SOUTH BEND - Approximately two years ago the South Bend United Methodist Church Congregation contacted the Willapa Players about appropriating the church for their playhouse. The deal finally went down in late November.
According to Lisa Olsen, former Chairperson of the Methodist church, "The deed transferring the property was filed on November 25th and the amount was $35,000 (and) $25,000 of that was a gift from our congregation to the Willapa Players, so they could purchase the property. The other $10,000 was theirs. The deed was transferred from South Bend United Methodist Church to the Willapa Players, but the money went to the Pacific Northwest Conference."
The Willapa Players are a non-profit organization and were in drastic need of a new facility for their plays because the Hannan Playhouse is falling apart. It was not possible for the church to just hand over the building. The Willapa Players Board now has full control of the church and they own all the former church lands, which includes the parking in front of the church and the area between the coffee stand and the church. There is also handicapped parking on the far side of the building.
President of the Willapa Players Russ Wiitala said the Players were first approached about obtaining the church in the fall of 2018.
"The congregation took a vote and they voted, unanimously, to give us the church," Wiitala said. "However, the Northwest Methodist Conference wanted money.
The South Bend Congregation had $25,000 dollars and I pitched in $10,000 of my own and we made an offer. The Northwest Methodist Conference countered with an offer of $35,000 dollars, plus half the money from selling the playhouse. We accepted their offer and I am very happy with the final deal.
"Along the way, we learned that Oberlin University owned the surrounding parking lot. Joel Penoyar got busy and managed to get a quit deed from Oberlin University for the parking lots. Much of the back and forth was done by Phil Davis, who put in a good amount of time putting this together. Now that we have the church, it is my job to coordinate it's conversion.
"Having the church solves many problems for us," Wiitala said. "The old building needed a lot of work to fix it. I had come up with a way to do most of that on the cheap, but that plan is no longer needed. Personally, I believe the wood in that building alone is worth a lot of money."
Wiitala went into detail about what work needs to be done for the transformation from church to theater.
"The church is much better for our purposes," Wiitala said. "It is larger and in very good shape. The only grants we need right now are for building a stage and adding the lighting and curtains. We want to build a thoroughly modern playhouse/event center. We have to build a stage and raise the seating for the viewing of the audience. We also want to install a complete LED lighting system. I have already had a conference call with PNTA's lighting/staging expert. I do not have any estimates for that job yet. The estimate for the stage came in at just over $16,000.
"We will begin with the minimum of lighting and add to it as we obtain more grants. We will retain the stained glass windows and cover them with a curtain during a show. If I were to guess on the total needed, it would be around $50,000.
"It will be a playhouse/event center," Wiitala said. "We plan on having music, dance and acting. It will be a more intimate setting and in that way will complement the Raymond Theatre that can host larger presentations. We will be willing to rent it out for weddings and anything else that won't interfere with our performance schedule. We plan on keeping the building as busy as possible.
"The parking situation will have to be assessed," Wiitala said. "The Elixir Coffee stop has already volunteered their parking lot for shows. I'm thinking we have parking for around twenty cars on our property alone.
"We have begun initial investigation into creating a drive-in theater, projecting the movie on the side of the building," Wiitala said. "I was just checking on equipment. It would take around $1,000 for that to happen. We hope to team up with the Raymond Theatre. They could provide the movie and concessions. We have to wait this virus out. I hope to have our first stage performance by the fall of 2021. It would be great if we could fit something else in sooner. We had MUFON (Mutual UFO Network) come to the Hannan Playhouse for a presentation, for instance."
According to Willapa Players Treasurer/Secretary Emily Popovich, Phil Davis worked very hard with the Conference and Congregation and used help from Joel Penoyar to make the Congregation's wishes and our dreams a reality.
"We are currently moving props and equipment from the Hannan Playhouse to their new home," Popovich said. "We will be placing the property for sale. Part of the money from the sale will go to pay the Conference for the Church and part of it, the Conference has allowed the Players to retain for remodeling our new facility.
"The entire altar area has to be removed to provide a stage," Popovich said. "The seating area needs to be elevated so the stage can be seen. There are other areas that need to be adjusted for our needs.
"We'll have plenty of room to store props and costumes," Popovich said. "There is space to have dressing rooms as well as the main theater. There is a great heating system and no leaks.
"We do not have a projected date for projects to be completed and the first performance to occur," Popovich said. "We are currently looking for funding for the stage and seating projects. Tax-deductible donations can be made to the Willapa Players.
"We are so thankful the South Bend Methodists thought of us as they were thinking of disbanding," Popovich added. "Phil Davis and others worked hard to make sure we got a good deal for the Church. We can't wait to get the stage built and be ready to perform for everyone."