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WEST POINT, Neb. — Tom Wellman and Jerry Hugo stand on a wooden catwalk more than 20 feet above stage right.
The two tug on a length of rope and steady the cord as it slides through the theater’s 98-year-old pulley system. It’s a late fall afternoon, a few hours before showtime at the West Point Community Theater.
Now Wellman and Hugo must prepare for the play. Within the hour, 30 teenagers will arrive to rehearse “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” Their one-act performance will soon become the theater’s first ever by a high school cast.
With every tug, the curtain drops closer and closer to the wooden stage. Soon, the gray drape covers the set, hiding behind it a paisley couch, wooden staircase and two-tone wall — all props and scenery from a recent production. Their job complete, Wellman and Hugo begin the long descent from the stage loft.
But the real journey began about a year ago, when the West Point theater group assumed care of the historic Main Street building.
In the months since, Wellman, Hugo and 10 others have directed the building’s transformation into a playhouse and movie theater. Thousands have attended movies and performances in the refurbished facility.
“This project has been a dream for me,” Hugo said. “When I walk in that building, it’s just like I walk into heaven.”
Some would say it’s a miracle that the building, constructed in 1911, is still standing.
For 60 years, the theater served as the city’s auditorium. When the city opened the Don E. Nielsen Community Center, the auditorium’s future was in question.
That’s when community theater members intervened. Their live performance group has staged melodramas, musicals and comedies every year since 1968. Group members refused to see the building demolished.
In September 2008, the City Council agreed to transfer the building’s care to the group.
In the months since, more than 100 volunteers helped restore the space.
“We went from being a loosely run organization to being almost a whole business,” said Chase Becker, who sits on the theater’s board of directors.
Volunteers hung stage curtains, added insulation, reopened unused building space and installed a 200-seat movie theater that opened in May.
“We made believers out of a whole lot of people,” Hugo said.
The believers include Jennifer Ippensen, a teacher at West Point Central Catholic High School. Ippensen directs the school’s one-act performance group.
The teens and their props arrive about 4:30 p.m. and fill the theater’s stage.
A tall boy carries in a potted tree. Several girls walk in with costumes and curling irons. Their footsteps reverberate off the wooden floor. Moments later, squeals and giggles seep through the drapes.
Meanwhile, five boys lug an ivy-covered trellis down an aisle, maneuvering through the seats.
A donation from Boone Central High in Albion, Neb., made the seats possible. The school’s entrepreneur class operates the movie theater and offered its old chairs to the West Point project at no cost.
“It’s one project giving to another,” Boone Central teacher Kathy Gladem said.
In fact, generosity narrates the story of the West Point Community Theater.
Omaha Central High donated the stage curtains. Cabinets and doors from nearby elementary schools sit around the building.
Five boxes of hats, nine racks of clothing and various props fill the basement storage room, all gifts of community members. Donor support funds the entire project.
More than 125 people have contributed in some way: installing seats, painting walls and uncovering the building’s balcony and backstage loft.
Volunteers operate the concessions stand, where movie posters hang to separate the stand from the rest of the theater.
The movie theater celebrated its 10,000th customer Nov. 20. Admission is $3 for children and $5 for adults on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights and Sunday afternoons.
“Everybody told us if we averaged 50 people a show, we’d be doing good,” Wellman said. “We’ve doubled anything we could have expected.”
Live performances have received a similar response. The theater’s most recent play, “Arsenic and Old Lace,” drew hundreds of people the second weekend of November.
Hugo and Wellman expect the evening’s high school performance of Shakespeare to draw a big crowd, too. Just think of all the parents and the grandparents, they mused.
Many theater improvements are planned long term, including a balcony extension, an additional bathroom and landscaping.
Sure, stains and holes are visible on the black, gray and red stage curtains. Packing tape bonds a large gash in the canvas backdrop.
Backstage, graffiti dates back generations. “Louie” appears in red paint just off stage right, and an inscription from 1999 marks a changing room on stage left.
Paint peels from nearly all of the seats, exposing gray metal. A few seats tilt toward the floor, and others need a nudge to fold up. Still others have worn cushions.
Mismatched curtains cover ground-floor and balcony windows nearby.
“Someday we’ll get all color-coordinated,” Wellman said.
The theater’s a home for the arts, after all, and that’s what really matters.
Meanwhile, a teenage Puck bids the rehearsal audience farewell, and Hugo stands up from his seat.
“It’s a historic day.”
Contact the writer:
444-1304, news@owh.com
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