet.
So Readers Theatre Plus, the 8-year-old nonprofit theater company, is planning no productions until its home, the Dungeness Schoolhouse, is more accessible.
“I was really surprised. I didn’t know we could cause a hiatus for anybody,” said Judy Stipe, spokeswoman for Sequim’s Museum & Arts Center, which operates the schoolhouse.
But Paul Martin, Readers Theatre Plus board member and spokesman, said he’s seeking a temporary home for the troupe.
The 123-year-old schoolhouse at 2781 Towne Road has a wide staircase, and instead of an elevator, there’s an old chairlift that slides up and down the railing.
Last year, as Readers Theatre Plus staged its musicals and plays in the schoolhouse’s second-floor auditorium, the chairlift would break down, stopping mid-stairs, even prompting volunteers to carry people up or down.
‘Insurmountable hurdle’
“Ultimately, the ancient, unreliable chair-lift became an insurmountable hurdle,” Martin said in an email to Readers Theatre Plus supporters.
In November, actress and volunteer Shelley Taylor organized a fundraiser for a vertical platform lift, or VPL, that would be added to the schoolhouse.
Local entertainers converged there to perform, donations were collected, and “they made $2,200 that day,” Stipe said.
“We got a $1,000 check from a benefactor,” too, and now there’s $6,200 in the VPL fund.
Some $23,000 needs to be raised to buy the VPL machinery, Stipe added, “and then there’s all of the other stuff: another $20,000-plus for the concrete pad, the ramp, the gates, the shaft and the entrance. That would include different permits,” to total close to $50,000 before the VPL is up and running.
Stipe said she would love the schoolhouse to be handicap-accessible, but “the big donors haven’t come out of the wall yet.
“We will not close the schoolhouse,” she said, adding that it’s rented out often for tai chi and yoga classes, weddings and parties.
To find out about contributing to the VPL fund, supporters can visit www.SequimMuseum.com; mail a check to the Museum & Arts Center, 175 W. Cedar St., Sequim, WA 98382; or phone the MAC administration building at 360-681-2257 and leave a message.
Seeks other venues
Readers Theatre Plus sought other venues. It staged productions at the Sequim Prairie Grange Hall and Olympic Theatre Arts, but the troupe’s board found neither will work as a permanent home.
“A Nice Family Gathering,” Readers Theatre Plus’ October production, took the stage at the schoolhouse.
But “in order to serve our entire community, it was realized that we had to have a theater venue that could accommodate those unable to climb the stairs,” said Carol Swarbrick Dries, co-founder of the troupe.
“We also had to admit that the chairlift was not intended to provide [for] more than a bare minimum of people per day — not enough for our audiences and performances,” she added.
Readers Theatre Plus’ hiatus “is a temporary situation only; we fully expect to return to full production,” Martin noted.
He wants to talk with anyone who might have a theater space the troupe can use in the meantime.
Martin can be reached at sfx@wavecable.com.
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Features Editor Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5062, or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
