Patch Blog: Live Theater, Music Coming to Montrose?

Is live theater and music coming to Montrose? I'm very excited to tell you that progress is being made on making this dream a reality! But before I give you the latest developments, let me catch you up on some recent events since .

My "Improve Montrose" effort to bring a viable live theater and music venue to our town was never really born of an . Like most of us, I harbored the idea in my craw for several years and just hoped that sometime, somewhere, somebody would make it happen and I would be happy to enjoy the benefits. Like I've said, I hardly have room for a new hobby in my life.

But it just took the fact that the , and thanks in no smart part at all to and the presence of Montrose Patch on my computer screen every morning, I saw that there now really was a conversation for me to participate in. And while I heard all the what shouldn't be's, I still heard no what should be, instead. So I opened my trap vis a vis this blog.

Since then, I have heard so much support from this community that I realized that I had inadvertantly, if not reluctantly, elected myself to carry something through on this, or I might just become the Big Tease of Montrose.

So here's the pieces I imagined that would have to be in place to get something like this off the ground.

1. Someone who could manage a theater who knows the business and/or the art form, and who has a solid track record. I thought that might be two people, not sure.
2. Some potential of financial support, even though the theater should certainly operate profitably on it's own. Being a small business owner myself, I have never considered that my business could run on charity, although I definitely have benefitted from big-brother business partnerships. Such relationships can be very advantageous if you can demonstrate to the deeper pockets how you can make them money. So a sponser is not charity, or there to rescue a bad business plan. They may be a resource for start-up capital.
3. Community support. No doubt, city planners and such will get involved and make some things complicated. So I suppose that a show of community support could potentially recruit the willingness of planners to also get behind the project in spirit and cooperation.
4. Community support. Not to be redundant, but aside from point #3 above, I truly am not intending for this to just be my business in Montrose. I have a business and I'm not looking for another one. But I would certainly be willing to contribute to a collaborative effort. And if that couldn't be mustered, then it tells me ahead of time, that I'm really just hobby horsing my own penchant, and not fulfilling a need. So that's a bad business plan from the start, isn't it?

So, what I am happy to report is that Step #1 has been accomplished. I want you to watch the video I've posted here, and meet James Blackman. See more of James' long history of success in the field of So Cal Theater and work with Civic Light Opera. Now, James and I are both very big on inclusion. So having James and his company being a foundation of the business, entertainment end of our hopeful facility does not mean that other theater and music interests are locked out. Quite the contrary, so you can still be part of Step #1 above, (and certainly #2 if you might be so kind, and need a tax break, too).

However, what this means in the bigger picture is that I actually have a business model to present to a corporate sponsor, which I largely suspect we will need for start-up capital. 

Right now the plan is to have that meeting early this week, and then it will be time for all of us to meet. Because, you, my friends, are vitally needed for Steps 3 & 4 above.

I am working with Montrose Patch to coordinate the promotion of a community townhall, which will be vital to show any corporate sponsors that we can bring together as an indication of a potential audience for theater and music in Montrose. (I hope I didn't leave out some comedy, either. :-0 )

What is needed from you (right now) is to put your name on the mailing list, and allow us to contact you by phone as well, to keep you posted for likely fast-moving events in the very near future. Send your name, email, and phone number to ImproveMontrose@gmail.com.

By all means do comment on this posting (lots of comments help keep this blog post on the top postings of Montrose Patch), but that will not give me a method to contact you personally. If you do not want to be contacted by phone, at least leave your email address so we can notify you of community townhall meetings on the subject.

Thank you so much for your support. I can't tell you that I entered into this knowing what I was doing. But I've manage to bring some great folks together in the meantime and I'm just gald to know that together, we CAN make this happen.

Download the movie