FRONT-ROW SEAT: The momentum's back at Fort Hill PAC

A tribute to the music of folk-rock legends Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. Installments of an acclaimed local lecture/discussion series. Performances by the Rochester City Ballet and the Finger Lakes Symphony Orchestra. Afternoon jazz sets. Works by several local visual artists on display. And a bevy of shows on the horizon, including productions of “It’s a Wonderful Life” this weekend and “The Nutcracker” the next.

As far as Fort Hill Performing Arts Center executive director Sueann Townsend and her colleagues are concerned? This is more like it.

In early 2020, FHPAC had just started out the gate, opening with a weekend gala after a $5.8 million fundraising campaign to renovate part of the old Canandaigua Academy building on Fort Hill Avenue into a performing arts venue. It was poised to be a major draw for Canandaigua and the Finger Lakes, and beyond. Then COVID-19 hit, forcing Fort Hill to close to the public for more than a year. The venue had only two shows to its credit — the opening gala and a Chicago tribute concert — when the stage went dark.

As the curtains have risen on performing arts venues in 2021 — FHPAC reopening in May with a reprise of the Chicago show — Townsend, facilities manager Gordon Estey and the Fort Hill board have been navigating how to establish itself anew as a major arts venue amid a continuing pandemic and expenses unlikely soon to abate — and planning for an ambitious future.

"We’re really excited to be back doing what we were made to do,” Townsend said.

Momentum lost, and regained

The 427-seat performing arts center opened Jan. 11-12, 2020, at 20 Fort Hill Ave., in the old Canandaigua Academy building’s circa-1928 annex, with a grand-opening gala that featured a bevy of area ensembles as well as actors Michael Park and Nicolette Hart.

The opening followed the purchase of the annex’s west end by not-for-profit corporation FHPAC from Conifer Realty in late 2018 and a $5.8 million fundraising campaign, with Constellation Brands and the Sands family among the major donors. Weeks of performances were scheduled, featuring such ensembles as the Rochester Oratorio Society, Finger Lakes Chorale, Finger Lakes Concert Band and Rochester City Ballet.

That schedule was scrapped by the forced shutdown of New York's performing-arts venues to help stem the spread of COVID-19. Other than the gala, the only show that happened before the wire was a March 11 concert by The Undercover Project as Chicago, a large group of local musicians presenting the music of the classic jazz-pop band. Soon after, stage lights were turned off and the curtains lowered at venues statewide.

But unlike such venerable area institutions as Geneva's Smith Opera House (which opened in 1894) or Rochester’s Eastman Theatre, Fort Hill had just gotten started. And it faced a year without patron revenues, but with the same expenses of owning such a venue — chief among them utility costs and liability insurance, Townsend noted.

“We came in and reduced down our utilities to the absolute minimum to keep the pipes from freezing,” she said. “I was in here in the office with no lights on, wearing three sweaters.”

Economy and thrift helped — but so did community generosity.

“If it were not for our donors and subscribers during the 14-month COVID (delay), we would not have been able to sustain," Townsend said. “We are very grateful for everything that people did.” Everything from major sponsorships to $20 individual donations helped out, she noted.

Helping out was grant support, including from ESL Foundation and Farash Foundation. “I was very proactive in working with NIVA (National Independent Venue Association) and Americans for the Arts in (securing operating grants) that help sustain performing arts as well as other not-for-profits,” Townsend said.

"Performing arts is such a narrow subset," she said. "(The COVID shutdown) really put a number of historic venues and arts organizations in peril of survival. We did have sort of a lifeline there."

Fast-forward through a long, slow pause to the spring of 2021, when the state began allowing performing arts venues to open — among the last sectors of the economy to get the nod. It was a slow, cautious process, with venues needing to admit patrons far below their capacity to allow for responsible social distancing: Fort Hill initially was limited to 100 patrons, for instance. On the up side, being a newly renovated venue meant a modern HVAC system was in place, with "state-of-the-art systems for air exchange," Townsend noted. She said other safety measures include mask requirements for all patrons, thorough cleaning after each event, and ample hand sanitizer.

Recouping the early days' momentum was no easy, or quick matter, especially with the partial capacity, and involved some trial and error. For the year's first performance on May 22, a reprise of the Chicago show, FHPAC sought to make up the revenues by holding three one-hour shows in a single day. It was “brutal” for everyone involved, Townsend recalled: “We decided after that that we didn’t have to do that again.”

By June, FHPAC was allowed to sell at full capacity, and some shows were held in July — two of the Chamberfest Canandaigua's concerts, plus a concert by veteran acoustic act Paulsen, Baker & Chaapel. Mostly, though, FHPAC took it slow for the summer. For one thing, large performing groups were only getting back into the swing of rehearsing together themselves, and large vocal ensembles like the Rochester Oratorio Society initially remained restricted from performing together. For another, a wealth of options awaited potential audience members, antsy after a long haul of staying home and streaming.

“What we were finding is, people had finally been let out of their homes and the weather was nice, and people were more inclined to doing other things” -- outdoors things, Townsend said. Fort Hill looked toward the fall to get the momentum going again.

Which it did. Fall shows ranged from the Finger Lakes Symphony Orchestra to The Mersey Beatles (an English tribute act to the Fab Four) to Sunday afternoon jazz sets by Craig Snyder & Collective Force. Rochester City Ballet finally performed at Fort Hill on an October weekend, presenting “Terrifically Theatrical,” a collection of works by multiple choreographers. The George E. Ewing Community Forum moved its discussion series to Fort Hill, with installments in September and October exploring the current political scene and the Attica prison uprising. Soprano Rose Kearin, who had been on hand for the grand opening with Finger Lakes Opera, returned Nov. 6 for a solo show. The local musicians of “Deja Vu All Over Again” in November gave CSNY the same treatment The Undercover Project had given Chicago. Meanwhile, the lobby fronting the box office houses artworks presented by the Ontario County Arts Council, viewable whenever the box office is open.

So it continues. This weekend, Bloomfield Rotary Club presents a staged version of a radio play production of “It’s a Wonderful Life” at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 3 and 4, for the 75th anniversary of Frank Capra’s holiday classic. And next weekend, Rochester City Ballet returns to present “The Nutcracker,” with performances at 6 p.m. Dec. 10, 2 and 6 p.m. Dec. 11, and 2 p.m. Dec. 12.

'The whole gamut'

And that momentum continues, with a diverse slate of events slated into 2022 (see fhpac.org for show details):

-- Tributes to Elton John (Jan. 12), Fleetwood Mac (Feb. 26), Billy Joel (March 23) and Styx (April 9).

-- Performances by area bands The Cool Club and Lipker Sisters (Jan. 22), Bill Tiberio Band with area jazz artists and local jazz students (Feb. 5), Junkyardfieldtrip (Feb. 9), Diana Jacobs Band in a return performance (April 2), and Teagan & The Tweeds (May 25).

-- Dasha Kelly Hamilton’s “Makin’ Cake” (Jan. 28) is a theatrical and multimedia experience by Wisconsin poet laureate Hamilton which “explores race, class and gender roles all focused through the metaphor of cake,” Townsend said, with Hamilton’s delivery backed by a multimedia projection and two bakers making cake behind her. (Which the audience gets to enjoy at the end.) “We are very fortunate to be a brand-new venue included in the tour,” Townsend said.

-- The next installment of the George M. Ewing Canandaigua Forum (Jan. 30) featuring astrophysicist Adam Frank of the University of Rochester addressing “The 10,000-Light-Year View: Climate Change, The Human Future & The Possibilities of Extraterrestrial Life.”

-- Performances by the Finger Lakes Symphony Orchestra (Feb. 19 and April 23).

-- Rochester City Ballet, with productions of Bizet’s “Carmen” (March 11-13) and Stravinsky’s “Firebird” (May 13-15).

-- The Bindlestiff Family Circus (April, dates to be announced).

-- Comedy nights (March 4, May 20).

Townsend has a number of ideas for the venue's future: a jazz and blues series; an international music and dance festival (she had started booking for that one before COVID stemmed both performances and international travel); a film series, perhaps with live musicians performing new music scored to old silent movies. And she’d like to invite the community in to join in the artistry: There’s space in the building that Townsend would like to see become a participatory wing, with space for musician practice rooms, visual artists’ workspace, dance and yoga studios and the like. And while there's some trepidation about this winter and rising power delivery rates, unlike last year FHPAC has box office revenues.

“I have big aspirations I would like to accomplish over time,” said Townsend, a professional dancer for 20 years who has since worked in choreographer and instructor positions including, most recently, a six-year stint as artistic and executive director of Amherst Ballet in Massachusetts.

“We aspire to bring very high-grade performing arts to this venue, of diverse genres,” Townsend said. “I really don’t want us to be known as ‘the place all the local bands play’ -- though I do want us to be a home for all the local musicians. I don’t want to have us be known as 'the place for legacy acts.' I want there to be dance, ballet as well as modern dance, opera, legitimate theater, musical theater, speakers — the whole gamut."

December events

Bloomfield Rotary presents "It's a Wonderful Life" as a staged radio show, directed by Gregory Cicchino and featuring local talent and the Monsignor Schnacky Community Players, at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 3, and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 4. Tickets are $15 orchestra seating, $25 mezzanine.

Rochester City Ballet presents the holiday classic "The Nutracker" at 6 p.m. Friday, Dec. 10; 2 and 6 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 11; and 2 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 12. Tickets are $25, $35 or $45, depending on seat placement.

To order tickets, visit fhpac.org

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FRONT-ROW SEAT is a column that showcases the area’s art, music, theater, film and general all-around creative scene. If you’re a musician with an upcoming live online performance or album release; or if you have any information in the arts/entertainment sphere to report, please send your information to L. David Wheeler at dwheeler@messengerpostmedia.com.

This article originally appeared on MPNnow: The momentum's back at Fort Hill Performing Arts Center in Canandaigua