The new Arts Campus of Red Mountain Theatre promises an exciting season for arts patrons

PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE LILI PAD

Located at Celebration Park, the splash pad is a great spot for kids to cool off from May 1 – September 30. It’s open Tuesday – Sunday, 10 a.m. till dusk.

Rise to the Challenge

Red Mountain Theatre’s new arts campus finally opens its doors to community thespians and theatre-goers

BY STEPHANIE GIBSON LEPORE

Unless you’re new—really new—to Birmingham, you know about Red Mountain Theatre and its importance in the arts community. The nonprofit, started in 1979, fosters thespians, inspires a dedication to theatre in area youths, and draws in a dedicated following for its Broadwaycaliber shows and educational offerings, including the celebrated RMT Conservatory.

According to the theatre’s website, “Through theatre, students sharpen their ability to create and to collaborate, gaining confidence along the way. These skills serve students throughout their lifetimes-on the stage and beyond.” For the past four-plus decades, Red Mountain Theatre has completed this mission without a permanent home.

But that all changed this past summer with the completion of a $25 million Arts Campus, situated in the city’s Parkside District. Featuring more than 60,000 square feet, Red Mountain Theatre now boasts two theatres, rehearsal spaces, administrative and production offices, scene and costume shops, a piano bar, recording studio, makeup and wig room, back of house facilities, and room for set and costume storage in one state-of-the-art facility. And, it seems, this is only the beginning.

Bham Family: Tell us a little about the dream of the new arts campus.

Red Mountain Theatre: During the past 40 years, Red Mountain Theatre (RMT) has grown from a summer stock theatre company to a robust year-round professional theatre organization. We’ve quadrupled our staff and consistently grown our student and patron base year after year. Prior to the Arts Campus, we ran our core operations out of three different

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locations and annually rented space at five to ten different properties on a short-term basis for classes, camps, and performances. Our work was inefficient and somewhat limited by our available facilities. We have been searching for the right location to put everything under one roof for several years. In fact, we likely explored 15 or more different options before landing in Parkside.

BF: How did the Arts Campus get started?

RMT: Through a ton of hard work, a unified vision, and a capital campaign led by Kathryn and Raymond Harbert, we were able to complete work on our new Arts Campus in Birmingham’s Parkside District. We can now all be together on one campus and focus all our collective energies towards our success. The deeper impact of that on our programming is just an unreal gift. Of course, the past year has been challenging for everyone, but we are lucky to have a team at Red Mountain Theatre that has been able to adapt to any challenges the pandemic presents. The road to this new Arts Campus was no easy feat, but our Executive Director Keith Cromwell can tell you that when he walked into this building, he threw his arms open and said, “This is it.”

BF: What were the fundraising efforts and how long did it take?

RMT: Our capital campaign was chaired by Kathryn Harbert along with co-chairs John Turner, Tim Vines, and Jim Gorrie. When we held our groundbreaking event in December 2019, we had raised well over half of the $25 million goal. Then the pandemic hit, and what we had planned to be a fairly public-facing campaign was forced to pivot. We paused a bit to manage other portions of our business and then, got creative with hard hat tours as people began to venture out of lock downs. Even in the face of such challenging times, the community responded by supporting the HOPE that our Arts Campus embodied for the future.

BF: Was it difficult to take on such a huge project once the pandemic began? How did that affect the project?

RMT: I think the challenges brought on by the pandemic motivated all of us at RMT to reinvest in our mission. The old theatre adage of ‘the show must go on’ became all too real in 2020. Luckily, we were able to come through the pandemic with a renewed sense of belief in our core values of enriching, educating, and engaging through theatre.

BF: When did the new facility open?

RMT: Our grand opening was on June 16, and since then we have been hosting shows regularly as part of our soft opening. We recently closed a very successful run of our immersive “Roaring Twenties” production and have announced our 2021-2022 season that will kick off with our Holiday Spectacular in December. We’ll also have several shows prior to that, including our Human Rights New Works Festival, The Addams Family Young@Part, and a concert version of the Jekyll & Hyde Musical.

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BF: Tell us all about the Arts Campus.

RMT: Featuring more than 60,000 square feet of space, the Arts Campus provides the opportunity to house all its operations under one roof after more than 40 years of multiple locations housing different divisions, such as set design and costume storage. The one-stopshop campus features two full theaters, several rehearsal spaces, administrative offices, a scene shop, a costume shop, a piano bar, a recording studio, makeup and wig room, production offices, back-of-the-house facilities and even storage for sets, costumes and more.

BF: What new endeavors will the Arts Campus allow RMT to offer?

RMT: One of the most important things to us at RMT is education, and our Arts Campus represents an incredible opportunity to bolster those efforts. We have a permanent home now for kids in our community who want to learn the ins and outs of theatre, and that is a real thrill for us. We can offer more group and private classes, and more variety in our offerings. This fall, we have Musical Theatre Dance and Tap classes for both youth and adults. We are also offering an Adult Yoga class. So, there will be learning opportunities available for the whole family. (Note: Fall classes begin September 11. Register at redmountaintheatre.org/education.)

BF: What is the most exciting part of the new Arts Campus?

RMT: It’s exciting to have a permanent facility we can truly call our home. Somewhere we can have everything under one roof to do the thing we love to do the most: create theatre experiences that educate and transform lives.

BF: So, we can look forward to a 2021-2022 season?

RMT: Absolutely! We are excited for patrons to experience our new season in a brand-new space. This season will feature the main productions Holiday Spectacular, Once on This Island, Once, Kinky Boots, and Cinderella. As mentioned earlier, we also have our Human Rights New Works Festival coming up (September 24-26), a youth production of The Addams Family (October 1-3), and our Jekyll & Hyde Concert (October 29-November 7).

BF: Any other new developments?

RMT: We have been expanding our staff in tandem with our growth trajectory. We are now up to 29 full-time production and administrative staff and counting. That is a long way from the 5 full-time staff we started with all those years ago! We are currently trying to fill a few more permanent positions, like Stage Manager and Costume Assistant. We’ve recently welcomed Roy Lightner in his permanent role as Associate Artistic Director (previously Artistic Consultant). Anthony Smith has also joined us as our new Music Supervisor. We are very excited about all the new changes ahead!

Find out more information about RMT’s 2021-2022 season and other events at redmountaintheatre.org.