Theatre alive while dark

IRONWOOD - The stay-at-home order may have forced a prolonged intermission of events at the Historic Ironwood Theatre, but that does not mean activities have ceased there. Instead of producing shows and events, the volunteer staff is taking on many of the cleaning and remolding projects that could not have been done with the theater open.

"Now that our theater is dark, we are doing a lot of cleaning and refurbishing projects in the building," said Zona Wick, president of the theatre's board of directors. "For example we have shampooed all the carpets in the building, which we couldn't do with the theater open as it takes too long to dry."

According to Wick, the theater has a capital improvement plan with a list of things that need to be done. They are looking at the list and determining what can be done by one person.

"We have a maintenance team and we have met via Zoom online to determine projects that can be done safely under the COVID-19 guidelines," said Operations Manager Bruce Greenhill.

So far, the volunteers have polished all the chair backs and arm rests, painted the green room, added cabinets and shelves in the green room, created an extra artist dressing room, continued a basement clean-up, and painted the office.

"The theater couldn't run without volunteers," said Wick.

According to Greenhill volunteers are tackling each project based on the time they have available and their skills.

"We had someone that had some skills and background painting, so they did that; and someone who had some carpentry skill, so that person worked on those type of projects. So we have just been putting the skills of the people we have to use," Greenhill said.

The green room, which is essentially a lounge for the artists, is being revamped. Aside from being repainted to brighten things up and new shelves and cabinets, the bathroom stalls have been improved, and there's a new refrigerator and updated furniture.

"It's a 1928 building, so as you can imagine there are always things that need to be done to the building," Wick said.

Volunteers are also working on labeling, sorting and organizing the basement area where props and equipment are stored.

"We continue to clean up and organize basement storage in prep for disposing of a lot of redundant material once life returns to normal and we can return to normal," Greenhill said. "There has been a lot of material collected over its 90-year history, and some has to be gotten rid of in order to make room. We are identifying the things that we can sell, and the things that will be trashed, and the things that we will find appropriate homes for."

Aside from the physical building projects volunteer committees such as the grant committee have been continuing to meet via Zoom to try and secure some disaster relief funding for the theater. They have also applied for the payroll protection program so the theatre can keep on their two part-time employees throughout the crisis.

Theatre officials are also working to create a emergency safety plan, so that all the employees, board members and volunteers know where all the 20 fire extinguishers are located and what to do in case of an emergency, according to Greenhill.

Wick said they'll be working with Ironwood Public Safety as they formulate a such a plan.

"The emergency plan is on my to-do list," she said. "Its one of those things that you tend to take for granted. It's important to make sure that all board members are aware of what to do in case of an emergency."

According to Wick the theater has been able to stay afloat during this time of crisis thanks to some really good financial planning after a reorganization two years ago.

"Thank goodness that we did that planning and tucked some money away, so we have some working capital to keep us going during this dark time," she said.

The theater is looking into the prospect of having some online programming, if the stay-at-home orders continue for awhile - such as the prospect of having Ironwood's Tim Mesun do an online performance on the Barton Organ.

"We are just taking the time to do things that you can't do when the theater is operating normally. We are continuing to evaluate what are appropriate tasks and what can be done safely within the guidelines of COVID-19 social distancing," said Greenhill.