Noblesville Theater Groups Need Affordable Performance Spaces

Let’s face it. Noblesville needs a performing arts venue for community theater groups.

The community needs performance space where community or non-equity theaters, dance companies and musical groups can affordably stage their performances for the public.

Having “insufficient or no access to performance space” is our local theaters’ greatest barrier, according to the results of Nickel Plate Arts’ new Noblesville Theater Study, just released to The Times.

“Existing Noblesville theater groups struggle to access space,” the study revealed.

Nickel Plate, based in Noblesville, is an umbrella nonprofit organization that creates and coordinates arts and cultural experiences across communities to improve the quality of life for residents, strengthen local economics and enrich experiences for visitors.

Last fall, Nickel Plate Arts sent out questionnaires to dozens of theater groups to find out their needs in our community.

“Even folks who are finding space to perform don’t have adequate rehearsal space,” Aili McGill, Nickel Plate Arts’ executive director, said, according to the survey responses.

Respondents said they don’t have adequate rehearsal space, or adequate set-building space, or storage space for set pieces, props and costumes. Theaters that travel to various venues are in need of adequate time in a performance space to load in sets, hang lights and run sound.

A performance space could have all of these attributes and still not work for the theater unless the space is affordable.

Local theaters — which rely mainly on ticket sales, private donations and sponsorships for their livelihoods — need affordable spaces for performances, rehearsals, set-building and storage.

“Our goal with this study was to try to be helpful to any of the theater groups to try to provide any data we could to help theater groups make the case that we desperately need space in downtown …,” said McGill, who said the information gathered was also handed over to the City of Noblesville. “We keep hearing they have projects in the works that affects this conversation.” Nickel Plate has also been approached by a private developer.

“We’ll continue to prompt them for follow-up,” she said of the City.

McGill said 14 local theater organizations and 31 individuals were surveyed about their current and future operating needs.

What the research found was not surprising.

“All of our local theater groups struggle to access space because there just isn’t any at the moment, or not much. Their business plans and cultural impact are really limited by the space that they can access,” McGill said.

Most of the theaters surveyed need a 100- to 200-seat venue. However, a venue with 400 to 600 seats would be “very viable” and would meet the needs of all of the groups in Noblesville. “When we’re thinking about spaces, too, we want to make sure that it’s also flexible for other performing arts, like music and dance, and I think some of those performances push up that seat range, as well,” McGill said.

The survey also researched 36 venues in the 11 other statewide cultural districts and four additional communities around the state. “Looking at the other cultural districts around the state, the majority already have at least one large performing arts center that includes multiple venues, large spaces and small spaces, and most of those are operated in cooperation with the local arts agency in some capacity and often the arts agency has a direct connection to the City in some capacity as well,” McGill said. Many of these venues were smaller and in historic buildings, which pose their own challenges, compared to those venues that were purpose built, which are usually utilizing public funds.

Back to our local survey, Nickel Plate Arts sent out emails to about 50 local theater groups with connections to Noblesville, however, less than half responded.

Of the local theater groups that responded, the theaters perform between one and eight productions per season, with the average at four to five productions per season. Some theater groups that responded aren’t currently producing shows but would like to stage three or more shows with multiple performances per season if they had access to affordable performance space. The theaters surveyed have a vast range of years of operation. The majority of respondents don’t have 501(c)(3) status and don’t want it. They want to stay as small for-profit enterprises, McGill said.

Most theaters surveyed want to focus on Thursday through Sunday performances.

Of those theaters responding, the average ticket price was $11.33, although most wanted to sell tickets in the $10 range.

There is a large range of the length of time that theater groups would like to have access to rehearsal space, but the most common response was four to six weeks. And most theater groups would like to have at least two weeks in the performance space to rehearse and perfect their tech.

If every group that responded could produce their ideal seasons in Noblesville, our community would have 50 theatrical productions per year, she said.

The theaters surveyed engage five to 500 actors per season. And while most don’t pay their cast or crew, some theaters, such as Poet Ape and Indy Bard Fest pay their actors, I am told. There are theaters that work with kids only and theaters that work with people with disabilities.

The survey revealed that half of the respondents don’t have any access to building space.

There is a real hunger for theater experiences that are not going to be anything like professional but are really important to the performers and building skill sets, McGill said.

If Noblesville were to offer a public venue for these theater groups, what questions do the theater groups have? “How would the theater be staffed?” “How far out can shows be scheduled?” “Would the space be physically accessible to all?” Would the venue “market and promote shows?”

McGill said, “I think this gives us a great guide in working with the City of Noblesville and private developers as we move forward.”

The Noblesville Common Council recently approved a partnership with Pacers Sports & Entertainment to bring the Mad Ants, the company’s affiliate in the NBA G League, to Noblesville. As part of the plan, the City of Noblesville has agreed to build a 3,400-seat, 85,000-square-foot $36.5 million arena on the east side of the city near Mojo Up Sports Complex at Finch Creek Park.

I have already heard conversation that the sports venue would have potential for concerts, touring shows and other events. The success of this new arena “could point to our community of how hungry our community is for theater of any kind,” McGill said.

She said it sounds like the City of Noblesville is more than happy to explore options for arts venues.

This survey’s feedback has brought to all of our attention the needs of the theater community and what needs to be in an arts space.

A couple of years ago, there were “indoor/outdoor theater” plans mentioned in a Noblesville Plan Commission staff report. When asked about this, the City replied that there is no theater group involved or theater plans.

Now, McGill said there is a grant proposal to create a 10,000-square-foot art center space at Federal Hill Commons. It could be the future home of Nickel Plate Arts. McGill said, “We want a black box theater in that. We would need lots of other kinds of arts space in there. I think it would miss a giant opportunity if that wasn’t built to include some form of performing arts. It would not be the solution to the performing arts problem overall, but it would add another asset that I think would be important to a healthy performing arts community.” McGill said such a black-box theater would be 100-150 seats that could be rented out to community theaters. But if a larger, more formal, performing arts venue was created by the City of Noblesville, the Nickel Plate black-box theater would be, down the road, used for more experimental theater.

McGill said, “I can’t imagine that in the next decade there isn’t some solution that comes forward.”

Noblesville venues that have been used by local theaters include The Ivy Tech Auditorium (which is no longer available to the public after already-scheduled performances this summer) and Noblesville First United Methodist Church as well as Noblesville High School and the downtown activated south alley off the Courthouse Square. (But these venues pose some challenges for groups using the venues, from access to technical to availability to affordability. Noblesville Cultural Arts Commission also uses the Federal Hill Commons Amphitheater for Noblesville Shakespeare in the Park.) Noblesville theater patrons travel to Fishers for The Switch Theatre at Ji-Eun Lee Music Academy. The Cat in Carmel is used by Carmel Community Players. Local theaters also go out of county to Theater at the Fort in Lawrence and Marian University in Indianapolis.

We should have known the need for more performing arts venues was on its way. I remember when my daughter was in sixth grade five years ago at Noblesville East Middle School, when our principal Ryan Rich said that since the split to two middle schools, the number of NEMS students enrolled in performing arts had surpassed the number of students who participate in sports.

And now Noblesville High School is planning to fulfill more performing arts needs with the renovation of 37,000 square feet for the school’s performing arts.

Can’t wait to see what happens next.

-Betsy Reason writes about people, places and things in Hamilton County. Contact The Times editor Betsy Reason at betsy@thetimes24-7.com.