Sycamore Creek Church announces community performing arts center to open in October

Chad Swan-Badgero has been pinching himself a lot these days to make sure he’s not dreaming.

As the artistic director of Peppermint Creek Theatre Company (PCTC) for the past 28 years, he thinks his itinerant theater has finally found a home, which is set to launch Oct. 1.

The home is at Sycamore Creek United Methodist Church’s new campus near Eastwood Towne Center at 2200 Lake Lansing Road in the former home of Asbury United Methodist Church, a church Sycamore Creek is adopting.

Pastor Tom Arthur immediately committed to making the space and its sanctuary a multi-purpose building that could act as a performing arts center for groups that perform to audiences of 100 to 200.

In a press conference last week, Arthur announced that when the campus opens, it will be as Stage One, a sanctuary for worship, a performing arts center and a licensed community kitchen. Its residents will be PCTC, Ixion Ensemble Theatre, Hope Central Urban Arts and Honey Bun Bakery, an LGBTQ-centered bakery.

For small theater companies like Ixion and PCTC, having an affordable space built around their needs is something they’ve only been able to dream of as they have bounced from venue to venue for decades. Even with the recent groundbreaking of a performing arts center in downtown Lansing, they soon realized it was not designed for theaters of their size and budget.

When Sycamore Creek was in the initial stages of adopting the church, Arthur brought Swan-Badgero in to provide feedback on whether it would work for theater companies.

“Structurally, it was very similar to places we’ve already been,” Swan-Badgero said. “There’s a very large area for the audience and a very large stage space. It paints a vivid picture to Sycamore Creek’s really sincere approach to the process of transforming it into a performing arts center that they asked me to give them insight into what would be necessary.”

Swan-Badgero said the church and its facilities manager responded to all the needs he expressed from a curtain and back stage space to an expensive set of stairs that gives actors access between the stage and a Green Room area without being seen by the audience.

“All the things I had been asking or telling them, they were doing,” Swan-Badgero said. “My cynical heart of being in over 25 different venues over the course of our life was just melting. I was like, 'oh my gosh, you’re actually doing it,' because that never happens.”

Jeff Croff, artistic director of Ixion and the former Icarus Falling, met Arthur while participating in a Sycamore Creek production of “A Letter from a Birmingham Jail.” Arthur approached him about the new space and his desire to have it engage the community in creative ways.

“He showed me all the work they were doing to create a space that even would allow for them to draw a curtain to hide away a set so that they can still carry on service on Sunday morning,” Croff said. “Things could exist in parallel without feeling like it was infringing on the worship space or time or limiting the functionality of the theater productions.”

Ixion will open its season with a yet-to-be-announced show on Oct. 1; Peppermint Creek will follow with its production of “The Prom.”

AnnaMaria Pasley-Horn, owner and director of Hope Central Urban Arts, an after-school performing arts program, is a gospel recording artist who has sung in Sycamore Creek services. The church, in turn, has often hosted student performances.

Pasley-Horn describes having access to this new space as a relief.

“One of the challenges is being able to get into a performance space that doesn’t cost some exorbitant amount of money,” Pasley-Horn said. “The other places require that you use union workers and they are so large and we’re not at that scale yet. Knowing that we’re going to have an affordable place for the students to perform is just … I’m so glad, so hopeful.”

Byron “Sarge” Pepper, the co-owner of Honey Bun Bakery, already is using the space’s commercial kitchen. Their business, Arthur said, has tripled during that time.

Pepper said he and his wife talked about creating a queer bakery and board game café on their first date. They wanted to create a space at which BIPOC and LGBTQ people could gather without the pressure of alcohol and where they didn’t have to wake up early to get coffee.

During the press conference, Pepper said they want to become a cornerstone and safe place for LGBTQ and BIPOC communities to gather and to host events that are new to the community.

Sycamore Creek expresses a deep commitment to anti-racism work and the full inclusion of the LGBTQ+ community. Arthur said artists often serve as the prophetic voices for justice in a community.

“In a lot of ways, Peppermint Creek has been influential in changing the way I think and live,” Arthur said. “By going to these plays and musicals, they exercise a sort of prophetic voice in the community.”

Arthur’s goal for the campus is to be a space for people who are multiculturally curious and a unique asset to the community where a synergy between arts, entrepreneurship and church exists.

Arthur said the church will not exert editorial control over the content of what is performed at Sycamore Creek.

“I think it’s been a bit surprising in the theater community that a church is willing to do this,” Arhur said, adding the theater companies are made up of people he trusts and whose shows he’s seen. “Part of being hospitable to the community is that you don’t have to agree.”

Arthur wants his congregation to engage with the types of shows that Ixion and PCTC produce. Croff said that was important from the beginning.

“We’ve had very candid conversations,” Croff said. “Recognizing that Ixion and Peppermint Creek certainly have done shows that can be controversial or potentially hot button topics. To their credit, Tom’s very much embraced that and recognized that there are shows that may push his comfort zone, but he really expressed an interest in engaging topics that are relevant to his parishioners.”

After spending a life in the arts, Swan-Badgero said he was skeptical when the discussion started with Arthur, that despite their friendship, he didn’t believe such a thing could happen.

“I’ve been approached by countless people who wanted to talk about performing arts spaces for Peppermint Creek and each one has failed to come to fruition. Every single one,” Swan-Badgero said.

As he’s witnessed the renovation and Sycamore Creek’s commitment to welcoming small arts groups into an accessible space, he said his cynical heart has softened.

This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Sycamore Creek Church announces new community performing arts center