You don’t have to tell Lindsey Chester that all the world’s a stage! Chester has devoted herself and two decades of artistic management helping young performers take their first steps with All About Theater
Many of her young students go on to larger regional stages, even Hollywood and Broadway! Now the founder of AAT is expanding her reach by leasing and opening up the Colligan Theater for a new season of performance.
Taking over the former Tannery Arts Center home of the Jewel Theater with her new project Theater 831, Chester is already reaching out to local arts groups. Giving priority to performance groups at the Tannery World Dance and Cultural Center, Chester is determined to expand the events offerings in the beautiful jewelbox theater, in much the way that Kuumbwa and the Rio Theater have done.
Within weeks of assuming management of the theater vacated last Spring, Chester and her AAT performers have already mounted a production of The Little Mermaid, essentially diving into her exhilarating new venture with little time for thinking twice.
“All About Theater was my first child,” she admits. While Chester’s AAT will maintain a vigorous performance schedule at the Colligan, Chester has plenty of room for community groups to schedule musical and theatrical events throughout the year. “We’re promoting it as a venue space. This will not be All About Theater at the Colligan, which is what Jewel did. It is the Colligan Theater, and All About Theater happens to do some shows. I want to put it where we are more collaborative within the community.”
Chester sees artistic direction in Santa Cruz being refreshed by a post-COVID turnover in leadership. She cites Andrea Hart and the Cabrillo Stage; Charles Pasternak with Santa Cruz Shakespeare, and her own new leadership with Theater 831. “I think Charles’ vision is amazing, with the outreach program that they’re trying to do year round. I think we have an opportunity for education with new vibrant people. We should all collaborate now.”
The last thing the Colligan’s new tenant wants is to create another exclusive performing arts silo. Chester wants to make it perfectly clear that under her Theater 831 management, all organizations will have access. “We have kept our spring days very flexible currently, because we wanted to wait and see who else wanted to perform here. And different people are responding. Different people are reaching out to us.”
Chester senses a “mental shift” within performance groups. “That us-versus- everybody else attitude has never, ever served performing arts. People want more collaboration. Maybe they’re concerned that it will become simply a recital hall for the parents of the children in the children’s theater, that kind of thing, and they’re worried about that”
Tuition from AAT parents has helped to support the maintaining of a warehouse for costumes and other theatrical props, as well as leasing the Colligan Theater as a venue. “Our aspiration is that we would keep our current studio and would also be able to offer evening classes. There’s the main theater here, but there’s also the lobby where we could have open mic nights, other community events, exhibitions with live guitar music. We’re going to be applying for a liquor license so that other artists could have an intimate setting in the lobby, a little reception area also. Creative concession offerings will also bring in more support revenue.”
Yes there are big challenges.
“We are literally hitting the ground like not just gazelles but cheetahs. We basically had two and a half weeks to get in to learn the whole system. Not everything was labeled, not everything was wired correctly. The space was not cleaned. Getting it ready has taken copious amounts of manpower and labor, some of which are volunteers.”
The second big challenge she admits, “as we grapple with what this beautiful vision could be, is how to handle hiring. How do you hire somebody if they’re not needed full time? Maybe it will end up as the full time position, but only maybe. That’s the the beauty of having All About Theater in there is that the bills get paid. We’re looking at how we adjust the infrastructure and find the environmentally friendly way of running things? So there’s a big learning curve, but once we’ve hit the ground running within the next couple of shows, I do feel that we will be able to move past the chaos.”
Find out about Theater 831 and Colligan Theater programming at colligantheater.org/rent-the-colligan.
By Christina Waters
