By By JOHN EBY / Niles Daily Star
CASSOPOLIS – Barn Swallow Theatre, whose previous home burned in 2004, is raising funds for a $350,000, 102-seat theater with a proscenium stage that will be built on property the Clark family donated on the southeast corner of Mullen Road at M-60.
President Bob Wurster told the Cass County Board of Commissioners July 3 that the 120-foot by 60-foot, barn-style building in Jefferson Township will be 1 1/2 miles from the village.
Wurster, of Diamond Lake, came to Cass County in 1940.
Founded in 1983 in a barn at the old county hospital on Hospital Street, Barn Swallow is 25 years old.
Since the fire, Barn Swallow has continued to present plays in other places, including Ross Beatty High School auditorium.
"I worked on a farm with my brother for five years," said Wurster, a professor emeritus.
"I love old barns. It featured a stage 'in the round' – in a square, in reality. That made the audience part of the performance and the actors part of the audience. We're a community organization that belongs to all of us. That's the way I feel about it. Many who have worked on it have gone on to careers in the performing arts. We're very proud of that. We offer two scholarships every year."
The fire "was quite a tragedy," Wurster said, "but it allowed us a way of looking at what we were and what we could be. In that way, it was a great thing. We took this as an opportunity to change, rising like a phoenix from the ashes. The new theater will be a 12-month, all-year-round kind of theater. This is an important upgrade. We can host other kinds of entertainment than plays and musicals – film festivals, music concerts."
The audience will be seated on three sides of the stage, Wurster said.
Barn Swallow Theatre's Board of Governors meets Saturday, July 12, at 9 a.m. at the Lutheran Church, 305 W. State St. (Pokagon Highway).
Items on the agenda include selecting and scheduling performances for the 2009 season and updates on the current children's play, "Zebra Swallowtail," and the August musical, "Pajama Game."
For more information, call Carol Senger at (269) 445-2511.