The Bigfork Playhouse Children’s Theatre’s home on Grand Avenue in Bigfork is always a busy place. But this year and next will be busier than most as Artistic Director Brach Thomson and the rest of the theater troop try to save the building they have called home for almost three years.
At the end of 2014, the children’s theater will be without a practice space unless it can come up with $100,000. Fundraising began in earnest this fall.
“I think people are for us, they support us,” Thomson said. “We’re giving kids something to do, we’re giving them positive role models and keeping them busy.”
Thomson grew up in the local theater community and then directed programs in Nevada. In 2001, he returned home to start the children’s theater in Bigfork. Every year, he helps produce four to five shows with 30 to 50 kids in each production.
The children’s theater shows are usually performed at the Bigfork Center for Performing Arts on Electric Avenue. In 2009, it became obvious that the growing program needed its own space to practice. Thomson found that space in the form of a two-story building on Grand Avenue. At the time, the nonprofit did not have enough money to buy it. Instead a private citizen joined up with the Community Foundation for a Better Bigfork to purchase the property in late 2009. The theater troop has an agreement to use the space for practice and workshops for five years before paying the private owner $100,000, half of the purchasing price.
Heading up the fundraising efforts is Dennis Yarbrough, who chairs a five-person committee. The fundraising campaign kicked off on Sept. 28, with a reception just before the performance of “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.” The social hour also included a performance by the theater’s select choir, “Five and Holding,” and the premiere of a student-produced documentary. But Yarbrough said the best fundraising tools are the shows.
“We want to build events around the actual productions because they are just so outstanding,” Yarbrough said.
Yarbrough credited the success of the program to Thomson.
“I admire what he has done in Bigfork for the last 10 years and really across the valley,” Yarbrough said.
Thomson said one of his primary goals is to dispel the stigma that children’s theater can’t be professional and entertaining. He often demands a lot from his students and tells them “the only person who wants to see you on stage doing nothing is your mother.”
Because the theater program is so small, Thomson does most of the directing, production, set design and bookkeeping. Now, that includes a spot on the fundraising committee.
Thomson and Yarbrough are confident that $100,000 is an obtainable goal and the community realizes the children’s theater is an important part of Bigfork.
“I hope there are more people out there who want to support us,” Thomson said.
The Bigfork Playhouse Children’s Theatre’s next performance is “Much Ado About Murder” on Nov. 9 and 10. The event includes dinner and a show for $45, or $80 for a couple. For more information visit www.bigforksummerplayhouse.com.