A strong effort is being made in Dodge City to revitalize its historic theater. It’s one of many communities across the state hoping to do so.

Built in 1928, the Dodge Theater was once the city’s place to be, but it shut down in 2004 after a steady decline in popularity. For many, renovating the theater will help provide a link to their past.

“Every Saturday for 25 cents we used to to the Saturday matinee in these beautiful old theaters,” says Dodge Theater supporter, Jim Johnson. “Sometimes it was live performances and sometimes it was just movies. We remember all of that stuff, and there’s a nostalgia there.”

Before it can reopen, the Dodge Theater needs to raise nearly a quarter-million dollars in grants and donations to make improvements on the building.

By Brian Pommier
The Morning Sun

It seems the theater gods are smiling upon the Colonial Fox Theatre recently.

First, the theater is about to be placed on the Kansas Preservation Alliance’s of the ‘Most Endangered Historic Places’.

Then, the Colonial Fox Foundation found out it has been given 501(c)3 status, meaning it is a not-for-profit organization, which could be helpful in raising funds.

To top it all off, the 400 for 40K campaign — in which 400 people are being solicited to donate $100 each to raise a total of $40,000 — is just 31 donors from its goal.

“We’re hoping by the end of the month we’ll be able to do that,” said CFF President Vonnie Corsini. “Our goal of course is to pay off the theater. Before Christmas, we’d like to have a nice ceremony and present Marsha Besse with a check to pay off the balance of the theater. Then it will belong to the citizens of SEK.”

But one of the big events will be Thursday’s announcement from the KPA.

The purpose of the ‘Most Endangered’ program is to identify and call attention to irreplaceable historic places in Kansas that are threatened by demolition, neglect, development pressures or vacancy. The goals of the program are to raise awareness about the importance of preserving historic properties in the state of Kansas and to highlight the work of local preservation groups from across the state.

This year’s list includes eight historic places, including the Colonial Fox Theatre of Pittsburg, Kansas. Opened in 1920 as the Colonial Theatre, this Italian Renaissance Revival Building features Beaux Arts details and is the only remaining theater in Crawford County from the `Movie Palace’ decade of the 1920’s.

Wichita’s Orpheum a viable venue, but millions in work remains to be done
The Associated Press

WICHITA — When a group of investors bought the historic Orpheum Theatre, supporters thought it would take a few years and from $2 million to $3 million to restore it to its former glory.

That was in 1984. And while $2.8 million worth of restoration projects have turned the Orpheum into a viable venue since then, much remains to be done — at an estimated price tag of $7 million to $9 million.

“We’re really at the point where we have to redo the inside of the auditorium,” said Delmar Klocke, chairman of the restoration effort. “That takes not a few hundred thousand dollars, that takes millions. And we have to have that money in hand.”

And it will also mean closing the theater, which will present or rent space for 80 concerts, stage shows and other events this year and has drawn almost 100,000 patrons during the past three years.

Mary Eves, president of the nonprofit Orpheum Theatre Performing Arts Center Ltd., said income from those events covers about 90 percent of operating costs.

But backers of the restoration concede that if it is to be done right, it will have to be done soon.

“My era might be referred to as saving the Orpheum,” said Marge Setter, a former president of the nonprofit. “Now it’s time for restoration. The costs go up every day we don’t do it.”

The Orpheum opened in 1922 as a vaudeville house, then became a movie theater. By the time it closed in 1974, it was an adult film venue — and its structure had deteriorated badly.

A group of investors bought it in 1984, but a foreclosure lawsuit kept the board from taking over until 1992. The board chose to open the theater for events and do the renovation work piecemeal, rather than keep it closed entirely.

“The overall plan was to get the theater open to generate income and interest in the theater,” Setter said.

Fundraisers and grants — including $1 million from the city — have paid for the restoration costs so far.

The restoration of the lobby and concession area, expected to cost $350,000, is next on the list. After that, the interior renovation — expected to take two to three years — will have to be done.

“I think we’ve proven ourselves in a way that wasn’t apparent 20 years ago,” said Wichita lawyer Eric Engstrom, secretary of the nonprofit’s board. “But it’s been a long process, no doubt about it.

“If we had one or two angels with a million or two to throw in, that would be great.”

By Eric Swanson
Globe Reporter

A statewide association is trying to convince people that supporting historic theaters is good for their community.

The Kansas Historic Theatres Association was formed a year ago to support non-profit historic theaters across the state and to convince communities to support them. The association’s board of directors had a meeting Wednesday afternoon at the Dodge Theatre.

The Dodge Theatre joined the association as its first associate member in March, said association president David Jenkins.

“When I saw this theater and I met Mike (Burkhart, owner of the theater), I was so impressed that I came back and told the group that we had to find some way to get for-profits in there,” said Jenkins, who is executive director of the Fox Theatre in Salina.

As an associate, the Dodge Theatre can participate in all association activities except fund-raising.

Membership will also allow Burkhart to exchange information and ideas with the other directors, he said.

The association currently has 11 members, including the Jayhawk Theatre in Topeka, the McPherson Opera House in McPherson and the Orpheum Performing Arts Center in Wichita. Its directors are either the executive directors of non-profit theater associations or presidents of those associations’ boards of directors.

The members believe that supporting historic theaters is good for a community’s economic and artistic health, said board member Doug Jernigan, who is affiliated with the Jayhawk Theatre.

The association scored a major triumph during the last legislative session, when the Legislature approved a bill that helps communities redevelop historic theaters. The House approved the bill 122-3, and the Senate approved it 33-6.

The bill allows a non-profit historic theater to estimate the amount of sales-tax revenue it will generate over a certain number of years, Jenkins said. The theater’s directors can then go to local government officials and ask for that money in advance.

The city can use whatever method it chooses to give the theater the money, and the theater will repay it with the sales tax money that would otherwise have gone to the state.

“This is not a handout from the state. The state isn’t giving us a cent,” Jenkins said. “Nothing like this has been passed in this country for historic theaters. Kansas is the first.”

The legislation does not apply to for-profit theaters such as the Dodge Theatre, he said.