The owner of the Crossroads Theatre is moving to terminate her lease with the company currently operating at 2180 Stout St., effective Nov. 30. And “without the intervention of voices from the community,” artistic director Kurt Lewis fears not only for the future of his company but the building he has spent thousands of dollars rehabbing into one of the funkiest little theater spaces in the city.
“The contributions of so many would be wasted if the warehouse is made back into a warehouse,” Lewis said.
Lewis, landlord Candis Cebula and the city’s zoning and building departments have been engaged in a complicated dispute ever since Lewis took occupancy in January. The space was never zoned for use as a theater, not even when it was occupied for years by the preceding LIDA Project theater company. But when Lewis moved in, he was told by the city he needed a change-of-use permit and a permanent certificate of occupancy.
Lewis says he has spent $45,000 on building improvements and formulating a long-range plan to make the building handicap accessible, which the city has approved. But the zoning department also has demanded the perimeter of the parking lot be landscaped with trees and grass by next spring.
Cebula initially committed to the landscaping project but then backed off, Lewis said, complaining the cost would reach $50,000. So instead her attorney drafted a lease termination agreement, which Lewis is not obligated to accept. The lease expires March 31, with a five-year renewal option.
Lewis has offered to assume the landscaping project himself in exchange for a rental rebate, and he thinks with volunteer support, he can get the job done for as little as $5,000. He said area “Rocky Horror Picture Show” film buffs, who are looking for a new midnight movie location, have offered to pitch in.
But so far Cebula has not consented. Lewis can only presume she has other plans for the space and wants him out.
If Lewis, who is an attorney, chooses to fight the lease termination, things could get sticky for all, starting with the fact that Cebula leased the space to LIDA and Lewis to be operated as a theater, though it was zoned as a warehouse.
“If you rent something to be used as a theater that isn’t zoned as a theater, that’s an illegal rental,” Lewis said.
Cebula could not be reached. Her attorney, Bobby G. Riley, declined comment.
Building boom
Last week’s news that Su Teatro will build a new $1.75 million performing-arts center at 200 Santa Fe Drive is further evidence of a small building boom in Colorado theater. New or rehabbed projects are in various stages of development by the Arvada Center, E Project, Elitch Theatre, Candelight Dinner Theatre, Thunder River, Younger Generation Players, Ellie Caulkins Studio, Main Street Players, Colorado State University and the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center. Updates on a few of those projects:
Friday marks the opening of CSU’s new 318-seat University Theatre inside the University Center for the Arts at 1400 Remington St. The debut production is “Waiting for Godot,” a long-awaited collaboration between the drama department and the Fort Collins-based Center for Studies in Beckett and Contemporary Theatre Performance. An adjoining studio theater opened in September (970-491-4849).
Ground will be broken in February on the Arvada Center’s new 200-seat black box, with a projected completion date of November 2006.
After 11 years, the Thunder River Theatre Company moves into its first permanent home with a Dec. 30 opening of “Lysistrata.” It’s a $1.2 million flexible space in Carbondale’s New Town Center seating anywhere from 99-250 (970-309-5398).
The owners of the Candlelight Dinner Theatre now under construction in Johnstown have delayed the opening date for “The Music Man” from Nov. 23 to February, citing lessons learned from the Pinnacle Dinner Theatre’s disastrous opening year. “It is very important to us that we open with an extremely high level of readiness,” said Nick Turner, who said the foundation is in place, including the pit and stage areas.
The E Project leaves the Full Moon Bookstore for the new “E-vent Center” at 9797 W. Colfax Ave. in Lakewood with an opening production of Peter Shaffer’s “Black Comedy,” opening Nov. 4 (303-717-1238).
The Main Street Players, faced with a 65 percent rent increase, have left the Town Hall Arts Center for the 500-seat auditorium at Englewood’s Sinclair Middle School.
Briefly …
Country Dinner Playhouse boss David Lovinggood says he has nearly completed a lease agreement with new landowner Uhlmann Offices Inc. of California that will allow the theater to continue operating at its 35-year home in Greenwood Village through 2016. …
After last week’s item on the two Denverites who have played Carlotta in Broadway’s “Phantom of the Opera,” Rebecca Eichenberger’s pop, Richard, wrote in with a third. In addition to Rebecca and Patricia Phillips, there also was West High grad Geena Jeffries. …
Clarifying last week’s prices to accompany Denver Center Theatre Company artistic director Kent Thompson on his six-day New York theater jaunt: That’s $3,570 to go it alone, $2,700 if you share a bunk (as in double occupancy – airfare is still extra). Call 303-446-4811.
Theater critic John Moore can be reached at 303-820-1056 or jmoore@denverpost.com.
