Kathryn Page Hauptman thought she might have staged her last show for The Forum Theatre when the company’s lease for space in a local church expired last year. The Forum went dark, in theater lingo, and Page Hauptman doubted she could find a suitable replacement space.
But this drama has a happy ending. The Forum organization has acquired a space that will allow it to do bigger productions and hopefully create a second revenue stream by renting a spacious lobby for events.
“It’s a huge step,” said Page Hauptman, who is the company’s artistic director. “Not many theaters own their own building.”
The 14,000-square-foot space at 141 W. Ellis was once a warehouse for the McCormick Armstrong commercial printing firm, which went out of business in 2019. It was open space, which means walls and doors and bathrooms and much more had to be added. It’s now been divided into a theater with 190 seats, a lobby that can hold 200 people, dressing rooms, storage space, office space, a ticket booth and a catering kitchen.
It reopened last month with a four-week stand of “The Million Dollar Quarter,” a musical based on the real-life 1956 get-together of Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins at the Sun Records studio in Memphis.
The Forum started 15 years ago and is a nonprofit organization. Liz Hicks, president of its board, said she’s not surprised that Page Hauptman was able to raise the money necessary to make its new home a reality. Page Hauptman had previously founded the Center Theatre at the Wichita Center for the Arts (now MarkArts) and then Studio One, which developed new musicals.
“She’s had theater patrons for all these years,” Hicks said.
Page Hauptman said The Forum will continue bringing audiences a mix of “comfortable” and “challenging” shows.
“Our story telling is very strong,” she said. “That’s what people love about us.”
