Article/Photos by Barbara Arnstein
The Carol Mongerson Theater (37 N. Buffalo Street, Springville, NY) is part of a repurposed church and recently-reopened for events. The stage of the performance space, which has 120 seats, is where baptisms were performed, and what was once a prayer room is now the Harold L. Olmsted Gallery. The beautiful building still has many of the original stained-glass windows. This year, Springville Center for the Arts (SCA), the multi-arts center behind the theater (which also offers concerts, workshops and more) received a $228,000 matching grant from New York State Council on the Arts for its continuing renovation. Although that’s a good thing, as E. Seth Wochensky. Executive Director of the Springville Center for the Arts said, “This will be a challenging year for SCA”.
the hilarious, family-friendly musical “Lumberjacks in Love”. Performances of
“Lumberjacks in Love” are on Thursday, November 13th, 14th & 15th at 7pm;
Friday, November 21st & 22nd at 7pm, and Sunday, November 23rd at 2pm.
“A matching grant means we need to raise that same amount of money”, he continued, “we have to have enough to pay for all the work and get the grant reimbursed later, and the additional administrative costs associated with the project are not covered by the grant.” Memberships begin at $50, while donating $1,000 to the Theater Seat Campaign will allow the donor to have a name engraved on one.
This month, the Carol Mongerson Theater will feature eight performances of the hilarious, family-friendly musical “Lumberjacks in Love”. Besides countless laughs, the show set in 1912, about the men in a remote logging camp and the arrival of a mail-order bride, offers lots of amusing singing, dancing, and plot twists. Amazingly, there is a timbersports World Champion in the cast, Mark Bouquin, who plays a lumberjack called Moonlight. In 2016, he was the co-winner of the TV reality show, “American Grit”. He and a partner, Clare Painter, triumphed over fourteen other contestants, including a former NFL player and a former Olympian, and each won $250,000. The other lumberjacks are played by talented local actors Brayton Wilson (Minnesota Slim), Golden Groves (Dirty Bob), and Tyler “Thor” Moody (Muskrat), and the cast includes talented local actresses Samantha Hunt (The Kid) and Ashley Lowry (Rose). The musical directors are Kim Higgins and Roz Warren, and the musical was directed by Ed Heary.
Performances of “Lumberjacks in Love” are on Thursday, November 13th, 14th & 15th at 7pm; Friday, November 21st & 22nd at 7pm, and Sunday, November 23rd at 2pm. Tickets are $20 for adults and $17 for seniors and students. Tickets can be purchased online (at springvillearts.ludus.com), over the phone, by calling (716) 592-9038, or in person (the theater is at 37 North Buffalo Street in Springville), and group discounts are available. There is a special performance on Tuesday, November 18th at 2 p.m. for seniors and homeschooled children. For more information, go to Springvillearts.com. To see brief excerpts from the musical, go to Facebook/com/SpringvilleArtsCenter and click on the post from October 31st.