Stoughton Opera House Article

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The Stoughton Opera House offers a variety of events and concerts throughout the year, including public events by Opera for the Young, a Madison based group which aims to ignite enthusiasm for opera. Above is a photo from the group’s presentation of Gilbert and Sullivan’s Pirates of Penzance.

Photo by Jeremy Jones

A restored gem 30 years after beginning a major restoration effort, the Stoughton Opera House has become a top Midwest venue

by Bill Livick

By now, most people in southern Wisconsin who are interested in the arts have heard about the Stoughton Opera House.

But you don’t have to be an aficionado of the performing arts to appreciate the historic venue’s beauty and character. You have only to step inside the auditorium to admire its rich patina of colors, all perfectly restored to the original 1901 design.

That’s true for performers and concertgoers alike.

“It’s one of our favorite venues in the whole Midwest,” said Amanda Rigell, of the Madison-based folk group Count This Penny.

She and her husband, Allen – the other half of the singing and songwriting duo who founded the quartet – love performing at the Opera House because it is intimate, warm and has wonderful acoustics.

“We’re songwriters, you know, so it’s nice to play where people can hear the words and the music,” she said. “That’s a 10 YOUR FAMILY WINTER 2014

really special venue.”

Basia Bulat agrees. The Toronto-based singer-songwriter, who performs more than 100 shows a year in Europe and North America, commented during her Nov. 6 show that the Opera House has “the finest acoustics” of all the concert halls she’s experienced.

But as long as the venue has been around, it was largely unused for about 50 years and has only in the past five years become a hot spot for regional and national performers.

Part of the intimacy and warmth that draws major acts to perform at the Opera House comes from the personal touch that is apparent in virtually every aspect of the operation, from volunteer ushers seating concertgoers to the fact that its two staffers, Bill Brehm and Christina Dollhausen, are always on hand to field suggestions for future shows.

“We’re not Ticketmaster and we’re not Overture,” said Brehm, who has been the Opera House director since 2007. “People will

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come to a show, and if they’re concerned about something, they can walk into an adjacent room and the only two employees are going to be sitting there and will be receptive.”

Restored glory The Opera House’s rise from relative obscurity to first-rate performing arts center began with its centennial celebration back in February 2001. The event not only marked 100 years since the venue’s opening but also was the crowning of a restoration effort that began in 1983.

But for the first three or four years after opening in 2001, City of Stoughton officials didn’t quite know what to do with the restored gem.

Then Brehm and Dollhausen took charge of operating the 475-seat venue, located on the second floor of City Hall in downtown Stoughton, and within a few years were booking 50 to 60 shows a year. The Opera House’s income increased from about $100,000 in 2006 to $400,000 in the 2010-11 season.

The most noticeable shift in the Opera House’s schedule began with the 2008-09 season. Suddenly, instead of 12 shows per year the venue was hosting 60 or more.

“That’s when we decided to push the limits to see how far we could go,” Brehm said. “Then the ’09-10 season was when we started to push it really hard.”

He and Dollhausen made a conscious decision to ramp up the schedule “both from the perspective of having to create revenue but also wanting to see it used in the best way possible, because we have a love affair with the Opera House as a venue,” Brehm said.

The goal has been to make the Opera House sustainable “without our workload being such that it’s impossible to maintain,” he said.

Brehm estimated revenues of $600,000 in his budget for the current 2013-14 season, which will feature almost 90 performances.

“I think we could do a lot with more help,” he said. “But times are difficult. As much as the Opera House tries to make ends meet and be budget neutral, if one of us got hit by a bus tomorrow, I think we’d be in trouble around here.”

Continued on page 12

Events coordinator Christina Dollhausen and Opera House director Bill Brehm on stage in the Opera House.

Photo by Jeremy Jones WINTER 2014 YOUR FAMILY 11

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GEM Continued from page 12 Doing more with less That’s because despite having a cadre of dedicated volunteers helping with shows as ushers, Brehm and Dollhausen are responsible for almost everything else.

“There’s not a lot of redundancy between Christina and myself,” Brehm said. “We’re completely reliant on each other to make this happen.”

They are responsible for every aspect of the operation, from scheduling shows to arranging accommodations for artists to running the sound and lights.

“The job is all over the board,” explained Dollhausen, who has been event coordinator since 2007. “We pretty much spend March to late June/early July booking acts. We run all the shows here.

We advance all the shows, meaning we call the tour manager or musician and find out what they need to make the show run as smoothly as possible.

“There’s a lot of preparation with that – the sound and lights and hospitality and hotels. All that kind of stuff.”

Dollhausen is largely responsible for putting together each season’s brochure. It’s the Opera House’s main form of advertising, although word-of-mouth also goes a long way.

“Ultimately, coming to a show and telling a friend about it is the best way that anybody who wants to support the Opera House can,” Brehm said. “The word-of-mouth about what we’re doing here has been great.”

House to its past splendor, with its original tin ceiling and fire curtain, which was repaired earlier this year at a cost of $29,000.

“We try to make something special and unique in this area, and there isn’t another venue like this,” Brehm said. “It would be very difficult for either of us to go anywhere but here and work with any other venue because we both love the

STO UGH TON OPE RA HOU SE 381 S. Main St., Stoug hton www.s tough tonop eraho use.co m To purch ase ticket s: buy direct ly at the Box Office in City Hall, open Monda y throug h Friday, 9 a.m. -4:30 p.m.; or call the Opera House , (608) 877-44 00; or use Ticket Force , (877) 840-04 57.

Rising from the ashes Built in 1901, the Opera House gradually slid into such disrepair that it was closed to the public in 1955. Back then, it was a nice auditorium, but had been painted a dull gray and showed none of the resplendent color it wears today.

By the early 1980s, the neglected space had become dirty and dingy with brokenout windows and stacks of old files covered with tarps amid pigeon droppings.

There was talk of tearing down City Hall, where the Opera House occupies the second floor. Instead a group of volunteers formed the Friends of the Opera House in 1983 and raised $1.75 million in private donations to completely restore the Victorian auditorium. Volunteers donated their skill and labor to install a new heating and air conditioning system, new lighting and a new sound system.

The restoration returned the Opera 12 YOUR FAMILY WINTER 2014

space so much.”

Brehm and Dollhausen can’t help but wonder how much more the Opera House could do with a larger staff running it.

Out of curiosity, he once checked out comparable sized-venues, like The Grand in Oshkosh, which has a staff of eight and a smaller schedule.

Economic realities aside, Brehm and Dollhausen aren’t complaining. They’re proud of what they’ve accomplished and thrilled at the thought of another season, which runs from September to June.

They’re also happy to work in the kind of supportive environment that the city provides.

“Recently, one of the performers said this is the nicest venue; you guys are the nicest people,” Dollhausen recalled. “I like working for an organization where I can be nice.”

UPC OMIN G SHO WS Part-time Opera House employee Julia Blakie reveals the keys of a new clavinova piano that the theater acquired last summer.

Photo by Bill Livick

Pokey LaFar ge, Dec. 6 UW Russi an Folk Orche stra, Dec. 7 Stoug hton Cham ber Singe rs, Dec. 8 Wisco nsin Cham ber Orche stra prese nts Hande l’s Messi ah, Dec. 14 Stoug hton Festiv al Choir and City Band Christ mas Conce rt, Dec. 15

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She and Brehm both mentioned a pleasant, observable fact about where they work: that a smile comes across the face of virtually every visitor to the Opera House, whether performer or audience member, when they first walk up the stairs and enter the historic space.

“What’s so special about it is not only does the audience get a great show, but the musicians get a great show too,” Dollhausen observed. “They really feed off each other. The musicians always mention how receptive the audience is and how good the sound is. It kind of goes both ways here.” ●

From left, Blakie, Brehm and Dollhausen prepare tickets for a show.

Photos by Bill Livick

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