Situation challenging for local nonprofit performing arts groups
By Evy Warshawski
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NAPA VALLEY, Calif. — The burgeoning arts landscape in Napa Valley is a mixed blessing. While the number of opportunities to hear music, experience theater and catch a rare dance performance has grown, the logistics of renting a professionally managed, technically equipped space in which to present live performances has become more challenging than ever.
Although there is a bright spot on the horizon — the Brannan Center in Calistoga that is slated to open in 2025 — the current plight of many local performance groups to find a venue is difficult or impossible. A number of reasons contribute to this current conundrum.
When the Napa Valley Opera House reopened its doors in 2003, one of its mandates was to rent both the upstairs and downstairs of the historic building to community users. The 460-seat upstairs theater could house plays, dance performances, musical events and small galas. The downstairs café theater was ideal for meetings, lectures, rehearsals and special events.
In 2021, vintners John and Michele Truchard purchased the Opera House with a caveat to reduce rental fees and reserve a certain number of dates for city meetings and local nonprofits. This agreement has yet to be completed, leaving past and possible new renters in limbo.
The 1,214-seat Lincoln Theater located on the campus of the Veterans Home of California - Yountville closed its doors in 2020 due to COVID restrictions as well as a leaky roof and an outdated heating and cooling system. After a privately-funded, $20 million remodel in 2005, the theater flaunted a stunning and comfortable home for orchestral works, the annual Nutcracker produced by Napa Regional Dance Company, musical performances from Festival Napa Valley, lectures and special events geared to Veterans Home residents.
Funding from the California State Legislature will help replace the roof and keep Lincoln Theater updated and maintained as needs arise, according to CalVet spokesman Josh Kiser. Access back into the venue by the Napa Valley arts community remains unknown at this time.
Theaters dot the valley; however, possibilities for rentals are either restricted or not an option. Blue Note Napa holds the lease for downstairs at the former Opera House and books a full schedule of performances annually where sound can “bleed” with simultaneous events taking place upstairs in the newly named Jam Cellars Ballroom. Jarvis Conservatory is privately owned and presents its own slate of films and opera performances. Lucky Penny Productions established its own 99-seat theater in which patrons can see full seasons of plays and events throughout each calendar year. CIA/Copia’s 250-seat indoor Ecolab Theater is perfect for lectures and film screenings but lacks theatrical lights and a technical inventory. The Yountville Community Center and the Napa Valley College Performing Arts Center have evolved into fallback venues with their own agendas and limited date availability. More and more, desperate arts groups are booking churches for their presentations.
Today, local theater and music organizations are literally scrounging for midsized affordable spaces that could be retrofitted to accommodate arts programming.
“Whether for rehearsal or performance, it is our No. 1 year-round challenge,” said June Alane Reif, artistic director of Valley Players. “For rehearsal space, we’ve tried everything: people’s homes, business offices after closing hours, public parks during daylight hours, Zoom rehearsals (the worst).
“This year we’ve been rehearsing in a shuttered business that luckily still has electricity and running water but no heating or air conditioning. It’s scheduled for demolition next year, so we’ll be back to square one in 2024,” Reif said. “We have learned that wherever we perform, we have to bring in our own hardware in order to transform the space into a workable theater. That means all of the microphones, trusses, platforms, cabling, lighting instruments, walls, stair units and speakers, computers to control them and people to rig and run them. We have to set it up for every show, take it all down at the end of the run and store it all in different members’ homes and storage units.”
Claire Burke, board chair for the Napa Valley Chamber Orchestra has arranged for most of their venues to date.
“We have performed at Grace Episcopal Church in St. Helena, Congregation Beth Shalom, Justin-Siena and Napa high schools, Napa Valley College Performing Arts Center and Pacific Union College,” she said. “Getting venues is probably our most difficult task because we have to make each contract separately, list each new venue as additional insured on our insurance policy, adapt to new performance spaces each time and more. A regular space where we could rehearse and perform would be wonderful and vital for long-term success of the orchestra.”
Producer and Artistic Director Laura Rafaty of Napa Shakes had booked an exclusive tour of three plays in repertory from Shakespeare’s Globe in London.
“We were getting ready to present it at the St. Helena Performing Arts Center,” she said, “and had hoped to go to the Castello di Amorosa, which the troupe toured when we brought them for “Lear” in 2014. There were Napa County restrictions on the number of contiguous performance dates as I recall. Of course it all fell apart when touring stopped at the Globe in 2020. But they’ll be back to us, and I’d like to see the county rethink their restrictions in some of these areas so that a diversity of performance offerings can be found at existing spaces.”
For 29 years Music in the Vineyards has been presenting its annual summer festival in intimate winery settings. Executive Director Evie Ayers recently said it has been getting harder and harder due to changes in the economy and Napa County regulations.
“Wineries are now regularly turning us down,” Ayers said, “as their emphasis moves to no longer holding events to support the local community but to making as much income as they can from their facilities. The licensing permits from Napa County do not permit the wineries to charge for their use for local nonprofits so they just turn us away.”
“We are down to using a number of churches, especially for our community events. Some of these are expensive or don’t have the facilities we need. It isn’t always the price of the venue but also the location and how comfortable the seats are. After almost 30 years, our patrons expect picturesque winery settings with wine at intermission. Some of our patrons refuse to attend concerts in churches or less attractive venues.”
While there are no short-term solutions to this dilemma, two bright spots on the horizon may provide new space-rental possibilities.
“At the new Blue Oak Middle School being built near downtown Napa there will be a gym designed to also serve as a performing arts venue,” said Kim Markovich, a K-5 teacher of music and mindfulness. “The large room will double as a performance space. I believe that the space is envisioned to be a community resource.”
Slated for completion in 2025, Brannan Center promises to serve as a community hub for area residents and other members of the greater Upvalley community. Its mission is to offer opportunities to experience performing arts and community programming that celebrates culture and promotes vitality.
Built in the 1870s, the former home of the Calistoga Community Presbyterian Church will be renovated into a flexible 240-seat theater that will be in operation seven days a week, house all the amenities of a fully functioning performing arts center and be run by professional staff.
Nearly $9.5 million has been raised to bring the historic facility up to current commercial building code and outfit the space with two state-of-the-art theaters as well as additional workshop and meeting spaces, a full commercial kitchen and sophisticated soundproofing to mitigate noise in the surrounding neighborhood. Fundraising continues to build a $2 million endowment to encompass furnishings, audio-visual equipment and emergency services equipment and to prefund two years of operating costs.
I recently toured the building site and found the project to be something special to look forward to experiencing and a model of what is possible when community minds come together for the common good.
“Finding a space to perform in has always been difficult,” said Sharie Renault, artistic director of UpStage Napa Valley, based in St. Helena. “The schedule that we are able to get always bumps up to some other performing group’s production dates. We live in a small valley, and as a nomadic community theater troupe without our own theater, we always have to move sets, lights, props from where we rehearse to where we perform. The Brannan Center is a hopeful prospect.”
Editor's Note: Further analysis should be conducted to better understand the nature of these challenges. For example, the issue could stem from an oversaturation of events and insufficient demand for local nonprofit performances. Alternatively, it may be due to a lack of awareness, higher-priority commitments or a variety of other factors contributing to this phenomenon.
Evy Warshawski is co-director of E & M Presents and former executive/artistic director of the Napa Valley Opera House.