Playhouse lease doubled

A new contract that more than doubles lease payments for the Bigfork Summer Playhouse and shaves a month off the time the theater company can use the Bigfork Center for the Performing Arts has Playhouse producers concerned about the fate of their program.

“We’re struggling now,” Summer Playhouse co-owner Jude Thomson said. “Hopefully they’re giving us something to negotiate. This is a lot we have to negotiate.”

The new lease renewal contract also includes an annual 4 percent increase in the rent going forward.

Thomson and her husband, Don, have been at the helm of the Bigfork Summer Playhouse since the mid-1960s and have grown the program from a small professional group into one of the Northwest’s most respected repertory theater companies.

“This is a labor of love,” Jude said. “We’ve trained some pretty nice kids. We’re not getting rich doing this.”

Time is of the essence to negotiate a better lease, she added, because they need to schedule auditions and nail down royalty payments for upcoming productions.

“We need to know where we are,” Jude said.

Donna Lawson, chairwoman of the board of directors for the Bigfork Center for the Performing Arts Foundation, which owns the center, said terms of the new lease contract are indeed negotiable.

“Nothing is written in stone,” Lawson said. “It’s gotten blown out of proportion.”

The Playhouse’s five-year lease is up for renewal on Oct. 15, and a committee within the board of directors worked out a new contract that was presented to the Playhouse last month.

“This was the first part of the proposal,” Lawson said. “We haven’t even begun to do negotiations. I’m sure the Playhouse will continue. My parents would roll over in their graves if” the theater company were forced to close.

The foundation historically has fully supported the Playhouse.

In 1986, the foundation agreed to build a new home for the Bigfork Summer Playhouse when the 50-year old wooden structure was condemned by fire officials. 

The foundation raised $750,000 to build a new, 435-seat facility to house not only the Playhouse but also other cultural programs. The new theater opened in 1988.

In 2009, the Bigfork Summer Playhouse’s 50th anniversary, a new $1.1 million lobby was unveiled.

In addition to the Summer Playhouse, the center is home to the Bigfork Playhouse Children’s Theater and the Bigfork Community Players.