By David Fortier
The Board of Education recently set its fee schedule for renting the newly renovated and renamed Rockwell Theater at the Bristol Arts and Innovation Magnet School (BAIMS) on Memorial Boulevard.
At the same time, the city department working in conjunction with the education board continues in its search for an events planner, a search which began early last month.
Each is a step closer to opening the theater to the public, and one which Bristol native and Waterbury Palace Theater CEO Frank Tavera is pretty familiar.
Twenty years ago, Tavera was hired to restore the Palace and get things up and running. Two years later, the Palace opened and Tavera has headed the operation since.
“People had their ideas, of what the Palace was going to be,” Tavera said in a phone interview last week. “I had to allay concerns, get people to move forward with a different idea or let them know we are going forward with this and this and this.”
Tavera had been in a few early task force meetings, has met with school and city officials about the project and has been consulted off and on over the past decade.
Schedule fees, he said, are pretty standard and Bristol’s are no different.
The fee schedule looks like this: 501(c)(3) organizations, daily rental eight (8) hours–$1,000; for-profit/commercial, daily rental (8) hours—$2495. Additional equipment from lighting to fog machines to lecterns and microphones ranges from $400 to $25. The lighting package requires hiring an in-house technician.
Rentals require organizations to provide their own insurance. Each rental includes charges for a theater tech and custodian.
In the email sharing this information, Deputy Superintendent of Schools, Michael Dietter, who oversees the school and theater building projects, said that the BOE is open to working with nonprofits and community organizations on fees.
Tavera said that he also works with community organizations when it comes to fees, but most of the fees are set by professional organizations, including unions.
“The only thing we can negotiate, in our world, is what we refer to as internal costs,” Tavera said. “Cost of rent and stagehands is fixed.”
In Waterbury, the Palace is connected with an arts magnet school of its own, Waterbury Arts Magnet School, which holds its shows at the Palace. In addition, the Palace works with a local symphony orchestra, ballet troupe and a Shakespearean group, as well as other local talent.
The theaters are different. The Palace has over 2,600 seats while the Rockwell Theater has 621. They will also operate differently. In Waterbury, the Palace is in charge, whereas in Bristol, the Board of Education is.
Both operations depend on blanking out use dates for the schools. In Waterbury, the Palace sets use days for the schools. In Bristol, it is the opposite.
BAIMS has already had an arts show featuring local artists, coordinated by a student and held in the exhibition area outside the theater space; in addition, the school held its winter concert last week.
The Bristol Parks, Recreation, Youth and Community Services (BPRYCS) is the city department charged with hiring the individual who will be instrumental in filling the open dates. The official title of the position is Arts and Culture Supervisor.
While Tavera said there are limitations for the Rockwell Theater, regarding size and production space in the types of shows it might attract, the theater has many positives.
Tavera said he has been in the Rockwell Theater within the past two months and he is impressed with the restoration, especially the stage space.
“Aesthetically, it has a beautiful look to it,” he said. “It’s going to be a warm and inviting space.”
Regarding the events manager position, Tavera said, the going rate is between $28 to $40 an hour, depending on the skill set. The position in Bristol is part-time—18.75 hours a week–and pays $31.98 an hour.
Scheduling an event might mean a month or an 18-month turn around, Tavera said. Booking a touring group featuring “Mama Mia” might not be possible, he said, there are plenty of other possibilities for shows.
He iterated that determining the financial expectation for the operation is critical.
If the expectation is for the venue to break even, that requires a different business model than operating commercially, to bring in a profit.
The Board of Education has already begun blanking out use dates for this year and intends to complete the school schedule for next year in March, according to Dietter.
The Arts and Culture Supervisor position, or events manager position, according to the job requirements, has a broad scope, since it not only will involve programming for the theater but also for the Bristol Parks System.
To be considered, a candidate needs to have a bachelor’s in theater management, business administration, community planning or related fields, plus four years of experience in theater management, arts, production management or closely related experience. A master’s is strongly recommended.
The theater project is coming to a close, with a few more small items that need to be completed. The arts magnet school opened this September, marking the 100th anniversary of its opening as Bristol High School.
Funding for the magnet school was initiated by then-Rep. Chris Ziogas from the state. Plans for the magnet arts school originally intended for it to an interdistrict school, drawing students from Bristol and adjacent communities, but the school was approved by the state as an intradistrict school serving Bristol students alone.
The construction project, under the auspices of D’Amato/Downes, came in under budget and in a timely fashion, considering the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on supply chains.
The school-theater partnership makes available to students many pathways, or in education speak, many possible career paths, including stage work but also with other courses of study, such as costume design and creation, set design and construction, and sound design and editing.
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