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Bits ‘n’ Pieces: Magenta in motion, heading to Main Street

Magneta Theater will move up Main Street and Riverside Performing Arts will leave downtown for Hazel Dell. Folo on all the downtown churning.

By Scott Hewitt, Columbian staff writer
Published: September 18, 2015, 6:00am
2 Photos
Jaynie Roberts, owner of the Magenta Theater in Vancouver. After six years at 606 Main St., the theater has plans to move five blocks north to a larger space.
Jaynie Roberts, owner of the Magenta Theater in Vancouver. After six years at 606 Main St., the theater has plans to move five blocks north to a larger space. (Natalie Behring/The Columbian) Photo Gallery

Magenta Theater’s long, narrow home at 606 Main St. is dearly beloved and deeply problematic.

“I love this place. I will miss 606 a lot,” said Jaynie Roberts, the founding director of Magenta Theater, which has been entertaining audiences here — while struggling to squeeze them all in — since 2009.

There are 101 tight seats in the low, tunnel-like auditorium, which is laid out in oddball fashion: the stage isn’t at one end, facing many rows of seats, but rather along one side wall, facing a few long, shallow rows of seats along the other side.

The slim space has no backstage. Actors exiting stage right at intermission must hurry downstairs, through the basement and then upstairs again to reach lobby restrooms before the audience does; that means the director is usually tasked with a couple minutes of audience patter, giving the harried thespians a head start to the head.

Those restrooms — just two of them — are the only ones in the theater, and they’re in the rear, where the lobby is. The front door is on the opposite end of the building, yards from the stage. That means posting a sign begging latecomers not to knock on the door and interrupt the performance, Roberts said. And of course, she added, having the lobby far from the front door just doesn’t make sense.

Plus, there’s the less-than-upscale street scene at the bottom of Main, with its pawn shops and bars. Police are too-often obliged to swoop in and close these streets due to rowdy behavior, Roberts said, and even when they haven’t, Magenta’s patrons “don’t enjoy having to step over people on their way to their cars. It can be pretty nasty,” she said.

Magenta, a volunteer-driven nonprofit outfit, has made do with this difficult space while growing steadily and adding performances when the standard run of eight to 10 shows doesn’t pack in everybody who wants to attend. It’s gone hunting for bigger, better options — including vacant space in the historic reserve area and the for-sale Masonic Center building on 78th Street — but nothing else was a comfortable and affordable fit, Roberts said.

Then landlord Schofield Properties forced the issue — and offered a good solution, she said. Magenta’s lease will end soon, the group was informed, and major — noisy, disruptive — construction will envelop the building as Schofield works through the city’s Adaptive Re-Use Program, aimed at updating older, hard-to-redevelop properties, to renovate it.

On the other hand, there’s the space at 1108 Main, which was just vacated by Riverside Performing Arts.

A different world

Five blocks north of the bottom of Main puts you in an entirely different world, Roberts said.

“There’s just nicer street appeal,” she said.

Customers are headed to more upscale establishments; she’s hoping to work out some good deals with them for Magenta theatergoers who also do dinner or after-show drinks.

Best of all, she said: 1108 Main St. is more spacious and will let Magenta expand its seating from 101 to 150 — in a much more traditional and workable layout. The lobby is upfront where a lobby should be, Roberts said with a laugh, and Magenta is pursuing a beer and wine license to help patrons stay happy before and in between acts.

The bigger space will also mean Magenta can build bigger sets — even two-story sets — and offer more elaborate shows, Roberts said. Magenta has never offered much in the way of musicals, but 1108 Main has the space for a real pit band and a big cast of singers and dancers. Get ready for a musical every year from now on, Roberts said.

The first one will be “Little Shop of Horrors,” which Roberts herself will direct in October 2016.

Magenta will move into its new space well before that, though. The last show at 606 Main will be “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,” running Nov. 19 through Dec. 19; the first show at 1108 Main will be “The Women,” opening on Feb. 12. (About to open, on Sept. 25, is “Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure.”)

“We are really looking forward to being able to do different kinds of shows,” Roberts said. “We can’t wait to welcome patrons in our new space.”

Riverside in Hazel Dell

After four years at 1108 Main, Riverside Performing Arts — offering private instruction in dance, drama, musical theater and musical instruments — has moved to 1307-B N.E. 78th Street in Hazel Dell. Owner and director Annie Warf didn’t want to comment on reasons why the school moved — but she said it’s already looking like a big improvement.

“It’s double the space we had before and there’s ample parking,” she said. “And it’s a lot closer to a lot of our clientele.”

Parents and families never had an easy time getting their children down to Main Street for lessons — and earned a maddening number of parking tickets when they did so, she said. “A lot of our customers were concerned with parking,” she said. “Honestly, 99 percent of our people are saying thank you. We’ve already acquired new clientele” since a recent open house, she said.

Riverside now has its own private playground, too.

Bits ‘n’ Pieces appears Fridays and Saturdays. If you have a story you’d like to share, email bits@columbian.com.

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