Our Next Chapter...
My wife and I are idea people. It's hard to shut off our faucet of ideas. Sometimes an idea falls out of one of our mouths and gets swatted away. Sometimes the idea just sits there for a while and needs to ruminate. Some ideas are escalated to dream status! A sizeable, far off, reach for the stars pipe dream! A sort of dream that many a theater person holds as sacred is to own and operate a theater. Your very own theater where you call the shots, develop the programming, and (in our case at least) provide a home for the incredible talents of our friends and the vibrant Twin Cities arts community!
About a month ago we discovered a building for sale in St. Paul. The former "Garden Theater." It was a classic 500 seat cinema with a marquee, lobby, mezzanine, and big silver screen at the opposite end... at least it was that up until the middle of the 1900s when it was gutted and turned into storage. There it sat for years - quite unremarkably. There is very little left of anything that would point to its former glory. To walk or drive by, you really don't even see it. Where the marquee would have hung , now sits big tree.
It was perfect. A blank slate with history. A shell of a space waiting for our own unique brand of style, content, and purpose. The price was right. Our bid was accepted. We will own this building on Monday, December 21st and we will will turn it into a theater! The North Garden Theater.
If I sound very positive that what I say will happen... it's because I am. That's how my wife and I work. We may not have all of the "how are we gonna get theres" and there are plenty of "what ifs," but we figure it out. We trust our instincts even if they're slow to emerge, we know we're smart, and we trust each other. I love my wife. She has made me brave. This is not crazy. This is us - our next chapter. I hope many of you will help us write it!