Enter Stage Right: 40 Years of the Arts in St. Joseph

There are so many things that make St. Joseph an amazing city to live in; certainly, our history and historic architecture is part of it. But many people don’t realize how robust our arts scene is.

The late 1970s/1980s were a period of great growth in local arts organizations. This is true in St. Joseph as well as nationally. This was the period of the creation of some of our most enduring and innovative arts organizations – In fact of the 6 arts organizations funded by the Allied Arts Council Arts Fund, 4 are 39-40 years old: Creative Arts Productions which provides a month long theater workshop for youth between ages 8 and 18 culminating in a professional level performance, and Performing Arts Association, which works to strengthen the performing arts in St. Joseph by providing access to the best in all performing arts disciplines.  Robidoux Resident Theater, a Community theater company that puts on productions at a variety of local venues, and St. Joseph Community Chorus, the largest all-volunteer choir performing organization in Northwest Missouri. The Arts Fund itself began in 1983 and is 36 years old.

Creative Arts Productions: In late 1979 a group of 12 came together as the first board of directors and incorporated as Creative Arts Productions. The goal was to instill in regional youth a life-long passion for the arts. The means that they chose to do this was unique: an intensive month-long theater workshop culminating in a musical theater performance.

The first performance was “It’s a Hard Life” in the summer of 1980.Since then they have performed such shows as “A Summer Musical Review”, “The Hobbit,” “Peter Pan,”  “Tom Sawyer” and the “Wizard of Oz.”

A primary focus of the group is to provide high-quality professional staff so that participants get real theater education. At the end of each production the participants get together with the staff to choose the musical for the next year – in 2018 they chose Elf Jr. This year’s workshop began on July 1 and will continue through the 26th from 8 a.m. to noon. The performances are July 27 and 28 at the Missouri Theater.

Performing Arts Association – like many arts groups, PAA grew out of earlier roots. As early as 1930, there was a group known as Civic Music, which brought professional arts programming to St. Joseph. Among the world-class artists they brought were Isaac Stern and Marian Anderson – this is also important because of the diversity. In 1962, Civic Music became Community Concerts with a focus on classical music.

In 1976, due to concerns about plans to demolish the historic Missouri Theater, a group known as The Town Hall Center was created in order to increase programming in the theater in order to strengthen the case for its restoration.

As always, these arts groups struggled for financial security, so in 1978 Community Concerts and the Town Hall Center came together as the Performing Arts Association.

PAA plans to develop a second arts series for a smaller venue that will feature more family and classical performances.

Robidoux Resident Theatre had its first season in 1980. They presented 3 shows “Our Town,” “The House of Blue Leaves,” and “the Fantastics.” Since then, shows have included Mamma Mia, the Wizard of Oz, and A Christmas Carol. Their mission statement: “Robidoux Resident Theatre engages, inspires, entertains and challenges our community through quality theatrical and artistic productions while providing a stage for artists to perform and cultivate their artistic expression. We provide life-long educational programming, ensuring the long-term viability for community theatre in Northwest Missouri.” They program at the Missouri Theater, Robidoux Landing Playhouse (dinner theater), Newest venue is the Ruby Theatre – formerly Temple…., the complex, which includes performance and classroom space as well as administrative offices, opened in 2018. Currently holding their children’s theater workshop.

 St. Joseph Community Chorus: Founded in 1980, under the leadership of Frank D. Thomas. Community Chorus seeks to foster the enjoyment and appreciation of quality choral music among its membership and the regional community by providing an organization of the highest caliber to present exceptional performances of choral literature. The Chorus is open to singers high school and above and currently has a roster of 85 singers (it has had as many as 106)

When the Community Chorus was founded in 1980 there were 35 singers recruited from area church choirs. Over the years it has performed in partnership with a large number of other arts/music organizations including the St. Joseph Symphony, the Paul Mesner Puppets, and Missouri Western State University.

All of these groups frequently perform at the Missouri Theater – the primary arts venue in the city. This spectacular movie palace opened to the public on June 25, 1927 showing “Rough House Rosie” starring ‘It Girl’ Clara Bow. For nearly 50 years the theater operated as a first run movie palace, until the finances simply did not work and the theater closed in mid 1970s.

For two years (until 1980), in addition to providing arts programming, PAA managed the Missouri Theater for the City. In that capacity and in partnership with the City, PAA undertook a capital campaign to raise monies for the continued renovation of the Missouri Theatre. PAA continues to work with the City to promote the use and preservation of Missouri Theater. In 1995 PAA began a $.50 per ticket restoration fee to fund lighting and sound improvements at Missouri Theater.

Recently there have been significant technological improvements to the Missouri Theater: T-coil Looping provided by Sertoma. Most recently a new sound system, that gives it the ability to host technologically sophisticated shows.

In addition to CAP, RRT, and PAA the St. Joseph Symphony calls this home and recently Mammoth Productions has been programming the venue bringing in national touring shows.

St. Joseph’s strong arts community is unusual for a city of our size. As you look around you can see it everywhere – we have wonderful public art: the sculpture walk, the murals, etc. The fact that the organizations that were created 40 years ago continue to thrive and to enrich our city is something that we should be proud of… and more importantly, to support. If you haven’t gone to the symphony: go. Take your kids and check out some of the children’s theater, go see the murals, go on the sculpture walk, go to dinner theater. There are wonderful things to do in St. Joseph!