On the hill

Keep passing that plate

By Sam Pfeifle

Friends of the St. Lawrence Church and the Acorn School for the Performing Arts invited the press to take a look at the church on Monday. Last spring they saw fit to announce their joint capital campaign at the church. Monday, they were happy to announce they’d met their goal of $140,000 and exceeded it by nearly $30,000. However, the two announcements were significantly different in character.

The latter announcement was made from the newly constructed control booth of the soon-to-be theater.

Mike Levine, head of Acorn Productions, and Bill Milliken, head of Friends of St. Lawrence, fielded questions from a platform attainable only by a ladder, and amongst two-by-fours that, when finished with sheetrock and molding will frame windows looking out on a removable thrust stage. “You’ll actually be able to see the stage from the control booth,” gushed Levine. “The one at Oak Street was at a 90 degree angle.”

Of course, only a pair of old salvaged boards currently outline the thrust stage. And none of the promised amenities — removable and collapsible seating, a “rep plot” lighting control that will allow even non-theater types to orchestrate a Dead concert, three-phase power that will allow industrial capacity — are in. But they will be, promises Milliken: “We now have enough money to do what we said we were going to do.”

Thanks to $50,000 from the Libra Foundation, roughly $15,000 in $25 donations, even $2000 from the Area Code 207 release party, the Friends will meet their goal of a May 3 opening of Much Ado About Nothing, presented by Acorn Productions. The St. Lawrence will be a home for summer concerts and community meetings. They’ve even booked their first wedding, for October.

However, “the problem with this church,” Milliken says, “is that everything is more complicated and expensive than you’d think.” And many of the estimates they were going on were closer to guesses because they couldn’t even get a contractor to come out to the church to do an estimate in the first place. “The economy kind of screwed us over,” says Milliken. “In the middle of summer, we couldn’t get a heating guy in here. Now, in the middle of winter, we can’t get a roof guy.”

So, they need more money for stuff they couldn’t have budgeted for: the state and city fire marshals required a “voice intercom evac system”; the 24-foot span over the stage was too big for theater piping, so they had to get a metal truss for the lights; CMP has to put in a new transformer, something they don’t pay for anymore now that deregulation has come to the power industry. “I’d never even heard of a voice intercom evac system,” says Milliken.

Because of these things, some “non-essential” things won’t be done as early as once thought. Many windows will remain boarded up. Some of the stained glass might not get refurbished quite so soon. They won’t get the accordion-style seats they were hoping for. But, for now, that’s all gravy.

“The important message to the community is ‘thank you,’ ” says Milliken, “and if you have any rolls of insulation, bring ‘em on in.”