Spring Valley Theatre

LouRugani on April 8, 2025 at 9:57 pm

No act - The Stagehands' plan is to buy area theater

By Chuck Rupnow, Leader-Telegram staff

SPRING VALLEY: It’s no act, the Spring Valley Stagehands are really trying to purchase the Spring Valley Theater.

Stagehands, a local acting coup, is staging a fund-raising drive to raise an estimated $33,000. An estimated $16,000 in pledges and donations has already been received.

Ken Kratt, a language teacher at Spring Valley High School, said the goal is realistic and would be a great benefit to the village.

“Six years ago we didn’t know how all this was going to work. But we’ve done pretty well and there’s no reason to believe it won’t get better if we own the theater. All we can do is try.”

Kratt said he and others approached Bob Richardson, co-owner of the theater, about six years ago to consider staging plays at the closed theater in the village’s business district.

“I just asked if he had any plans for the building,” Kratt said. “He said he had something tentatively in mind, but was willing to experiment with us.”

Richardson had been considering using the building for offices or as warehouse.

“We started out with a group of high school students, but advertised in the local newspaper to see if there were any others interested in helping with the play,” Kratt said.

Kratt, who was involved with a play in Menomonie, met with about 15 to 20 interested people at the local senior citizens center and plans were made for the play “Night of January 16.”

Ann Turner of Spring Valley helped with Kratt’s direction of that play. Volunteers helped build the stage, make costumes and redecorate the theater.

Theater seats had already been moved into a large pile. They were returned to their original site, but some have still not been bolted in place.

“The roof had some problems with leaks and the first show some people got wet,” Kratt said. “That’s been taken care of, but it made for some interesting comments after that first show.”

Stagehands currently pays $475 a month in rent and if enough money is donated, an agreement could be reached to put a down payment on the building and make monthly payments less than the current rent, Kratt said.

“Most of the people who came to see our first production came out of curiosity.” Kratt said. “They wanted to see what the old movie theater looked like. I don’t know if they thought we were going to be any good or not, they were just interested in being in the theater again.”

But most of the 270 seats have been full for each showing.

“There is interest in this because the actors and helpers are not only from Spring Valley, but from areas all around here,” Kratt said. “This is not just a Spring Valley production, it’s an area production.”

The various shows have included people from Elmwood, Baldwin, Menomonie, Ellsworth, Plum City and Glenwood City. The troupe has a new show about every two months, with the next one scheduled in March.

“Most of the money we’ve made over the past years has been put right back into the shows,” Kratt said. “There’s always a need to improve our props, stage or something else. We run on a pretty tight budget, so we’re pretty thankful for all the volunteer help we get.”

Kratt said donations will be used to buy the building and upgrade its heating, lighting and plumbing facilities.

“We’re always looking for more volunteers in a variety of capacities,” Kratt said. Right now, we’re also looking for tax-deductible donations to help keep us going. We’re hoping this script calls for a happy ending.“ (February 17, 1991)