Geyer Performing Arts Center ushers in 25th season with high hopes
SCOTTDALE — In 2005, the Scottdale Showtime faced a dilemma. Audience attendance was dropping, and the Showtime’s board of directors believed a name change would breathe new life into the more than 100-year-old theater.
Drawing inspiration from the theater’s history, the board changed the name to the Geyer Performing Arts Center (GPAC); a name that reflected the theater’s original name, the Geyer Opera House.
And the change seemed to work because Scottdale’s only community theater has been growing ever since.
“Every year we’ve outdone the previous year’s attendance,” said Brad Geyer, board president. “But we aren’t selling out our shows yet, and until we sell out the shows, we have to keep working. And that’s something that I hope to do with the 25th season.”
This year marks 25 years since the theater reopened in 1988 after being closed down for almost 20 years.
And for reaching such a milestone, the GPAC is celebrating its 25th anniversary in a big way this year.
Five plays and five musicals are on the theater’s schedule, including The Wizard of Oz and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat – shows that have been performed by the theater group in the past.
“We have some really large shows planned this year,” Geyer said. “By doing these larger shows, we can involve as many people as possible this year.”
Involving area residents in performances is something the GPAC has done for the past quarter-century.
“Anybody on our stage could be your neighbor,” Geyer said.
In a recent production of Legally Blonde, a Brownsville resident stole the lead. Actors and directors from Connellsville, Greensburg and Pittsburgh have also taken part in GPAC productions.
“The community-theater model I think is what makes this place,” he said. “I often say the community theater is like no other organization you belong to, because no matter what you’re good at, community theater has something for you to do. Community theater accepts all-comers, and that’s what makes our little theater successful.”
The community-theater model is also something that allows the GPAC to stand out from the competition, especially the State Theatre Center for the Arts in Uniontown to the south and the Palace Theatre in Greensburg to the north.
“They’re doing professional productions, so we’re serving a different niche,” Geyer said.
“If you like to sing in the church choir, here’s another chance to sing. If you like to play an instrument, we have live orchestras here that play our musicals. It gives artists a place to hone their craft.”
The 25th season kicks off on Jan. 19 with the Tottie Awards — an award show that honors the actors and actresses who graced the stage in 2012.
“If you’ve come to see every show (in 2012), come to the Totties and see if your favorite performances win,” Geyer said. “It’s a wonderful tribute to the year.”
But on Feb. 7, Disney’s “My Son Pinocchio” will open on stage as the first production of the year.
Following the musical, the first play of the year, “Drinking Habits,” opens on March 14.
“The quality of our shows is absolutely wonderful,” Geyer said. “They are really fun and enjoyable … so it’s a great night out.”
The final musical of the year, however, will take theater-goers back in time to August 1988 — the reopening of the theater.
On Nov. 14, actors and actresses will take to the stage to perform “Man of La Mancha.”
The musical takes place during the Spanish Inquisition where a man by the name of Miguel de Cervantes has been thrown into a dungeon in Seville, Spain to await trial for an offense against the church.
There his fellow prisoners plan to confiscate his few possessions, including the uncompleted manuscript of a novel, Don Quixote.
The story unfolds as Cervantes, seeking to save the manuscript, proposes his defense in the form of a play, and transforms into Don Quixote.
“This is the big one,” Geyer said. “It was the first show when the theater reopened and it will be last show of the 25th season.”
Geyer first became involved with the theater in 2005 when its name changed to the Geyer Performing Arts Center.
It was the first time he ever learned about his family’s history with the theater, which was built in 1900 by his fifth great-grandmother, Catherine Geyer. Her son, Andrew Geyer, served as the architect and managed the theater for the first 12 years.
“I had no idea about the family history here before the name change,” Brad Geyer said.
“I came over and asked why, and they showed me all this family history, and I got involved. It’s funny, I learned a lot about the Geyer family history because of this place.”
Since 2009, Geyer has served as board president.
As president, he says he does it all. From singing in a musical, to painting and building the sets, Geyer involves himself in every aspect of a production.
“I joke with people that I only have a few years left, but I hope I can do this for a long time,” he said.
“I hope that the work I’m doing now perpetuates the theater more than 25 years, and I hope that we’re making the right decisions now and we’re investing the right way, and building the right way.”
He and his board of directors recently finished the theater’s strategic plan. They hope to work on the structure of the building itself, including electrical upgrades, and plan to begin a fundraising campaign to redo the rigging system, which is the system that holds up the curtains on stage.
“We have lots of goals moving forward,” he said. “Just like any business that wants to grow.”
But his main goal is to continue to build the audience.
The theater seats 340 people. And until every seat is filled, Geyer, the board, the actors and actresses, the musicians, and the behind-the-scene volunteers, won’t be satisfied.
“It’s not that we worry they won’t come, it’s that we’re disappointed they don’t come,” Brad Geyer said.
“It’s great stuff we’re doing here. I hope with the 25th season, the extra publicity we get will bring more people out. They’ll see the quality of the productions and that will make them want to come back more.”