Louisville has Fourth Street. Evansville has Franklin Street. Bloomington has Kirkwood. The members of nonprofit The Next Act are trying create a central hub for Dubois County, first by restoring the Astra Theatre and bringing more arts and entertainment to downtown Jasper. The group is comprised of six people: President Marc Steczyk, Vice President Jay Hamlin, Secretary Courtney Knies, Chairperson Leslie Buse Hamby, Treasurer Eddie Luegers and member Selena Vonderheide.
It took only four days to get the ball rolling on the reopening of the theater on the southwest corner of Courthouse Square. The members of Next Act were introduced to each other at a lunch meeting set by the Dubois County Community Foundation in October. Within an hour, they had agreed to form a nonprofit with the common goal of purchasing the theater.
Three days later, they met with the Jasper Community Arts Commission at the DCCF to discuss a possible partnership.
“At that meeting, we came to a conclusion that while it’s going to be very convoluted and complicated to get to a final management agreement with JCAC and still allow the doors to be open as much as possible, we shook hands and agreed that we would work together on this journey,” Steczyk said.
Immediately after that meeting, the group spoke at JCAC’s public meeting to announce their intent to purchase the building.
Phase 1: Raising the endowment and buying the building
The first step in saving the Astra was to raise a $300,000 endowment for the sustainability of the building itself. Next Act determined, based on years when The Astra was open, that utilities and basic upkeep would cost about $11,000 per year. The number is conservative, Steczyk said, but if it’s correct, it would provide coverage of basic building expenses for about 25 years.
This way, the members of Next Act can focus on raising money for renovations and programming instead of struggling to keep the air conditioner and water running — it won’t be reliant on constant fundraising. The amount of the endowment was suggested by the DCCF, and it has already been raised, but Next Act has not yet raised enough money to purchase the building.
The plan is for the group to buy shares — 111 of them — and it is negotiating with current owner Jerry Gutzweiler, whose grandfather opened the theater, for a price that would be both fair to Next Act and the Gutzweiler family.
“It’s hard because you have years of family memories tied up in this asset, and we tend to call it an asset for purposes of dealing with fundraising, but this is a family’s history,” Hamby said. “So you have to be fair and equitable for them, but we have to be fiscally responsible to our donors.”
Thus far, fundraising has been private. Members have requested investments in person from local corporations, nonprofits and individuals they knew to be generous and supportive of the arts. They plan to keep the fundraising private until they have raised enough to purchase the building.
Next Act will still accept any outside donations from the public. One reason fundraising has been kept private is it can be difficult to raise money toward an endowment, because there’s no immediate payoff.
“You’re paying for a legacy that will maintain this facility for years to come, but it’s a hard sell,” Hamby said. “We know the public support for the building once we own it, I think it’ll be easier for people to rally behind once it’s real.”
Next Act will have to fund raise yet again when the initial phase — purchasing the building after securing an endowment — is complete, Steczyk said. That fundraising, which will go toward renovating the building, will be public. Members believed fundraising publicly now and after would cause confusion with the public; after supporting Next Act’s quest to raise the endowment and buy the building, they would be asked for money again.
“We wanted to just basically do everything that we can to get through phase one on our own and then have a more broad public appeal in phase two,” Steczyk said.
Phase 2: Public fundraising and renovating
The first priority for the second phase, Steczyk said, will be installing handicapped-accessible restrooms. The restrooms sit upstairs behind the balcony theater, and Next Act will need to make them compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. After that, anything else that needs to be addressed, like the heating system, will be taken care of.
Next Act is hoping for in-kind support from professionals in the community to complete this phase, Steczyk said. William Kaiser, a Jasper attorney, gave pro bono assistance to Next Act with becoming a state-recognized nonprofit, and Hamby said this is an example of the community support they’ll need from engineers and construction companies to finish Phase 2. They hope to also have a small amount of programming in the Astra during this process.
“As we get into this, we realize were reaching area that might be out of our areas of expertise,” Steczyk said. “So we’re going to potentially use some outreach trying to get people to volunteer, donate, invest, write off voluntary professional services to help us cross the finish line.”
Partnership with JCAC
Next Act is actively pursuing a proposed management agreement by JCAC. Vonderheide is also a member of the JCAC board and said the partnership could provide for more opportunities with the more intimate setting of the Astra compared to that of the Jasper Arts Center. The Backstage Series and performances by the Actors Community Theatre could be moved to the Astra, along with Brown Bag Lunches the JCAC hosts. Movies will still be shown at the theater.
While there will be a management agreement between Next Act and JCAC, the building will still belong to Next Act. Hamby said JCAC’s theater management skills will be beneficial in setting up programs, and there will be positives for both parties. However, other organizations such as the libraries and schools will also be able to use the building. Steczyk said the goal is to have the Astra’s doors open as much as possible. Phase 3 includes aligning programs and getting the theater to its best possible condition.
Why save the Astra?
Members of Next Act say the sentimental value of the Astra outweighs the value of putting something else in its place. While $465,000 might be enough to tear the theater down and build something new, Steczyk said, the amount of money already donated by companies and individuals is a display of the strong amount of public support.
“There’s such a connection to the community. I mean, you can feel it when you go out and talk to people,” Hamby said. “The memories are so vibrant, it’s hard to tell them that it’s not worth it.”
Also, with a theater downtown, businesses may have more incentive to stay open past 5 or 6 p.m, Luegers said. Other businesses may open up nearby, too, forming a more consolidated section of the city to explore and more employment opportunities. All it takes is one business to take the first step, Luegers noted.
“I think this area can do a lot of the really interesting things, it just takes the effort,” Luegers said. “I have a feeling it could be a completely different town if things progress.”
Luegers and Steczyk both said they see an issue with young people moving away and preferring big cities, where there’s more activity. Hamby is an example of a young person who moved back home and missed the cultural experiences of living in a city. Vonderheide said the members of Next Act aren’t the target beneficiaries from the project; rather, it’s their children and grandchildren who will want to return to Dubois County. Restoring and re-purposing landmarks is a way to move toward the future while respecting roots, Vonderheide said.
“I just think we need to honor our roots and our legacy in the county and while honoring that, we also have to recognize that we have to evolve and grow,” Vonderheide said. “If you don’t, you go away.”
Next Act after the Astra
Nonprofits must set term limits and bylaws, and the members of The Next Act have three-year terms they may hold three consecutive times. Meaning, they will be allowed to operate for the next nine years. After finishing with the Astra, they plan to set their sights on other areas of downtown.
“This is project one, and it’s no small project, but after this we intend to look in other areas of the community for ways that we can support cultural opportunities,” Steczyk said.