Chardon City Council’s Ad Hoc Theater Committee unanimously selected Thrive Performing and Visual Arts to take over arts and theater programming in the historic Geauga Theater building at 101 Water Street on Chardon Square.
Chardon City Council’s Ad Hoc Theater Committee unanimously selected Thrive Performing and Visual Arts to take over arts and theater programming in the historic Geauga Theater building at 101 Water Street on Chardon Square.
The voted took place at an Oct. 21 committee meeting.
Council member Heather Means, who chairs the theater committee, took time to thank not only city staff and the selection team, but all of the groups who had applied to be a part of the city’s arts program.
“We’re very lucky that we had so many fine candidates to choose from and I just want to thank them again,” Means said, singling out Willoughby Fine Arts for the time they put into a presentation.
Ultimately, however, Means said what was most important to her was the collaborative nature of Thrive’s proposal, especially for space in the building at 106 Water Street, across from the theater building itself.
“Things that we talked about that were very important were diversity of programming and the 106 space being able to still be utilized by the public and for folks who had been using it,” she said.
Means added Thrive has also proposed showing films in the theater.
According to its website, Thrive — a 501(c)(3) professional theater, modern music and film company — was created in the summer of 2015 by Streetsboro Theatre Director Jim Boardwine and his creative team, as well as Streetsboro Theatre Booster Club President Michelle Madden and her club members.
“Thrive partners students, community members, business owners and performing arts professionals to create and stage live theater; write, record and perform modern music, and develop and produce unique video content,” the site said.
The theater committee was formed earlier this year in response to the dissolution in April of the Geauga Lyric Theater Guild, an arts education organization and volunteer acting troupe formed in 1954.
The final break-up of the GLTG board came after a tumultuous year in which longtime part-time employees were eliminated in January of 2019. The Guild also vacated the Jasmine Dragons building at the end of February a year after that collaboration started and parted ways with its executive director in January 2020.
The city leased both buildings to GLTG for $1 per year and in 2018, facilitated grant money for various upgrades to the Geauga Theater, including an expansion of the women’s restroom. The terms of that grant money mandated the building be used for the arts in the near future.
At the committee meeting, council member Andy Blackley said while WFA might have been the safe choice to take over the spaces, what impressed him the most about Thrive was their energy and enthusiasm for Chardon.
“They’re going to make Chardon their primary base of operations, they said, and that is important to me,” he said. “So again, I think they’re going to bring a fresh product to the city and they’re also going to have a great mix of programs and I think get a better utilization of the facilities than what we were hearing from Willoughby (Fine Arts).”
Councilman Deb Chuha said Thrive will bring a different type of asset to the city.
The committee will present their recommendation to council at its next regular meeting Nov. 12.
