Door County community theater company gets new home that also will serve as an arts center

STURGEON BAY - Backstage bathrooms, the stuff that dreams are made of.

That may not be what Humphrey Bogart's character referred to in "The Maltese Falcon," but the bathrooms are part of what's been a 10-year-long dream for a Door County community theater company – to have a permanent home not just for its shows but also a showcase place for other community arts groups.

And that dream finally is coming true, even as funding remains an issue and its capital campaign continues.

Rogue Theater, the troupe founded by Lola DeVillers and Stuart Champeau in January 2013, is opening its DC Arts Center in Sturgeon Bay with a six-day run in the last week of July of the comedy "The Savannah Sipping Society." Following that is another comedy, "Bedtime Stories (As Told By Our Dad) (Who Messed Them Up)," with a cast of 30 community members of all ages on stage Aug. 4 to 6 and 11 to 12.

Those first two plays in the new arts center set the stage for two bigger shows in the fall, "On Golden Pond" (running Oct. 12 to 22) and the stage version of the Academy Award-winning movie "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" (Nov. 24 to Dec. 3) with well-known Door County actors and theater professionals Doug Mancheski and Amy Ensign starring in the latter.

Because of construction delays, the building may not be finished completely in time for the first shows – DeVillers said the raised seating for audiences toward the back of the stagehouse and some curtains probably won't be in place – but the center will hold a grand-opening celebration with tours sometime during the run of the fall plays, "after we work all the kinks out," DeVillers said.

Nevertheless, after 10 years of traveling from stage to stage, and a couple stopovers that didn't last as long as hoped, Rogue Theater has a place where it can present shows with professional staging and facilities.

"This is a big dream. It's so fulfilling," DeVillers said.

A home at last

Rogue Theater actually has had a couple of home bases in its 10 years, but none that lasted longer than a couple of years, and all in spaces without the chance to provide proper amenities for the actors, backstage workers or technical support for shows.

Its first few months saw Champeau and DeVillers, the company's co-artistic directors as well as co-founders, produce, direct and perform in Door County restaurants and village and town halls, as do most community theater troupes. They focused on audience-participation murder mysteries in a dinner theater setting, something Door County had lacked for several years.

Then in November 2013, Champeau and DeVillers reached an agreement to renovate the long-vacant Ahnapee & Western train depot on North Third Avenue in Sturgeon Bay into what they called The Depot Performing Arts Center. There, they were able to present dramas, comedies, sketch shows and small musical revues for more than two years, along with theatrical education and programs for youths.

But in 2016, the building and property were sold for use by Fincantieri Bay Shipbuilding as storage, sending Rogue back to performing in restaurants, churches, town and village halls and on other stages across Door County.

In the summer of 2016, it began renting space in the Jaycee Clubhouse in Sturgeon Bay. That lasted until late 2018, when PATH of Door County, a resource center for people with special needs and their families, bought the clubhouse, leaving Rogue once again traveling to various venues to perform.

Champeau said he and DeVillers had a permanent home of Rogue's own, not one leased from someone, in mind all along. And they owned a vacant lot on North 14th Avenue in Sturgeon Bay that formerly housed a car wash. So, after the company was put back on the road in 2018, the wheels were set in motion to build a venue they really could call their own. Perhaps befitting a community theater company, they're not theater professionals: DeVillers is a teacher in the Sturgeon Bay School District and Champeau works in sales for Cleary Building Corp., which has offices across Wisconsin.

"We had the property for several years, let it sit, didn't really know what to do with it," Champeau said. "We were looking for a building (suitable for a theater space), and we said, let's just build what we want."

Champeau and DeVillers announced a capital campaign, now called Set the Stage, in late 2020, and ground broke for the new building at the end of 2021.

The center is 40-by-80 feet overall with an 18-by-30 lobby and seating for 80 for theater shows. The space was designed for proper acoustics, has a second story in the back for lighting and technical support, accessible seating and restrooms for those with mobility issues, storage for props and costumes – "We've got our stuff stored all over the county," Champeau said – and backstage dressing rooms and men's and women's restrooms for cast and crew, all of which will be new to Rogue Theater.

"For the cast to have a bathroom backstage, it's like a dream," DeVillers said.

Arts for all

Also important to Champeau and DeVillers from the start was to immerse their community theater into the community and give back to it. Rogue Theater always has donated part of the proceeds from its shows to local nonprofit organizations.

But they also wanted to provide a space for nonprofessional artists in the community – actors, visual artists, musicians, virtually any art form.

"I think that was our philosophy at The Depot, too," DeVillers said. "We had some different shows there. It's always been kind of in the background of our thinking, 'How can we support the community?"

That's how the new building became the DC Arts Center. Yes, it's home to Rogue Theater (although the company will continue its dinner theater shows across the Peninsula), but artists who might not otherwise have a place to perform or exhibit might find such an opportunity there. In a county so noted for its vibrant and varied arts scene, that matters to DeVillers and Champeau.

"We so strongly believe in the community, and in the arts we have here in Door County," DeVillers said. "But there's just nothing for (nonprofessional artists in) the community, everything is professional. … This truly is by the community, for the community."

"This (arts center) will give us a better background to do that (support community arts)," Champeau said.

Rogue productions will take priority on the schedule, but other artists can fill the gaps between shows.

"With Rogue, we're doing one show a month for maybe two weeks," Champeau said. "What do we do with the other time?"

"My goal is that (the arts center) is always being used," DeVillers said. "I don't want it to just sit there. … This is an arts center. It's not just for Rogue Theater."

Capital campaign continues

Although the DC Arts Center is opening, Champeau and DeVillers continue to seek funding to cover the project that ended up costing far more than originally estimated.

The project was expected to cost about $357,000, Champeau said. And they made a point of using local contractors across the board for the work, along with doing the work they can do outside of their full-time jobs. Volunteers have been helping as well.

But that estimate has almost doubled over the past two or three years, thanks to the well-known supply chain issues, building material shortages and back orders that beset the construction industry since the COVID-19 pandemic.

The original goal for the Set the Stage campaign to raise funds for the center was $150,000. That goal is now $800,000 to cover the cost of the project, and DeVillers said fundraising has been very slow. She said they're looking for sponsors in the community, but they haven't had a real chance to pursue those strongly with the rush to complete the building.

"We really need help," she said. "We're just so consumed right now. There's so much we want to do, but we need community support."

Champeau said he believes having the building finished and operating will raise awareness of the arts center and attract donors and sponsors.

"If you look at any theater in Door County, there's the importance of having those four walls so people can see what we do, know that we're here in perpetuity," he said.

The first shows, and how to donate

The DC Arts Center opens with the Rogue Theater production of the four-woman comedy "The Savannah Sipping Society" from Tuesday to Sunday, July 25 to 30. Directed by Champeau, it's about four unique Southern women, all needing to escape the sameness of their day-to-day routines, who during an impromptu happy hour decide it's time to reclaim the enthusiasm for life they lost through the years. Showtimes are at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, and 2 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are $20 for adults, $10 for students.

Following that first production is "Bedtime Stories (As Told By Our Dad) (Who Messed Them Up)," which will have a cast of 30 community members of all ages perform the comedy of a father who gets the details a little fuzzy on the classic fairy tales he's trying to tell his three children, such as a snoring price in "The Princess and the Pea." The curtain rises on "Bedtime Stories" at 7:30 p.m. Aug. 4, 5 and 11 and 2 p.m. Aug. 6 and 12. Tickets are $15 adults, $10 ages 7 to 18, free for ages 6 and younger.

The DC Arts Center is at 917 N. 14th Ave., Sturgeon Bay. Ticket reservations are required. For tickets or more information on the show, or to contribute to Rogue Theater's capital campaign for the arts center, call 920-818-0016 or visit roguetheater.org.

Contact Christopher Clough at 920-562-8900 or cclough@doorcountyadvocate.com.

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This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Door County community theater company builds its new home, arts center