Shane Center brings new life to old school in Livingston
Published: January 2, 2012
By Kristi Niemeyer
A century-old brick schoolhouse in Livingston, vacant for nearly a decade, is creaking back to life again, its sturdy walls now enfolding the Shane Lalani Center for the Arts.
And the community, which has been without a performing arts facility since an arson-caused fire destroyed the middle school auditorium 25 years ago, now has a 250-seat theater and state-of-the-art stage and rehearsal area.
The former East Side School, built in 1902, was designed by C.E. Bell, one of the architects of the State Capitol in Helena. The gracious brick building educated generations of Livingston elementary students before it was shuttered in the early 1990s.
The city purchased the school later that decade and used it for a dispatch center for a few years. But the 30,000-square-foot structure was eventually abandoned again, until it caught the eye of the intrepid thespians at Crazy Mountain Productions (CMP).
The theatre group, which was housed in the Firehouse 5 Playhouse south of town, yearned for more room. “The playhouse had just become too small,” says executive and artistic director Russell Lewis. “It was originally designed for a summer vaudeville house, with eight or 10 players.”
But CMP had expanded into a year-around company that was producing community theatre, including musicals with casts of 50-60 actors, and offering Young Actors’ Workshops, theatre education classes, and elementary outreach programs throughout Park County.
The city “had tried to sell the school several times,” says Russell. “It was just sitting vacant, and no one knew what to do with it.”
CMP surveyed the property and decided it would work well as a performance space, with room to spare for a community arts center. They brought the proposal to the city council in 2009, and after six months of negotiations, the city donated the building to the nonprofit organization.
“There was a great outpouring of community support,” says Lewis. “It was a large grassroots effort.”
Kelley Dowdell, part owner of the local ACE Hardware Store, helped head the capital campaign that was launched that fall with the intent of raising $1.25 million.
Dowdell says she was undaunted by the hefty goal. “I like fundraising, especially when you’re asking for money for something that’s a really, really good cause.”
In addition to CMP’s reputation for high-quality community theatre and educational outreach, the group’s more expansive goal of developing an arts center was appealing. “The greater vision of an arts center will be a tremendous asset to the whole community,” says Dowdell.
Renovation of the old school began in January 2010, when contractors begin installing new electrical and plumbing systems, a new heating and cooling system, and ADA-compliant bathrooms. As money began to sift in, workers also began transforming the gym (added to the school in 1946) into an auditorium, with lobby, dressing rooms and a green room.
CMP’s four-person staff saved money by completing much of the carpentry and finish work themselves, with help from a flock of volunteers. “Our skill set as a theatre production company allows us to do the majority of the work at the staff level,” Lewis says. In addition, community members “were down here daily for 10 months, making it happen.”
A year into the capital campaign, CMP had moved into the building and was preparing to stage its first production, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical “Cats.” The first show in the new theatre “went phenomenally well,” says Lewis. “Everyone felt they were part of something unique.”
But the organization was still “a little shy of our first-year goal,” recalls Dowdell. Suddenly, within a two-week period, “two donors pledged major gifts that made up two-thirds of the total.”
A generous gift from Sal and Carol Lalani, along with another major gift of $100,000 from an anonymous donor brought the fundraising total to just over $1 million. In addition, the Lalanis offered to match all new pledges up to $125,000 until April 1, 2011. The challenge was met, and the dream of creating an arts center was well on its way to reality.
In honor of the generosity of the Lalanis, the CMP board voted to name the new facility the Shane Lalani Center for the Arts, in memory of the couple’s son, who died in 2008 while in his early 20s. The auditorium is named The Dulcie Theatre, after Carol’s mother, Dulcie Pomajbo, a longtime fan of Firehouse 5.
Other donors who made large pledges include Mike and Eve Art and Don and Marilyn Murdoch. Kirk Michels, the architect for the project, donated many of his services, and others in the community made substantial gifts ranging from $10,000 to $25,000.
“The community of Livingston understands that when they see a good thing, they need to get behind it,” says Dowdell.
Livingston is already an arts-rich town, sporting another theatre group (Blue Slipper), and a plethora of private and nonprofit galleries, including the Livingston Depot Center, the Danforth Gallery and the Livingston Center for Arts and Culture.
Other nonprofits in the community have embraced the project, says Lewis. At the onset “we held discussions with the other arts organizations in town, and essentially asked, ‘how can this new facility help you?’”
“We’re not interested in duplicating what exists,” adds Dowdell. “We’re interested in providing resources and access that they might not have.”
When it’s completed next fall, the Shane Center will house a 2,500-square-foot ballroom connected to a sound-insulated music room, a commercial kitchen, classrooms, dance facilities, music and art studios, office space for nonprofits, and a large conference room designed for meetings and presentations.
The combination of spaces offers Livingston “a resource we don’t really have for classes, book talks, film series – all kinds of things,” says Dowdell. Various rooms have already been rented for private parties, recitals and a dance class.
But both Lewis and Dowdell are quick to point out that the capital campaign isn’t over yet. The goal of $1.25 million “is bare bones,” says Lewis. “It allowed us to make the building useable, but there’s more to be done.”
And of course, there are many more plays to stage. In January, up to 100 children from the area will present “The Three Musketeers” as part of CMP’s Young Actors Workshop. A community theatre production of “Anything Goes” opens in March, and CMP partners with the high school this spring to stage “Phantom of the Opera.”
Over the next year, CMP will shed its moniker and officially become the Shane Lalani Center for the Arts. “It reflects the fact that we’re becoming more than a production company,” says Lewis. “We’re taking on more responsibility for other facets of the space.”
The renovation of the old school has attracted visitors throughout the project, including former students. “A major contributor who graduated from East Side School in the late 1940s showed us where he had put his initials in some of the concrete work,” says Lewis.
“Throughout the project, people have popped by to take tours,” he adds. “They’re just happy to see a great old building put to use again.”
For more information, call 406-222-1420 or visit www.crazymountainproductions.org.
