For decades, Region residents have dressed up and gone out for a night of professional theater at the Theatre at the Center in Munster.
They’ve laughed. They’ve been moved. They’ve cuddled with their spouse as the lights darken and spotlights illuminate the stage. They’ve caught up with neighbors, old friends and classmates in the lobby during the intermission.
Photos in the lobby tell the story of many past productions like “Man of La Mancha,” “Fiddler on the Roof,” “The Fantasticks,” “Barefoot in the Park,” “Nunsense,” “Funny Girls,” “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” and and “On Golden Pond.” The Theatre at the Center staged plays with professional actors from Chicago, often bringing in big names like Lee Pelty, Lee Ann Meriwether, the Chicago new anchor Joel Daly and the recently retired meteorologist Tom Skilling who contributed a vocal performance to “Another Night Before Christmas.”
People are also reading…
Founded in 1991, the Theatre at the Center has brought in big nationally touring acts like The Chieftans, the Dixie Chicks, the Kingston Trio, the PBS political satirist and pianist Mark Russell, the Capitol Steps, Paul Poundstone, Maxine Andrews from the Andrews Sisters and Jonathan Frid from the Gothic soap opera “Dark Shadows,” who did dramatic readings.
But now the future of one of Northwest Indiana’s few professional theaters, and one of the few Region theaters to stage regular kids’ plays, appears in doubt.
The School Town of Munster is starting negotiations with the Community Foundation of Northwest Indiana, the nonprofit arm of the Community Healthcare System, to buy the Center for Visual and Performing Arts at 1040 Ridge Road in Munster. The 72,660-square-foot arts center, now marking its 35th anniversary, is home to South Shore Arts, the Northwest Indiana Symphony Orchestra, the Theatre at the Center, Trama Catering and a grand ballroom that’s hosted countless weddings and a popular Sunday brunch.
Munster Schools Superintendent Bret Heller said the schools would convert about 8,000 to 10,000 square feet of the building into administrative offices to replace its existing 44-year-old administration building. He said the goal would be to keep the rest of the building as an arts center and keep the South Shore Arts and Northwest Indiana Symphony Orchestra as tenants if deals can be worked out.
The school however cannot hold a liquor license and is not interested staging events, including weddings, banquets, brunches and plays. Heller said the school would not have the staff or budget to operate the Theatre at the Center, which is now operated by the Community Foundation of Northwest Indiana.
The 410-seat theater stages full-scale plays and musical productions with professional equity actors as well as concerts, comedians, magicians, ventriloquists, rock bands, jazz acts, quartets, Motown, Creole groups, one-man shows and cooking shows. It hosts a wide variety of acts like Comedian and WGN’s “Man of the People” Pat Tomasulo, the Purdue Varsity Glee Club, ComedySportz, The Neverly Brothers, The Second City, Ring of Fire: The Music of Johnny Cast and the musical version of “A Christmas Story.” It regularly hosted children’s plays like “Jack and the Beanstalk,” “Little Red Riding Hood” and “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” that field trips full of students from schools across the Region.
The Theatre at the Center has suffered since the coronavirus shut it down for months and kept audiences away for longer. It has not staged full-scale professional plays like “Monty Python’s Spamalot” it was long known for since 2020 but continues to host regular entertainment like concerts, comedy acts, a C.S. Lewis one-man show, an upcoming Amelia Earhart one-woman show and Phil Potempa’s “From the Farm” cooking shows.
“Northwest Indiana would lose a major performing arts facility like the Star Plaza Theatre,” said Larry Brechner, who worked as both the Auditorium/Theater Company Director Administrator for the School Town of Munster and as the Theatre Administrator for The Center for Visual and Performing Arts. “It was already moving away from having theater. Regular theater was gone and likely not coming back. They’ve done a yeoman’s job of putting events on. But it was a major playhouse that brought in Chicago talents and drew people from all over. COVID shut that down.”
Northwest Indiana has many smaller community theaters but only a few professional theaters like the Canterbury Summer Theatre in Michigan City, the Dunes Summer Theatre in Michigan City and the Towle Theater in Hammond.
“I’m not sure the hospital wants to keep running it as a loss leader,” he said. “Don Powers was one of the forces creating it and would not be happy with what’s happening. Removing it as a venue would leave a big hole in the artistic community in Northwest Indiana.”
When Brechner served as administrator, the Theatre at the Center staged many classic Broadway musicals.
“It took some time to bring theater professionals,” he said. “When I would say Munster, actors from Chicago thought Muncie and would ask if there was anywhere to stay. I had to explain Munster was closer than the old Candlelight Theater.”
The entertainment often catered to older audiences, such as William Windon’s one-man James Thurber show, he said. But the venue staged the caliber of theater one would otherwise have to go to Chicago for.
“Northwest Indiana has about 800,000 people. We’re about the size of Indianapolis,” he said. “We’ve got some good community theater but if we weren’t in the shadow of Chicago and were an island unto ourselves we’d have several professional groups producing this type of theater. We’re missing out on our own cultural heritage. Chicago is not that far away but we deserve our own professional shows, concerts and acts.”
Overall, the Center for the Visual and Performing Arts has been one of the Region’s main cultural hubs since it first opened 35 years ago, Brechner said. Only a few places like the Lubeznik Center for the Arts in Michigan City or the Chesterton Arts Center offer public galleries of its size.
“It’s a big loss,” Brechner said. “You had three of the biggest arts organizations around under one roof. It’s very sad that’s going to be diminished. It’s a shame to see.”
The School Town of Munster, while not interesting in running a professional theater or entertainment venue, would be open to renting the Theatre at the Center out. That was the idea when the former James F. Lanier Elementary School was first transformed into the Center for Visual and Performing Arts in 1989 but it didn’t pan out, Brechner said. Community theater groups already had their own spaces and found it too expensive to rent.
He hopes an institution like Purdue University Northwest, Indiana University Northwest, the Legacy Foundation or some other benefactor would consider stepping in to help keep the Theatre at the Center going if the Community Foundation no longer wants to operate it.
John Cain, the retired executive director of South Shore Arts and the Northwest Indiana Symphony Orchestra, said the Center for the Visual and Performing Arts benefited from the synergy of having different arts groups there.
“The terrific thing was that it was a mixed-used facility,” Cain said. “People might come to see an art exhibit or see one because they went to Sunday brunch or Mother’s Day Brunch or came to a wedding. The theater was a big draw for a long time. It was a mix of different types of for-profit an nonprofit events. It was a blend of activities that complemented each other. But COVID took a toll. Even the Sunday brunches haven’t fully come back. The Theatre at the Center took a turn over these last four years but did hum along nicely for 30 years before that.”
The Center for Visual and Performing Arts has been an oasis of culture, a place where people can see the latest contemporary art, catch a concert or watch theater.
“When the Center for Visual and Performing Arts was built in 1989, it gave the arts a physical presence in Northwest Indiana,” he said. “The Brauer Museum and other arts centers came later. It gave a major arts presence in the Region, which was known more for being a Rust Belt area or rural, not necessarily an artists mecca.”
The loss of even part of the Center for Visual and Performing Arts will be a major blow to culture in Northwest Indiana, akin to the loss of the Star Plaza, Cain said.
“That wasn’t a high-brow venue but it was a home for the arts for a lot of residents in Northwest Indiana. Now it’s nothing. There’s nothing there at the corner of U.S. 30 and I-65,” he said. “It’s an assault on the cultural heritage of Northwest Indiana and its residents. The Community Foundation is one of the richest foundations in the state and should keep it going in perpetuity the way it always has.”
The Center for Visual and Performing Arts was originally developed to raise the Region’s quality of life, in part to help lure doctors to Community Hospital, Cain said.
“It was meant to attract the kinds of people working in those medical capacities,” he said. “It’s an arts center where they can take their kids to arts classes, exhibits, performances and what have you. It improves the quality of life. You don’t want a cultural wasteland.”
The Center for Visual and Performing Arts housed the three largest arts nonprofits in the Region for decades, drawing people from across Northwest Indiana and giving them a base of operations to stage gallery exhibits, symphonic concerts and other cultural programs around the Region.
“Arts are one of the most important components to the quality of life,” he said. “They closed the Star Plaza. They’re looking at selling off paintings at the Brauer Museum of Art at Valparaiso University. They’re looking at turning the Center for Visual and Performing Arts into a school administration building. That’s an administration building, not an arts center. All of this is contributing to the erosion of the arts in Northwest Indiana. It’s shameful. I’m just sick to death. I just wish there was a way they could keep supporting it the way they always have.”
