Sunday, July 18, 2010

The key to a successful business involves finding an unfilled niche. One local nonprofit found this was the key to its success as well.

The People's Theater of Key West was started more than two years ago as an informal gathering of local people with an interest in writing and acting. Since then, the organization has blossomed into an established nonprofit with dozens of members, and this week signed a lease for its new home, where it will hold its classes, rehearsals and community performances.

The new fixed space will allow the group to build up revenue and develop a full, advertised season, said co-founder and Artistic Director Chris Tittel.

Humble beginnings

People's Theater was the idea of Connie Hurst, who now serves as its president.

"I had been seeing a lot of people in town that I know are fellow actors. We'd be showing up at the same auditions," Hurst said. "[The other theaters in town] are very fine theaters, but they don't have enough opportunities for everyone who wants to get involved in theater."

She often experienced 15 people auditioning for the same role. So she put an announcement in the newspaper for a meeting of people interested in reading plays and studying scenes. About 30 people arrived for the first meeting, held at a local church.

"We were very encouraged and surprised," she said. "We knew there was a need in the community."

Other friends, including Tittel, Tammy Shanley and Judy Hadley, jumped on board to help her found People's Theater.

The organization soon expanded to include a playwriting workshop, taught by Tittel, who has a master's degree in acting from the Catholic University of America.

The event was a huge success, with people of all writing levels participating.

Tittel got the idea to harness the talents of other people in the community credentialed to teach, and expand the class and workshop offered, which included workshops in monologues, screenwriting, standup comedy and improvisational comedy.

"We've really tapped a lot of theater art forms," he said.

The members were able to participate in showcases or public readings and get feedback on their work.

In March, People's Theater held its first full-length production at the Tennessee Williams Theatre, a play written by member Kathy Cafferty.

"It was a beautiful project because it was something that Kathy had written and had brought to the playwriting workshop," Tittel said. "The audience picked her play to go to full production."

It was cast with people within the community, including many who had never been on stage before. The two-night show was a sellout.

"We were very pleased and very proud," Tittel said.

Several more performances were planned, but the group struggled to find performance space they could afford.

"The problem we were having is, every time we wanted to have a show, we had to pay to find a place," he said. The performance in the Tennessee Williams lobby, for example, cost $1,000 each night.

"We had to make sure that we packed that house so we would make the money to pay for the theater, and whatever was leftover went into the bank for future productions," he said.

Future performances were held everywhere from churches to restaurants to an art gallery and even the Moose Lodge.

"It was great that they opened their doors to us," Tittel said. "But we were just hemorrhaging money because we had to pay to rent these places."

A permanent location had to be found.

The next act

The group had hoped to locate in an Old Town space and found a promising location in the Masonic Lodge building at 909 Fleming St. However, the building is not zoned for cultural activities, and People's Theater would have had to undertake a lengthy and difficult process to have the space rezoned, and there was no guarantee they would get approval, Hurst said.

Most of the areas of the city already zoned for cultural activities were located in New Town.

"We were first discouraged after doing some research and finding that theaters are banned from the shopping centers, and rents for most of the other unoccupied structures along the boulevard range from $6,000 to $11,000 a month," Hurst said.

But earlier this week, a "for rent" sign in the window of the former Island Erotica store on North Roosevelt Boulevard caught her eye.

The building's owners have agreed to a reduced rent until the nonprofit gets rolling.

The fixed location and expenses will enable People's Theater to keep shows affordable for the public, hopefully around $15 a ticket. The theater group also will operate year-round and will not go on hiatus for the summer as do some other theaters in town.

The nonprofit's members hope to have the space ready by Aug. 1 and already are busy cleaning, painting, building a stage and removing the old adult bookstore signs from the front. Hurst joked that she'd have to change the name to "Peeple's" Theater.

The nonprofit still hopes to find space in Old Town eventually.

"The place on the boulevard is a terrific space, but it doesn't feel like part of the community. It sits out on a four-lane highway," Tittel said. "We want to be a little gem in the center of Old Town where people can walk and see their friends and neighbors on stage."

amswary@keysnews.com