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Show MnttqEiriall Performing arts center? Egyptian should be the Place FOR SALE: prime real estate in Old Town area of mining town turned ski resort. Across street from new shopping mall. Suitable for a variety of commercial ventures. Site currently occupied by 60-year-old theatre. No, this classified ad didn't actually appear anywhere. But it's not that farfetched. Park City's Egyptian Theatre is on the market, and there's no guarantee that the next owner won't turn it into the King Tut Health Spa or the Cleopatra Condominiums. And without the Egyptian, the performing arts in Park City would ha w to choose between : The theater at the Prospector Square Convention Center, which has plenty of seating but little in the way of backstage facilities. And the acoustics leave a lot to be desired. -The Main Gallery at the Kimball Art Center, which has little to offer either in seating or backstage facilities. And the sculptures tend to get in the way. -The ice rink at the Park City Resort Center, which now hosts the Park City Shakespeare Festival. Like any other open-air facility this location has obvious limitations, especially in the winter. The 600-seat auditorium at the Carl Winters Middle School, which has been abandoned for the past two years. With each new broken window it seems less likely that this building will ever serve a useful function again. I Granted, the Egyptian has its limitations. The stage is small and the dressing rooms inadequate. But it has more to offer than anywhere else in town. It has the equipment to handle modest stage productions. It has state-of-the-art 35-mm movie projectors; And it can seat ' more than 300 people. The trouble is, it doesn't pay its own way. Currently it's being used two nights a week for the production of "THIS is the Place." The pace will step up during the ski season, but even then the revenues barely pay for the theater's staggering utility and operating costs. i I i Are we being realistic in expecting Randy Fields, current owner of the Egyptian, to bite the bullet indefinitely when the theater is used on such a limited basis? In trying to support the performing arts, Park City has two strikes against it: It has a small year-round population, and Salt Lake City is only 30 miles away. But Park City also has a lot going for it. It has two energetic local theater groups, and it has a tourist population, particularly in the winter, which is begging for more local entertainment. Both Park City Performances and the Intermountain Actors Ensemble have made a huge contribution to the performing arts locally. The production of "THIS is the Place" has made a niche for itself alongside "Saturday's Voyeur." But the local pool of talent can only go so far. To supplement the menu, we need to go outside the community, to be more aggressive in pursuing travelling productions such as the Denver Center Theatre Company which brought George Bernard Shaw's "Arms and the Man" to Evanston (yes, Evanston) in May. , Admittedly, shows such as these won't suddenly put the Egyptian in the black, but they don't pose a staggering financial burden either, since many are subsidized by private andor government funds. And more importantly, they will help to establish Park City as a home for the performing arts. Insuring the long-range survival of the Egyptian itself is a tall order. We can't expect any private owner to continue to run it at a loss. Nor do we think the city should be in the theater business. The ideal solution would be to consolidate all of the performing arts commitments made by individual developments (such as Deer Valley and the Park City Resort Center) to fund a single facility. And we think the Egyptian would be just the Place. DH |