A look back may clear the Board’s vision for the future After spending tens of thousands of hours of effort over many years, including two previous architecturally supported design efforts, the Board will decide to build a 27,000 square foot, 400 seat theater at a cost in excess of $20M. According to the Player’s club they have been promised a theater since the mid-1970s. Like the Players Club members, some on the board feel strongly about fulfilling this 50-year-old promise even if it means going over budget to do so. The Player’s club was formed on May 31, 1961 by about thirty members. The first president of the club was the former director of the New York Symphony Orchestra. Beginning in May 1973 productions were moved to the Mountainview Auditorium. By 1977 membership had grown so large that Mountainview became the club’s permanent home. By 1984 club membership grew to over 640 members. Starting in 1976 the Rosenbluth’s produced 6 musicals which played to audiences of between 2,500 and 4,000 people. In 1985 the long-range goal of the Player’s club was to upgrade the Mountain View Auditorium into a theater facility suitable for all stage performances. (Jubilee – The 25th Anniversary of Sun City, Arizona.) In 1961 TV shows like the Red Skeleton show, My Three Sons, and Make Room for Daddy were popular. By 1985 TV shows like Mr. Belvedere, The Twilight Zone and Moonlighting were some of the popular shows. TV Viewers choices were either ABC, CBS or NBC. Some in major markets may have had a UHF channel as a 4th option when it was not raining outside. In 1985 personal computers were developing rapidly. In that year the Tandy 1000 PC came out and you could buy one at Radio Shack for $1,200. It was powerful enough to run Lotus 123 and play some games. In 1983, the last manual telephone switchboard in Maine was dismantled. If we fast forward to today, almost everyone has a smart TV providing thousands of programs to watch on demand. Personal computers with more computing power than was available to land a man on the moon connected to the internet are common household appliances. Services like Starlink make the internet available all over the planet. And your phone can respond to your voice commands. Meanwhile the Player’s club has dwindled to about 100 members and the last average per play attendance I was aware of was 108. This is no one’s fault and the downward trend in theatrical performances is nationwide and well documented. COVID didn’t help either. Tastes change over time. In addition, RCSC has a great deal of excess space that does not get used very often. In fact, the Mountainview auditorium is only in use about 36% of the time it is available. And yet we persist with the attitude this will all change, and plays will make a big comeback if the members spend the money to build a nice big theater. As you can tell, I can’t get my mind around that logic.
Let me look at it from a different perspective. The theater group in Sun City is adept at putting together local theater productions that attract a small but loyal audience. There’s also those that harken the possibility a new audience is open to attending more venues if presented in a small theater in a recreation center in the far reaches of the community. At what point does it become obvious that a large, expensive sit down theater is not in the best interest of this community? Parking is a critical issue for this center. Access to the center, with the bulk of the parking being outside the confines of the footprint of the building, can be a struggle for many who may want to attend. Reading statistics from Broadway indicates a decline in attendance, despite banner shows being brought to theater goers. If Broadway can’t bring in increasing attendance, why would a theater be constructed in the hopes of attracting increased demand in Sun City? And while I am sure the shows being produced by the local theater company are being made available to the public with the intention of having great acclaim, it is probably not to the extent that the expenditures warrant. I have the best regard for the local theater group and the audience to which they present their craft to, but at what price? Having local theater groups and their faire is a wonderful addition to the community. A new theater at such a high price is not worth the price of admission. My opinion only.
