Theater for today, tomorrow and yesterday

Last October, the Green Bay Community Theater kicked off a capital campaign aimed to ensure its performance space will continue to host shows for years to come.

GBCT’s landmark home, the Robert Lee Brault Playhouse, a former church built in 1853 and purchased by the organization in 1966, is one of the city’s cultural treasures.

As the organization looked to the future, its leaders called on the community to help preserve history while making significant improvements to enhance audience comfort, accessibility and production quality.

Now mostly complete, the capital campaign raised the $600,000 necessary for several initiatives, from restoring the building’s façade and replacing 40-year-old seating to upgrading lighting technology, improving accessibility for patrons and enhancing energy efficiency.

“We haven’t been here the whole 90 years, but we’ve been here since 1966 when [Green Bay Community Theater] bought this…” said Green Bay Community Theater Board President Dave Zochert. “This theater is going to be here today and tomorrow just as it was here yesterday. The seats are going to be nicer, but the plays are going to be the same. It’s community people working very hard to tell a story.”

For 90 years, GBCT has enriched the greater Green Bay area with the magic of live theater, staging productions where community members of all skill levels are welcome to participate onstage, backstage, or anywhere in between, regardless of background and experience, providing opportunities for those who want to share their existing talents or try something new.

“We encourage not only the community to come see the shows, but also to participate in them however you are comfortable,” Zochert said. “At every single show, just about, we have either an actor or a crew member of somebody that has never worked here or in a theater before and we are more than willing to work with them, train them and help them learn something new.”

And of those who have taken up the offer to be involved in theater, whether in the audience or on the stage, Green Bay Community Theater has become an important space for many, including Zochert, who has been a part of Green Bay Community Theater for roughly half of its history.

“Theater people are different from anybody else,” Zochert said. “In those 45 years, I have met people that I would have never crossed paths with in a thousand years… I would have never met the waitresses and the accountants and the history professors at UW-Green. I would have never met those people had I not been involved in theater…There’s a personal connection that happens in the theater that doesn’t happen in many other spaces. For a lot of people here, the theater has become a very good third space, which a lot of people are missing nowadays.”

Green Bay Community Theater’s 90th season includes The Spitfire Grill Oct. 1-11, Ripcord Dec. 3-13, A Rock Sails By Feb. 11-21 and The Musical Comedy Murders of 1940 April 15-25.

For more information about Green Bay Community Theater and upcoming shows, visit gbcommunitytheater.com.