Performing Arts in Iowa

Kay Henderson

From touring Broadway shows to world class dance companies to educational programs, the lights shine brightly on Iowa stages. We'll visit with two of the state's top arts leaders on this edition of Iowa Press.

 

 

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For decades, Iowa Press has brought you political leaders and newsmakers from across Iowa and beyond. Celebrating 50 years of broadcast excellence on statewide Iowa PBS, this is the Friday, December 29th edition of Iowa Press. Here is Kay Henderson.

 

 

Kay Henderson

As the curtain goes up on this edition of Iowa Press. We are joined by two leaders in Iowa's theater community. Jeff Charles Craig is president and CEO of Des Moines Performing Arts. And Andre Perry is executive director of Hancher Auditorium and the Office of Performing Arts and Engagement at the University of Iowa. Gentlemen, thanks for being here.

 

 

Jeff Chelesvig

Thank you for having us.

 

 

Andre Perry

Indeed.

 

 

Kay Henderson

Also joining our conversation are Courtney Crowder, Iowa columnist and senior writer for The Des Moines Register, and Diana Nollen. She is the arts and entertainment reporter for The Gazette in Cedar Rapids.

 

 

Diana Nollen

Hello there. And Andre, the first question goes to you. Please explain to us what is Hancher Auditorium, its umbrella, and how has it been evolving in recent years?

 

 

Andre Perry

Yeah. So Hancher Auditorium is our presenter at the University of Iowa, our arts presenter. It's been around for 51 seasons. We're halfway through our 51st season. It's actually part of a larger ecosystem. So we are, we're part of the performing arts at Iowa, which is the collected energy of all of our performing arts units at the University of Iowa, our departments of dance, music, theater, our production unit, and of course Hancher Auditorium. And there's that Office of Performing Arts and Engagement. We really steward the collaboration between all those units, and Hancher really has a unique role because we're the connector between the campus, our immediate community, Iowa City, Cedar Rapids, the whole state, and then of course, the whole field of performing artists. And so we're this little incubator that kind of brings everyone together. We're the bridge. And so Hancher is yes, presenting a number of things throughout the course of the year, but is also at the same time really trying to infuse our artists into our campus, make them part of the curriculum and really trying to drive that accessibility so that wherever you're coming from as a student, the faculty and staff members, a community member, it's a place that's accessible and it's a place that you should come in and experience great arts.

 

 

Diana Nollen

Excellent. And how has that been growing over the years and changing?

 

 

Andre Perry

Well, it's the arts, so it's always changing. It's always shifting. We're always reacting or trying to be out and ahead. I think over the years we're really trying to ensure that our students and the artists have the most amazing experiences possible within the state of Iowa. And so that means that artists, when they come here, they feel held. They feel like we're supporting their work, we're helping their careers. And for students, that they have exposure, if there are students at large. But if their students really focus on the arts, that they're getting the professional skills they need. So specifically, you know, a theater student might have shown up 30 years ago and had a certain type of training. But with everything moving to digital, we've had to build out, you know, all different sites, all different sorts of like digital capture and having a green screen studio and just like being able to keep up with the times. And then to bring in artists who also have worked in those capacities, understand how the industry has changed. So it's really just keeping pace with what's happening in the performing arts overall.

 

 

Diana Nollen

Excellent. Thank you.

 

 

Courtney Crowder

Now, Jeff, you've been head of Des Moines Performing Arts for almost 30 years, 29 in January. Tell us a little bit about all the different facets of Des Moines Performing Arts and what are some of the major changes you've seen over the decades?

 

 

Jeff Chelesvig

Well, first of all, Des Moines Performing Arts was started as the Des Moines Civic Center in 1979. That facility opened and at the time we had just that facility. And then what was called Nollen Plaza across the street, now Cowles Commons. And we also had the Stoner Studio Theater, which is a 200 seat black box in the Civic Center building. Civic Center is 2700 seats. So it's a large facility. And it was really started to be this kind of the type of facility that Hancher was in Iowa City and Stephens Auditorium was in Ames. Both of those are a little older than ours, but our building has been around now for closing on 45 years. And we, so we're also a major presenter. We have seven different series that we run in two of our facilities - the Civic Center, and also the building that we added, the space that we added a 21 years ago, the Temple Theater, which is kind of off campus. It's in the Temple for Performing Arts in downtown Des Moines, about seven blocks west of our building. So that's been probably one of the major changes that we've had. But also just expanding the work that we do with young people. We serve on an average about 50,000 to 60,000 students across Iowa each year through a number of different programs, including a bus in program for students during school time that are curriculum based shows. And then one of my favorite things, the Iowa High School Musical Theater Awards, which is now in its 11th year of serving, this year, 103 high school musical productions across the state. So that's been a great big change.

 

 

Kay Henderson

Jeff, forgive me for this, but if you book it, you hope they come, right? So talk to our viewers about how difficult or some of the tricks of the trade in actually getting the performances at your venues that you really want.

 

 

Jeff Chelesvig

Well, the good thing is, number one, we have a very large venue, the Civic Center being very large in terms of seating capacity. We're also located in the center of the country. So routing is usually not a problem. We actually get everything we want. We are a major presenter of not just touring Broadway, but also in our education series. The artists will find the time to come because they know that this is going to be a great one or two day residency when they're here. Broadway shows. We have over 13,000 subscribers to our Willis Broadway Series. So again, when we start with that number of tickets sold. For us, a week of productions in Broadway is eight performances from Tuesday through Sunday. With over two thirds of the tickets already sold before we go on sale to the public, that makes a big deal. So we are a very coveted slot in just about any tour.

 

 

Kay Henderson

Well, you know, when you think of TV markets, they are numbered in terms of the number of viewers. What is the Des Moines theater market number?

 

 

Jeff Chelesvig

You know, we don't really, we don't gauge it that way. Although I would say that we have more subscribers than most of the major cities around us.

 

 

Kay Henderson

Andre, when I think about some of these Broadway productions, you know, they have semi-trailers coming in. How does your venue accommodate some of these large scale productions, and talk about how you're able to book things that your audience wants to see?

 

 

Andre Perry

Yeah, I mean, like Des Moines Performing Arts, we're working in a lot of different threads of programing. And so the Broadway subscription series is one of the things that we do, which is actually quite new for us. The way that we're presenting Broadway now from a physical standpoint. Hancher as a presenter is 51 years old. Hancher as a new building is seven and a half years old. And so we were so lucky that my predecessor, Chuck Swanson, and his team as they rebuilt Hancher after the 2008 flood, they had a lot of these production questions in their mind. How do we make this easier for tours to come through? In particular, you know, kind of Broadway's most likely the largest, most difficult thing you're gonna have come through. And so our capacity to support those kinds of tours is way better now than it was pre flood. So, flood was devastating and terrible. We're trying to find silver linings, and this is certainly one of them. So as we think about the programs that come through and how we how we book them and how we think about our audience, our goals, I think from a spiritual level, are can we have everyone in this community find a way through the doors in a given year? And so that means we have to have a lot of esthetic diversity in what we're doing from Broadway to dance and all different kinds of dance that we do. And we think about musical performance, everything from things that are very traditional, like classical music to things that are new and on the cutting edge. And so we want to see all ages. We want to see the students in there. We want to see our community members in there. We want people coming from across the state to enter as a destination. And so if we can hit all those things in a given year, we're feeling like we're doing a pretty good job.

 

 

Diana Nollen

So keeping that in mind, Andre. how do you program for your varied audiences? Because it is so widespread. You have your core supporters who maybe have been with Hancher since its beginning, and then you have young families for whom a night out means we have to get a sitter. Can we afford to have dinner before the show? Do we have drinks after the show? Do we have to get home? You have college students. You need to peak their interest and you have young people who need to come and be wowed for their kind of experience. And so how do you sit down and plot that out?

 

 

Andre Perry

Yeah, there's no one thing that we're thinking about, but it's a series of considerations that we take into place. So one, it's just the artists who are on the stage and making sure that there's a wide range of artists across genres, across disciplines. That's one step. Another thing is just accessibility. And sometimes that's pricing and making sure that, hey, you know, some things might be a little bit more of a premium price. Broadway tends to be more expensive than some other events. But if that's the case with Broadway, then we have to make sure that some of these other programs are much cheaper. And so we're very sensitive about pricing. And when it comes to students, both the students of the University of Iowa and the students at large in our areas, Johnson County, Linn County, we have very low pricing. Most of our tickets are $10 for those folks who are coming through. And we're very aware that, hey, we want to make it easy for you, too, especially if you have a family of three, four or five. Easy for you to come through our doors. The other thing which is I think less, you know, data driven like a number, is we have to make sure that our staff has relationships with the various folks in our communities. That's having relationships with all the schools K through 12. That's having relationships with all the departments across the University of Iowa. Getting into community groups in Iowa City, in Cedar Rapids and all the smaller towns around us. And my goal is that everyone knows us and that they feel they can email me, call me, walk through Hancher which is a state facility at any time and say, Hey, how can I get my crew in here? How can we get these kids in here that I teach? We have a secret rule, I guess not so secret since I'm saying it on TV now, where you know, we have shows where a student might come in and they haven't bought a ticket or they're on some comp list because their class was supposed to come in. But our box office is to never turn away a student because like, that's a key opportunity. Whether someone is in first grade or is in their third year of college. We always want to make sure that if the seat is there, the student can get in.

 

 

Diana Nollen

Oh, that's so cool. Thank you. Good to know

 

 

Andre Perry

It's no longer a secret. That's. But that's the energy and the attitude that we're trying to have is to find a way in rather than keeping folks out.

 

 

Diana Nollen

Perfect.

 

 

Kay Henderson

Jeff, how do you handle the idea of cultivating an audience?

 

 

Jeff Chelesvig

You know, I think it starts, first of all, with really understanding that Iowa is, people are really smart, they're well-traveled, they have curiosity. We try to, like Andre, we try to program shows that will sometimes be challenging for people. I think it's that's all about building an audience, because many times, many presenters across the country won't do straight plays on seasons. And I have done just about every straight play that has ever toured since 2008. Because I think it's really important to try to cultivate that audience. We start at a very young age. We do a lot of programing for pre-K to third graders. So the energy when we have those shows in the Civic Center is quite amazing. If we could capture that, we could probably light the entire downtown with that energy. So we really start at an early age. And then the programs like the High School Musical Theater Awards are something that we work a lot with the students. We do a lot of summer camps with Broadway professionals. And we also have a student rush program for just about every show, so a student can walk up and buy a ticket for 20 or $25 to a first run Broadway show. And that is really there's a lot of students that take advantage of that.

 

 

Courtney Crowder

Jeff, sticking with you, obviously, you represent kind of the biggest theater game in Des Moines. How do you see your role as a cultivator of local theater and arts?

 

 

Jeff Chelesvig

That's a good question. When I started in 1995, there were about three or four local community theater groups in in the central Iowa area. Now, I think there are 12 or maybe 14 of those kind of performance groups. So I'm a big believer in the fact that we're really not competing with the local theater community. We are trying to cultivate. Because if people come and see a show, whether it's the Civic Center or Hancher Auditorium or wherever, I always say our biggest competition is Netflix and Amazon Prime and things like that. People staying home. If you come out and you have a good time at a show, no matter where it is, the chances of you going again somewhere are pretty high. So I think, and we also have three, we have in our performance space, the Stoner Theater, we have three local community theater groups that use that regularly, which is fantastic. It's a great use of the space. So we do a lot of work with those groups as well.

 

 

Courtney Crowder

And then, Andre, you spent several years at the Englert Theater, a sort of smaller venue in Iowa City. What did you take from that experience as far as cultivating local theater and arts that you use now that you're at Hancher?

 

 

Andre Perry

Yeah, I think I have a similar mindset as when I was at Englert now at Hancher, and a similar mindset to Jeff, which is we are one venue. Whether it's Englert or Hancher, we're part of an ecosystem. And so we always had a community feel where the Englert would be discussing with our colleagues at Hancher, would be discussing with our friends at Film Scene, at Riverside Theater, some of the other presenters and other promoters in the area. Always trying to figure out, okay, here's what we do uniquely as an organization. But what does our whole community need? In fact, in two days from now, as we start to kind of wind down for some of the holiday activity, all those folks in Iowa City, we're going to get together and get around a table and say, what went well this year? What was really difficult this year? And that can just continue like checking in and understanding you're just one venue, or one presenter, part of a larger sphere, is like a really important philosophy for me at least. And I think it's helped us be, I think, successful in Iowa City area and continue to like weather through challenges. Most recently COVID 19. But I think that philosophy is also applied statewide. You know, we were launching a new Broadway subscription series this year, and Jeff has actually been very supportive of that because we understand we want more activity in Iowa. Right. And more. And Performing Arts has done a brilliant job of building Broadway for the state. And now maybe there's enough room where we can continue to build that energy from, you know, all the way to the west, to the central, to the east and north and south. That's only better for all audiences. It means more people are coming out, more people having great experiences. And hopefully we're transforming some of us who are older as well as some of us who are much younger.

 

 

Kay Henderson

Andre, you just mentioned the pandemic, and Diana has a question.

 

 

Diana Nollen

Yes. So what has Hancher retained from pandemic programming that helped you reach new audiences nationally, even internationally? Are there any programs you've retained or any lessons that you've learned that you can use moving forward?

 

 

Andre Perry

I think the lessons are endless. Probably everyone can say that around the table. You know, I think, I was at the Englert during the pandemic, but also in very close contact with our friends at Hancher at that time. And I actually, you know, you may or may not know, I'm also on the board of the National Independent Venue Association. My colleague, Dayna Frank, who owns First Avenue in Minneapolis. She was working really in the weeds with our senators, Cornyn and Klobuchar, to get the SVOG policy or the SVOG Act passed. And so a lot of our focus there was trying to think about how do we bring all of these really crucial entities in towns across America, whether it's a performing arts center, a small club, a regional theater. How do we get us all talking together so we understand our collective power and impact in the communities where we are, whether it's a really small town or a massive city. You know, how do we come together to really advocate for ourselves? I think that was an affirmation and one of the biggest lessons I took from the pandemic, is that literally we all have to be working together. Johnson County, Iowa City, Cedar Rapids area state of Iowa, across the country. And so are really trying to apply that mindset to all the work that we're doing.

 

 

Diana Nollen

Are you continuing any of the online programing that we saw?

 

 

Andre Perry

We're not doing a lot of online programing right now. Which is not to say that we don't like online. I like online programing, you know, just personally. But in this stage of Hancher, coming out of the pandemic, you know, there's been a shift in leadership. And we're really just trying to, I think, do the basics really well at a high level. Make sure that we're serving our community. I think we're really interested, particularly for our K-through-12 and our students as well as our families living in the area, to just get them back into spaces. Maybe I'm not going against Netflix, but I think, you know, it's great that Netflix exists and all the streaming exists, but that needs to be one part of a whole picture of how we engage culture. And so I think we're trying to get people back in.

 

 

Kay Henderson

Courtney.

 

 

Courtney Crowder

Jeff, I'll start with you for this one. We've seen stages, productions and concepts being legislated across the country. How has the political climate in Iowa affected your institution and how are you planning for the possibilities that it could?

 

 

Jeff Chelesvig

Well, I would say, first of all, we when we first started programing and, you know, after the pandemic or once we came back on to doing live performances, we were faced with having to deal with the national touring companies that had protocols that would ensure that they would be able to move from city to city. And so we were very, very interested in making sure that we had that right as an employer to be able to make some mandates not only for our employees, but also for our guests, which went extremely well. People I think understood that immensely. You know, we're continually watching. I think that what everybody needs to know, especially people in the legislature and in state government, is that the arts are not just good for the soul. They're also an economic driver. They are very important to the economic infrastructure of downtown. If you go to a city, whether it's the Civic Center or Hancher. You talk to people that work in restaurants or stay in, you know, that are working in hotels, how important those shows are to the infrastructure of having downtown. So it is not just something that is good for our soul and good for the community. It's also something that is an economic driver. And to remember that we have to be able to do our business is really what's most important.

 

 

Courtney Crowder

And Andre, same to you. How has the political climate affected your institution and how are you planning for the possibility it might?

 

 

Andre Perry

Well, I work for the University of Iowa, so, you know, we're very tied to the to the state of Iowa government, we’re a Regents university. You know, I actually think arts and culture, entertainment, engaging with these downtown venues, or venues wherever they might be in your community, has been one of the things that's gotten a lot of legislators to the table together in bipartisan ways. I was just talking about that SVOG grant that was a highly bipartisan, you know, act that we got that we got to the floor. Right. It was it was one of the things that people were very supportive. Our national level representatives from the state of Iowa were extremely supportive in those efforts, and we're grateful for them. And I think on the state level, you know, we worked really closely with the governor's office during the COVID 19 pandemic to get some of that Cares money coming out to both nonprofit and for profit venues. When I think the governor's office saw those letters come in from folks from smaller towns, from larger towns, from a small little restaurant that has music to a bigger performing arts center that has, you know, music and dance and all these other things. It really drove home the point that Jeff's making and said, these are drivers for our community. There's the numbers for economy, but there's also just the culture of what it means to, like, live in a place that you call home. And so, I feel that we're lucky with the way that our legislators, both on the state and the national level, have been supportive of arts and culture and economy. And I know that there was a re-organization at the state level, but having, you know, our Iowa Arts Council rep Dave Schmitz working very closely with Debbie Durham, I think there are some great long term benefits to that and economic development overall in Iowa, understanding the role that we play in that picture.

 

 

Kay Henderson

Jeff, we have just a couple of minutes left and we could probably talk about this for half an hour, but you are the only Tony voter in Iowa. How did that happen?

 

 

Jeff Chelesvig

Well, I would like to say practice, practice, practice. But that's not true. Actually, the Tony Awards are a joint production of the Broadway League, which is the trade association for Broadway in New York and on the road, and the American Theater Wing. And I'm a full member of the Broadway League. So as that, I become a voter for the Tony Awards. It's an honor, I'll tell you. And it's a lot of work because you have to see a lot of shows in New York.

 

 

Diana Nollen

Oh, darn.

 

 

Jeff Chelesvig

I know. But I will say this. Many of them are good. Some of them not so good. So that's kind of my job.

 

 

Kay Henderson

So how do you do that? Do you say, okay, I'm going to spend two weeks or do you keep flying out to see things? Or how does that work?

 

 

Jeff Chelesvig

That's a great question. Usually I'm out there about once a month, so I will go out there for about two or three days. And during that time I will see two or three shows and so I can usually keep up with it. I was just there earlier this week and saw four shows over the weekend. A lot of shows open in the spring. They open in a very short amount of time and then suddenly the nominations are out and then you're having to really play catch up. So that's when I will go and spend maybe ten days and see 12 or 13 shows at once. And that's, I'm always ready to come home.

 

 

Kay Henderson

Andre, we have about half a minute left. You are not a native Iowan now. Why are you living in Iowa and working?

 

 

Andre Perry

Well, I might say that I'm a native Iowan now. Almost. I've been here for 18 years. You know, I'm originally from Washington, D.C., and lived in California, but moved here to go The University of Iowa. Got my MFA in nonfiction writing from the University of Iowa.

 

 

Kay Henderson

Are you writing a play?

 

 

Andre Perry

I am always writing. My first book came out about four years ago. I'm working on a new book now. But I stayed in Iowa City, and Iowa, because I was immediately brought into the culture. And it's been a creative place, I think. I think we live in one of the most creative places in the country, and that's like one of the best secrets that we have about Iowa is that you come here to make amazing things happen.

 

 

Kay Henderson

Well, this is no secret to those of you behind the camera, but we are out of time for this conversation. Thank you both for joining us today.

 

 

Jeff Chelesvig

Thanks for having us.

 

 

Andre Perry

Thank you very much.

 

 

Kay Henderson

You may watch every episode of Iowa Press at Iowa PBS.org. For everyone here at Iowa, PBS. Thanks for watching.

 

 

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