Well, it’s about TIME!!!

Bowie performing arts center agreement signed

By ANNETTE ESTERHELD Staff Writer


No curtains were raised or house lights darkened, but it’s official – the Joint Use Agreement for the Bowie Center for the Performing Arts has been signed.

Three of the four parties involved, Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission, the city of Bowie and the BRAVA board, all signed the document more than a year ago. The fourth party, the Board of education, voted to sign it last Thursday night at a meeting.

Al Golato, BRAVA president, the local group that was formed to oversee the construction of the center, quietly drove to the county school board office with other BRAVA members Friday to meet with schools chief JohnDeasy to pick up the agreement signed by Bea Tignor, school board chairman, at her home earlier Friday.

With the same lack of fanfare, Golato met with City Manager David Deutschlater the same day for the official city signing. Then Monday M-NCPPC’s Barbara Funk of the department of parks and recreation, arts and cultural heritage picked up the signed agreement from BRAVA Vice President Mary Nusser at the center.

“Now that the JUA has been signed by all parties, we will be releasing the last of the funds, which should occur shortly,” Funk told the Blade-News. Those funds, which Funk said would be handled in a wire transfer, total approximately $900,000 and will be used to complete the construction at the building.

Golato said he expects the final construction and purchasing of items will take approximately four to six months to complete. There will be a governance board consisting of representatives from the four groups,and the center’s day-to-day operations will be handled by a facilities director/manager who will be an employee of the Board of Education. The governance board will consist of two members from the school board and one each from BRAVA, the city and M-NCPPC.

The center, located adjacent to Bowie High School, is the outgrowth of a vision the community had of a regional performing arts center, and the BRAVA group was formed in 1995 to help make the vision a reality.

Longtimeboard member Golato said that completing the negotiations and signingthe JUA was his goal when he was elected president of BRAVA a littleover a year ago.

Golato said heappreciates all the hard work of BRAVA members and its 17-member boardand the executive committee, which voted overwhelmingly in favor of the agreement.

“I thank them for their patience and for bearing up under numerous obstacles in getting the center finished,” he said. Golato said he especially wanted to acknowledge the hard work of board members Nusser and Hugh Reams.

“Mary’s historical counsel, administrative and all-around assistance have been invaluable,” said Golato, “as has been our construction chairman, Hugh Reams, who offered professional and technical knowledge.”

Golato also praised the work of founding president Gordon Stewart, who led the BRAVA organization through its first decade.

Funk said the M-NCPPC is looking forward to planning and scheduling arts programs at the center once the final construction details are completed.

Golato said making the center fully operational is “not an overnight process.”

He noted that “during the transition period, some testing events need to occur to check final systems installations that will also assist in the training of the permanent staff that will be hired by the governance board.”

“The Bowie Center for the Performing Arts, aside from filling a sizable state-of-the-art cultural and entertainment venue gap in the Bowie area and also permitting Bowie High School students to have an auditorium, will serve as an economic development catalyst for the revitalization of the Route 450 corridor through Bowie,” said Golato.


Published 06/08/06, Copyright © 2006 The Bowie Blade

http://www.bowieblade.com/vault/cgi-bin/bowie/view/2006B/06/08-27.HTM

First Meeting – 4/17/2005


First Meeting: April 17, 2005, 2pm-5pm

Attended: LS, DS, BD, DD & JK

Summary: Exceptionally productive (I think), considering how much is still nebulous.

Discussed:

1. BRAVA – Main contacts are: Mary Nusser (VP, public mouthpiece) and Hugh Reams (Technical contact). BD will be talking to either of these people come Monday, requesting more information on getting on the schedule this fall. (see below) There’s a bunch of political stuff that’s holding up regular scheduling, which will hopefully be resolved soon. The political stuff may also interfere with doing our first production at the Bowie Center for the Performing Arts (BCPA) – we could be The Theatre Company in Search of a Venue. That won’t stop us, but it could complicate things production-wise. (FYI: The BCPA is going to be managed, eventually, by three entities: The City of Bowie, PG County Parks, and Bowie High School. The Joint Use Agreement (JUA) hasn’t been signed yet. There’s been a lot of press in both local Bowie papers concerning the ongoing process of signing the paperwork. Any progress of a positive nature will be posted here later.)

2. BD should attempt to get feedback from the Bowie Arts Committee re their decision regarding denying our grant proposal. We’d like to know if there’s anything we could have done differently to make our proposal more attractive. Fact finding.

3. BD will also have a chat with Bowie High staff, with the county and the city people who will eventually be in charge of the building. Just to touch base and start building a relationship. (See #1)

3. The meeting members reviewed the budget provided to the Grant committee – Adjustments are needed:
Add for Box Office (ticket printing)
Add for Program Printing

In general, the budget is more or less accurate. Some figures (insurance, rental fees, etc.) will need to be updated, based on reality. The first estimated budget can be found at the end of the Grant Proposal online on the O2B2 web site (http://www.outoftheblackbox.org/). It looks like costs will run approximately $2k for this first production.

4. Who’s interested in working with us? BD reviewed the list of interested parties (mainly on the two mailing lists). People who aren’t yet on yahoo groups should be moving there very soon (either to the main list or to the announcements only list). This will probably be the last message sent to the local list (in BD’s address book). After today, you may drop off the mailing list! See the bottom of this message for instructions on subscribing!

5. BD or LS will research Paper Direct for letterhead types to use for mailing letters/press releases out.

6. Setting a date range for Six Characters: The group at the meeting feels that the last weekend in September, through third weekend in October, Friday/Saturday nights, is a good starting range for requesting space. We’re trying to be flexible. We’ll be trying for one or two consecutive weekends, two performances each weekend (8pm). Once we’re set and on the schedule, we can advertise for auditions, arrange for rehearsal space. Can we use the recital hall? (Probably not, but we should check anyway.) BD will check on this info the beginning of next week, so we can start to plan auditions, rehearsals, and so on.

7. We need blueprints for layout of the recital hall space. Betsy will try to get a copy of this when she talks with the BRAVA people.

8. BD will direct the first production. JK will pick up a copy of the script from Backstage:

Six Characters in Search of an Author [21176] $7.95
Luigi Pirandello. A New Adaptation by Robert Brustein
(Drama / All Groups)

9m, 3f, 2c, extras Royalty, $50-$40

Pirandello’s masterpiece, a study in illusion and reality, follows a group of characters who try to fashion their life stories into acceptable drama. Mr. Brustein’s new rendering is accessible, contemporary, and highly speakable while retaining the flavor of the Italian original.

9. What will we do in the Spring? Ideas? We should have something identified before we go to production, so we can include the announcement in the program. Ideally, we should have something for the following fall and/or summer as well, so we can get on the Convention/Visitors Bureau calendars, and in the newspaper’s annual events calendars as well. What should these titles be? When should we target the dates for these productions? Who will direct (not BD, not two productions in a row!).

10. Filing for nonprofit paperwork should happen immediately after CC is over (beginning of May) – Filing for 501(c)(3) afterwards. BD will start to fill out the paperwork when she returns from the con, with KT’s help.

11. We will need to identify creative fund raising activities/objects that aren’t food. Ideas?

12. We’ll be looking to borrow the set pieces that we will need for the first production. No scenery (flats) will be needed. Possibly some one-foot risers and the rest will be handled by lighting.

13. We’ll be approaching local businesses for advertising and for sponsoring.

14. LS mentioned a willingness to help provide some financial backing if necessary. BD said, “Right now I’m not asking for people to cough up bucks to support this endeavor. We’ll cross that bridge if we get to it.”

The next meeting will be at our house in Bowie, date and time TBD depending on what happens over the next week or so. Since several of the interested individuals will be away on honeymoon very shortly, and we’ll be heading to Costume-Con, the next meeting won’t be until sometime around the middle of May. Any weekend dates good/bad for people?

And finally, if you’re receiving this message through yahoogroups.com, you don’t need to worry. For the rest of you, I would encourage subscribing to either

mailto:o2b2-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

or

mailto:o2b2-announce-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

so that we can communicate with each other without filtering through me.

Have a great weekend!!!

BD


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