Goodbye Blue Room

Curtain call

A casualty of coronavirus shutdown, Blue Room Theatre ends 26-year run in downtown space

by Ken Smith

kens@newsreview.com

Ablack plywood casket sat in the space once occupied by the Blue Room Theatre’s main stage, surrounded by the room’s figurative viscera: detached lighting rigs, speakers and piles of coiled-up cables.

The unintentional stage dressings were appropriate for the day’s drama. Though it was ostensibly a rummage sale on that hot Saturday (July 11), many visitors—admitted in groups of 10 every half-hour, each person with a mandatory facial covering that barely masked traces of grief—attended as much to bid farewell to the beloved theater space as to take a piece of it home.

Patrons filed through room after room filled with props and bits of the black box theater’s infrastructure, Virtual Blue Room most of it available most of it available

Sign up for a membership for a small donafor a small donato Blue Room content at tion. Even the seats tion. Even the seats patreon.com/BlueRoomChico were up for grabs were up for grabs ($25 apiece, $40 for ($25 apiece, $40 for a pair); takers were a pair); takers were handed a hammer and wrench, and instructed to extract the chairs themselves.

The Blue Room’s board of directors announced July 2 that, due to lack of revenue and the uncertain future of live theater during the COVID-19 crisis, they would vacate the storied downtown theater space by Aug. 1. While many local nonprofit arts groups are struggling to survive in the face of restrictions, the Blue Room is the first to announce a closure.

During it’s 26-year tenure, the theater above Collier’s Hardware hosted thousands of concerts, comedy events and the most cutting edge dramatic productions in the area. The Blue Room will continue as a theater company, sharing new and old content via the internet for the time being and hoping to find a new home once the proverbial air is clear.

“My heart is heavy, and everyone that’s been a part of it is feeling this loss,” said Steve Swim, the theater’s development director and vice president of its board. “The way this virus has impacted all live performance everywhere, and the impact it’s having on Chico, is devastating. It’s difficult times for everybody.

“The thought that we can’t even meet up at Duffy’s and have a beer after we’re done shutting down the theater … it just kills me.”

Not for lack of trying

The Blue Room was notably proactive since the beginning of the outbreak. The company spaced out seating and reduced capacity per California Department of Public Health guidelines for the March 12-14 opening weekend of the locally created musical Stuff-N-Things: A Fair Retail Story, before a statewide restriction on public gatherings of 10 or more was announced the following week. No one suspected then that it would be the company’s final curtain call at the theater space.

“When the shutdowns got stricter, we realized that with actors on stage and their proximity, singing and shouting at each other, the ventilation of the room … there was no way to safely put on shows,” Swim said. “So we canceled the following weekends.”

Anticipating a few months of shutdown,

Board Secretary Cara Ernest moves boxes at the Blue Room’s rummage sale. PHOTO BY KEN SMITH Managing Director Amber Miller and members of theater’s staff and board reconfigured plans to present online-only performances for 2020—both prerecorded and live-streamed productions—dubbing it The Dark Season. The theater also organized a Zoom version of its summer camp for children online, but there was not much initial interest. Swim said the reality of the situation swiftly began to sink in.

“The likelihood of us being able to come back any time before, at best, Spring of 2021, it just isn’t feasible,” Swim said. “Live theater is literally the last on the list of [Gov. Gavin] Newsom’s plans to reopen.”

Erin Wade, president of the 1078 Gallery’s board of directors, said her organization faces the same difficulties. She explained the bulk of the nonprofit gallery’s funding comes from events and sales commissions from art exhibits, both of which are quashed by COVID-19. She said the gallery has held on to it’s Park Avenue home thus far because of “a flexible landlord” and the 1078 Rent Club fundraising drive established before the virus. (“Survival was always a struggle,” Wade said.) Members of the Rent Club commit to paying $50 monthly towards that expense.

“If not for that, we’d probably be doing the same thing [as the Blue Room]—putting our stuff in storage and waiting it out.”

Intermission

After the board decided to leave the downtown spot, they moved the theater’s sound system and some lighting into storage, and sold or gave away everything else. Though homeless, the Blue Room will continue to create some original content on at least a monthly basis on its Patreon page, and members of the company hope to find a new home once the virus passes.

One of the Blue Room’s longtime associates who came forward to offer assistance during the theater’s COVID-19 struggle is Dylan

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A shot from the 2017 Blue Room production The Haunting of Hill House, featuring Development Director Steve Swim (back center) and managing director Amber Miller (second from right). FILE PHOTO BY JOE HILSEE

Hillerman, a Chico expatriate who moved to Portland more than 20 years ago. He has maintained a close relationship with the theater and said he tries to return every year for the annual Butcher Shop Labor Day Weekend theater festival. (The Butcher Shop, Cosmic Travel Agency and Chico Creek Theatre Festival were forerunners to the Blue Room’s current incarnation.)

Hillerman was involved with the Blue Room throughout the 1990s and filmed many of its productions during that decade. He recently tapped into those recordings—he said he has more than 100 productions on video, though many have been damaged over the years—to be made available on the theater’s Patreon page.

Hillerman said digging through the old videos has led to the discovery of some lost gems, including a recently posted 1998 production of The Runt Life and Inexplicable Death of Mojo Chan.

“Every time I’m in Chico, someone asks me if I’ve found that tape yet, and I finally did,” he said by phone. “It was one of the early late-nite shows with a live band and was one of our best-selling and most popular plays at the time. I filmed it over seven nights and edited it together.

“The band was called Ant Farm, and they were roommates of mine. The organ player [former CN&R contributor Mary Rose Lovgren] told me watching it again made her year.”

Driving home the reality that arts organizations everywhere face, Hillerman said he’s also filming Portland performers and compiling video to help one of that city’s institutions—the century-old Clinton Street Theater, which shows films and does live stage productions—stay alive.

“One bit of light that I find in this darkness is the realization that we aren’t alone,” he said. “I think of my artist friends around the country, and I know they think of me because we’re all going through the same crap.”

More than a building

As Swim put it, the Blue Room as an entity can’t be contained in a building, and its importance to the local arts community extends far beyond the theater itself. Since its inception, the organization has served as a breeding ground for new ideas, original writing and avant garde experimentation. He noted that he had no theater training before he wrote a oneact for the Fresh Ink Festival (an annual event featuring local playwrights) in spring 2001.

“For actors, directors, patrons, volunteers, writers, musicians, all kinds of artists, it’s always been a home for people to meet likeminded souls, and to feel safe exploring art in the process of theater,” he said.

Julia Rue agrees. She moved to Chico from her native Germany in 2014. Her first role at the Blue Room was in Rick’s Café Américan (adapted from the film Casablanca), and in the past few years she’s gone on to direct productions and instruct the Blue Room’s Young Company. She credits her experience at the Blue Room with helping to discover her previously unknown love of directing and teaching children.

Rue referred to the theater as her “home away from home” and said she might not have remained in the United States this long if not for the Blue Room.

“It was perfect to come along in my life while I was away from Germany,” she said. “I felt like I found my people here.”

Said Hillerman: “The Blue Room will go on, that spirit will never leave Chico. It’s launched lots of seeds into the wind, and there are people all over the country [who] love it and will continue to support it.”

“Hopefully this isn’t the end,” Swim said, “but just some kind of metamorphosis.” Ω

Disaster County

Recent major emergencies shape local response to coronavirus

by Evan Tuchinsky

evant@newsreview.com

In early March, as coronavirus started to spread through the Sacramento Valley, Katy Thoma remained optimistic.

She understood the gravity of the situation—Butte County officials had recently declared both a local emergency and a local health emergency—and, as executive director of the Chico Chamber of Commerce, Thoma helped business owners navigate a sea of ever-changing information. When greeting visitors at the chamber’s downtown office, she’d offer an elbow bump instead of a handshake, in deference to public health guidelines.

Her optimism stemmed from the resilience of a community that’s faced multiple largescale emergencies in recent years—from the Oroville Dam spillway crisis to wildfires.

Speaking with the CN&R at the time, Thoma—who formerly worked as executive director of the Jesus Center as well as the Chico State Research Foundation—explained that people locally step up during times of crisis. She pointed to the 2018 Camp Fire and how a wide array of Chicoans—professionals and volunteers—embraced the multitudes displaced from affected areas. Residents welcomed fire escapees into their homes; doctors and nurses, of their own volition, headed to evacuation centers to provide aid; soon after, community members—led by Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. owner Ken Grossmen, Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers and the North Valley Community Foundation (NVCF)—banded together to establish the Butte Strong Fund, which has granted more than $35 million toward recovery efforts. “Anymore,” she said, “I would never fret about a disaster and [fear that we’d] not have the community rise up.”

Months later, Thoma has found her faith validated. As COVID-19 has grown increasingly prevalent in the county. Sitting in her office again, this time with masks and hand sanitizer at the ready, Thoma listed some of the recent local efforts that have grabbed her attention.

There’s the pair of couples—dining companions Tim and Ann Edwards, and Wally and Susan Marshall—who started a charity to jointly benefit food service workers and at-risk populations. The COVID-19 Local Restaurants, Local Needs Fund procures meals from eateries and caterers whose employees, jobs impacted by coronavirus restrictions, make the deliveries.

She also highlighted two other NVCFhosted funds, set up to purchase face masks made by businesses in Chico—apparel manufacturer Fifth Sun and mask manufacturer Salus Supply—for free distribution locally.

Thoma has witnessed the response across all facets of the commmunity as government agencies, hospitals, schools, nonprofits, businesses and individuals have adapted to meet continually evolving needs during Butte County’s latest emergency. (See “Anatomy of a surge,” Healthlines, page 8.)

“What I have observed, and what we’ve experienced, is those that have have really stepped up,” Thoma said, adding: “It’s our DNA.”

‘Continuing emergency’

Butte County’s recent emergencies influenced the response by organizations and the public to the current pandemic. That’s a sentiment expressed by local leaders across the spectrum. They’ve drawn on ingrained experiences to plan quickly for contingencies as coronavirus conditions have morphed, and they’ve found residents for the most part accepting.

While the COVID-19 pandemic is the third major local emergency since 2017, following the Oroville Dam spillway crisis and the Camp Fire, some look at events further back. At Enloe Medical Center, for instance, administrators trace the origin of their preparedness mode to the first evacuation of Feather River Hospital in Paradise during the 2008 Humboldt Fire. The through line for all, though, is the compounding sequence of hardships.

“I’ve had a lot of time to think about this, unfortunately, over the past number of years,” Chico City Manager Mark Orme said. “Because of all the things we’ve had … it’s been a continuing emergency.

“We are a resilient community based on our history.”

Mary Sakuma agrees. She was elected superintendent of the Butte County Office of Education two days before the Camp Fire; she transitioned from assistant superintendent literally as the smoke cleared. As public health mandates for coronavirus took effect, then

Disaster County

Enloe Rehabilitation Center was converted to a federal medical station in anticipation of a surge early in the coronavirus pandemic. CN&R FILE PHOTO COURTESY OF ENLOE MEDICAL CENTER

Left: Chico Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Katy Thoma in March. CN&R FILE PHOTO BY EVAN TUCHINSKY

changed rapidly, Sakuma and BCOE staff already had procedures established to handle the circumstances.

BCOE—like hospitals and other governmental agencies—activates an incident command structure. This personnel plan typically includes opening an emergency operations center, or EOC, to centralize decision-making and communication.

“We already know how to do this,” Sakuma said, “we’ve done this too many times. And, so, my internal team, we knew right where we needed to be, the players who needed to be in the EOC this time around, what kind of conversations we needed to have—and, perhaps better than most, we know how to make our unmet needs known through a chain of command.”

Danette York became director of Butte County Public Health last summer, seven months after the Camp Fire, but has worked 20 years in the field. She’s at the epicenter of the current emergency—moreso since the departure of her department’s public health officer, Dr. Andy Miller, at the end of June.

Though adherence to public health recommendations—particularly wearing face coverings in public—has appeared to fluctuate greatly as the pandemic has persisted, York attributes the positive responses to a distinctly local characteristic.

“The one good thing that I think has happened in Butte County that other places probably did not have is at least some of the population—I hope most—already had respect for leaders like our county administrative officer, Shari McCracken, and our sheriff[-coroner], Kory Honea, because they already had been through these disasters with them before,” she said. “They’d received information from them on a regular basis ... people knew their names, knew who they were, knew they could rely on them for accurate information.”

Enloe CEO Mike Wiltermood, at Chico’s hospital since 2007, noted how area residents have “been through an awful lot and sacrificed greatly for the benefit of the entire community during these various disasters, and COVID has been no different.

“People just step up and roll with the

City Manager Mark Orme, pictured outside of the City Council chambers in 2018, about a week after the Camp Fire. CN&R FILE PHOTO BY ASHIAH SCHARAGA punches. We get so much collaboration and support. People frequently often express appreciation for what we’re doing, but we wouldn’t be able to do it if we didn’t have this community.”

Battle tested

Enloe, as the North State’s trauma center, mobilizes for emergencies routinely. The hospital serves as the medical funnel for victims of accidents in the region—notably the 2014 bus crash on Interstate 5 that killed 10—and disasters. Such was the case in July 2008, when Feather River Hospital decided to evacuate the 50 patients in its care as the Humboldt Fire approached Paradise town limits.

“What [coronavirus response] really boils down to is the need for collaboration—and we are so collaborative. We have to have a level of trust that others haven’t had to bear witness to.”

—Chico City Manager Mark Orme

Already in reorganization mode, following financial and leadership struggles in 200607, Enloe used that experience to reshape its response. Wiltermood called the Humboldt Fire “the seminal event we learned the most from” that, from his perspective, “represents the beginning of our disasters.”

The hospital discovered the value of using an incident command team “rather liberally,” Wiltermood explained: Instead of reserving emergency protocols for “an overwhelming disaster,” Enloe started deploying its team (sometimes opening a command center) “anytime we have an unusual circumstance.” A recent example, right before the coronavirus spread, is when the electronic medical records system got hit by a cyberattack in January.

“We don’t really have to go through disaster drills because we have enough real-life stuff happening that we’re constantly learning, constantly evolving as an organization,” he added. Moreover, Enloe was ready to “pivot” when federal and state officials required hospitals to prepare for a potential spring surge of coronavirus patients.

Orme, along with being city manager, has served as Chico’s emergency operations director since the City Council declared a city emergency in April. He’s coordinated with York and Wiltermood on the health side, Thoma and others on the business side, and a range of government and community leaders to address myriad issues associated with the pandemic.

“There’s just a multiple layer upon layer upon layer of impacts associated with this emergency that [are] unique compared to other emergencies,” he said. “It’s kind of like a big old pot of jambalaya: You throw in whatever spices are necessary, and we’ve had whatever spice you could possibly imagine, from every agency at the federal level, the

state level, the county, nonprofits.

“What that really boils down to is the need for collaboration—and we [in Butte County] are so collaborative. We have to have a level of trust that others haven’t had to bear witness to.”

Orme has worked at City Hall since 2013, when he was hired as assistant city manager amid budget issues. That “financial emergency” is the starting point he identified for local crises—and it’s become a factor of the coronavirus pandemic, with municipal revenues directly tied to the health of the local economy.

Sales tax, primarily, funds city services. State mandates have shuttered businesses and put residents out of work. Compounding the impact, Chico State will conduct most classes online, reducing the population of students residing locally.

As before, the city manager will recommend to the City Council options for streamlining Chico government. Orme projects a shortfall of $7 million but will assess secondquarter tax receipts and present a revised budget in October.

Butte County Behavioral Health also is feeling pinched: State cuts affecting federal funding will cost the department $11 million in 2020-21, nearly 14 percent of its budget. This comes, Director Scott Kennelly noted, as demand for care has risen at the local agency that offers mental health and addiction services for low-income residents—including the increasing number of unemployed.

Kennelly’s staff and clients immediately felt the brunt of the state’s stay-at-home orders, which forced cancellation of in-person appointments except for extreme cases. Behavioral Health shifted to online and phone counseling, plus launched peer support via Zoom. He, like Sakuma at BCOE, said he receives calls from colleagues across the state seeking advice.

Enloe Medical Center CEO Mike Wiltermood. CN&R FILE PHOTO BY EVAN TUCHINSKY Oroville spillway failure, February 2017. CN&R FILE PHOTO BY KEITH LANDER

“The unfortunate part of having three or four emergencies is you’re battle tested, and there are some things you can do very quickly because you’re familiar with that,” Kennelly said. “I think Butte County—because we’ve had so many things happen, so many disasters—has had the ability to adapt quicker than some counties who haven’t experienced any fires and natural disasters.”

Remask/recover

Along with being battle tested, Butte County also is battle fatigued. Kennelly has observed the cumulative effect of crises not only on Behavioral Health clients but also staff, who also are living through the tumultuous events.

RESPONSE CONTINUED ON PAGE 21

Rural counties struggle to offer ample access to psychiatrists, psychologists and social workers. California has a shortage of these practitioners, along with counterparts in medical health. Coronavirus has thinned his corps further, Kennelly said, by forcing some service providers to step back for medical reasons or family needs.

From his perspective, the pandemic represents the fourth county emergency since 2017: Along with the spillway crisis in February of that year, Kennelly counts the Wall Fire in Bangor that fall, followed by the Camp Fire and COVID-19.

“I have a lot of staff who have been on the front lines working in every one of those disasters, and it’s wearing on them,” he said. “A lot of stress.

“We’re trying to make sure there’s resources for our workforce to remain resilient and get the support they need.”

Other officials expressed the same concern.

“It’s trying,” Orme said, “when you’re continually in a state of recovery and then immediately back in a state of emergency.”

Material needs continue to grow, too. Local communities recovering and rebuilding from the Camp Fire must deal with a concurrent predicament that takes money from the same overtaxed pool. Enloe lost $30 million in the four months it stayed on standby for a coronavirus surge and will need to ramp up fundraising—from donors already giving elsewhere and now impacted by the economic slowdown—for its needs.

“We need to be cognizant of the impact this is having on the community,” Wiltermood said, referencing psychological as well as financial stresses. “But I can’t imagine a community that would respond better to a challenge like this; I really can’t.”

Still, citizens have started to fray. Public

A community-led donation center was set up in the Walmart parking lot immediately after the Camp Fire. CN&R FILE PHOTO BY MEREDITH J. COOPER Danette York, director of Butte County Public Health. CN&R FILE PHOTO COURTESY OF BUTTE COUNTY PUBLIC HEALTH

Health and the city found widespread acceptance of preventative measures during the early days of the pandemic. Lately, however, resistance has developed even as the number of cases spiked.

“The biggest thing you’re going to see over the next couple months is how [government officials] reengage the community,” Orme said. “The shift of COVID-19 and the pressures it’s placed … have created a devolution—we’ve gone backwards.”

Thoma, fittingly, remains optimistic. Despite adverse conditions, the chamber has added two-dozen members since the start of the pandemic to reach 600. While state restrictions have forced some businesses to close their doors, others have retooled, such as Fifth Sun with face masks and Almendra Winery & Distillery manufacturing hand sanitizer.

“I believe resiliency is what’s going to sustain us and keep us moving forward,” she said. “We have good people here.” Ω

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