Miles Burns has been teaching youth and teen theater classes at the Seacoast Repertory Theatre for years, but it wasn’t until this year that he faced perhaps the best problem an arts organization can have. One by one, each of the classes offered through the Rep’s Portsmouth Academy of Performing Arts (PAPA) program filled up.
“People are hungry,” says Burns. “I’ve been doing these classes for a long time and I’ve never had one of them fill up.”
But demand for the classes presented challenges for the Rep. A busy rehearsal schedule for the theater’s main-stage productions limited additional class offerings, and the youth classes often bumped up against scheduled rehearsals.
“We were double-booking all the time,” says Burns, the Rep’s interim artistic director.
Now, the Rep is expanding. The theater recently leased a 1,200-square-foot space at 1 Raynes Ave. in Portsmouth’s North End and an open house is scheduled for Friday, May 1. The space, a former dance studio, will act as the Rep’s annex, an additional site for rehearsals, classes, and other programs. It’s the next step in the Rep’s reinvention, which began last fall when the nonprofit theater nearly closed due to financial difficulties.
“This (annex) will open (the theater) up and allow more people to participate in all the cool things we have to offer, either here or at the theater,” says Burns.
“In order for us to grow, we need to have more room to show people what we do.” — Miles Burns
Tentatively dubbed “Rep North,” the annex is located near 3S Artspace. For Burns, the annex means that PAPA’s camps and class offerings can expand. Classes are targeted at children and teens. Their Babes on Stage class for 4- through 6-year-olds is meant to foster comfort, confidence, and creativity in front of an audience, while the Acting Bug class instructs 7- to 13-year-olds in the basics of theater. The Teen Stage Ensemble program is a school-year-long program for teen actors serious about studying theater.
“We’ve never had dance classes or writing classes. One of the things that is kind of exciting about the idea of a place to go and learn is the variety,” says Burns. “We are going to try to have an adult improv class that Brian (Kelly) is teaching. Learning doesn’t stop at 17. PAPA, I think, should be an all-ages thing.”
Cavalaro acknowledges that the Rep has a bad track record when it comes to new spaces. The theater’s acquisition of the former Mill Pond Center for the Arts building in Durham in 2009 proved to be a financial boondoggle for the Rep. Town regulations prevented the Rep from holding events on the site, and the Rep put the building up for sale in 2012. The difficulties with the Mill Pond Center contributed to the Rep’s financial problems last fall. Cavalaro said she sees the parallels between the decision to rent the annex and the Mill Pond Center, but she hopes patrons will recognize the differences.The new space also means a chance to bring in new PAPA instructors. Burns has “never had a day off,” says the Rep’s interim managing director Kathleen Cavalaro with a laugh. “So, we’re going to throw some new instructors in there so Miles can have a day off. We’re going to expand and keep adding. We are fine-tuning it now so we can get classes up and running.”
From left, Seraphina Caligiure, Miles Burns, and Jamie Bradley in the new rehearsal space
“The Mill Pond was an old property with lots of taxes and other issues that we owned outright. It is for sale now. The annex is leased for seven months and we had our first few months donated anonymously,” says Cavalaro. “We put together a business plan and presented it to the board. We looked at the monthly rent and what we could bring in, and it seemed like a no-brainer. The definition of crazy is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting the same results. We have to do something different than what we’d been doing before. We have to expand our program and we have to expand what brings the money in. This property is low risk.”
Burns added that the new space is a “realistic avenue” for the Rep to grow.
“It is not 25 minutes away, or out of our price range. In order for us to grow, we need to have more room to show people what we do,“ he says.
The May 1 open house takes place from 3 to 7 p.m. and features theater-oriented activities for kids and teens. Visitors can register for classes, view course materials, and meet the Rep’s staff and actors. Cavalaro said she and Burns will be on hand to speak with potential instructors about class proposals.