Children's Theatre now owns its building

The Bigfork Playhouse Children’s Theatre now has full ownership of the building it uses for rehearsals, auditions and other events, thanks to the generosity its supporters.

The nonprofit theater company had been working toward a January 2017 deadline to raise $85,000 to buy the remaining majority interest from the Community Foundation for a Better Bigfork, and recently completed the fundraising.

The Children’s Theatre purchased a portion of the building a couple of years ago. The Community Foundation for a Better Bigfork purchased the remaining 53.15 percent of the children’s theater building from Bigfork resident Walter Kuhn. Kuhn bought the building about five years with the idea of enabling the Children’s Theatre to one day own the building.

The foundation bought Kuhn’s interest in the building for $100,465 and offered it to the Children’s Theatre for a reduced price of $85,000.

The book value of the foundation’s portion of the building was about $105,000, according to foundation president Paul Mutascio.

“The ‘discounted’ price of $20,000 represents the largest donation the Community Foundation for a Better Bigfork has ever made to any group,” Mutascio said in an email. “We are more than pleased that we could offer this support given the importance of the Playhouse to our community and our young aspiring actors. We will put all of the money from this sale back into improving and supporting the Bigfork community.”

The location of the building, just 200 yards from Bigfork schools, makes it ideal for after-school theater and choir practices.

A special ceremony to thank the foundation and donors will be held at 6:30 p.m. Saturday before the musical production of “Willy Wonka.”

Now in its 14th season, the Bigfork Playhouse Children’s Theatre is under the direction of artistic director and producer Brach Thomson. The theater program reaches more than 5,000 children each year through performance participation, workshops, dance and audience opportunity.