California rambling: Standing ovations

Three Stages, the performing arts center at Folsom Lake College, has gotten used to standing ovations.  Since opening a year ago, it has had 75 sold-out performances, many concluded with appreciative audiences on their feet.  Now, Three Stages is getting its own standing ovation for the economic and cultural shots in the arm it has given the area.

A rule of thumb for performing arts is that for every dollar ticket sold, another $3  in spending occurs in the surrounding community.  Dave Pier, Three Stage’s executive director, says $50 million was pumped into the area economy during the center’s construction and, since opening, Three Stages has generated about $3.5 million in ticket sales, stimulating an additional $9 million to nearly $11 million in local economic impact.

Evidence of this is clear when you dine on an evening when a performance occurs. Folsom’s finest restaurants fill early with diners before the show.  Restaurateur Richard Righton, owner of Folsom’s upscale Bidwell Street Bistro and El Dorado Hills’ Relish Burger Bar, says the impact on his restaurants has been, “Humungous.”

“It’s just massive, especially on nights when there’s a performance,” he enthuses. “It’s transformed our Friday and Saturday nights into very busy and very early.  We now get full seatings at 5:30, when before we wouldn’t see most diners until later.”

Mark Platt, owner of Folsom’s Land Ocean and El Dorado Hills’ Sienna, agrees, adding, “Other restaurateurs in Folsom, Collin Fat and the Visconti’s (Visconti’s Ristorante) all feel the same way.  “Not only is Three Stages a nice addition to our town from a cultural perspective, but it’s had a date night effect, which is terrific.

“Whenever a restaurant can show an increase in early business, that’s good.” Platt declares, “And, until the opening of Three Stages it hadn’t been particularly strong. Now, we’re bringing in extra staff on evenings when a performance is scheduled.”

Righton jumped on the opportunity to sponsor the theater tickets when another sponsor dropped out. Before each performance, Pier encourages the audience to keep their ticket stubs and present them when dining at Bidwell Street Bistro to get a free dessert. The rustle of show goers searching for their prized stubs is audible evidence of the effect, though Righton points to the 25 percent increase in his restaurant’s sales on nights when Three Stages is operating as the strongest example of its impact.

“We now always ask early tables if they’re going to a show, to get their order in quickly. We’ve adjusted early menus to make it quicker and have called in more wait staff.” Righton says, “It’s so nice to have a theater with that clientele coming into town.”

Pier says some 100,000 theater goers attended Three Stages performances in its first year. “It’s a remarkably good indication of how the community has embraced what’s going on here.” Surprising to Pier is how adventurous the Three Stages audience is. The Aluminum Show, a dance performance was a sellout. “It had huge puppets, all sorts of creatures, made of aluminum. A huge dance floor on a rocker moved around and rocked, almost like a boat, as people danced on it. The show was something we weren’t quite sure would be accepted, but it got a standing ovation.”

The performances at Three Stages cannot be characterized by any given style.  National touring companies like Cats, The Color Purple and the Aquila Theater (Shakespeare), have been booked alongside international artists the likes of the Moscow Festival Ballet, India Jazz Suites, and the Hector Del Curto Tango Quartet. Solo performances by country star Merle Haggard, recording artist Franky Avalon and classical pianist Jeffrey Siegel are scheduled, as are productions by local companies, including the El Dorado Hills-based El Dorado Musical Theater, Placer Pops Chorale, Folsom Symphony, Sacramento Guitar Society, Sacramento Ballet, Sacramento Philharmonic and by companies of Folsom Lake College performers.

So many performances are planned that Stage Two, the center’s 200-seat hall, is now being filled with events. The California Theater Center’s production of Cinderella has two sold-out performances and Wild Women of Song — a jazz cabaret show — and Linda Purl’s presentation of an Irving Berlin repertoire will fill Stage Two in March. El Dorado Hills’ One Way Productions sold out eight performances last year and will be bringing their original musicals to Stage Two. The first is an as-yet-untitled musical about King Arthur. “It has adventure, love and a few surprises,” One Way’s Ingrid Wilson says. It’s about, “how recapturing a sense of honor and duty can still pay off,” she explains.

The response to Three Stages has been tremendous not just from theater goers, but also from the arts community. “Our area needed something like this. An 850-seat theater was missing in the region,” Pier says. “Our other spaces fill their own niche. They include an intimate 100-seat theater, a recital hall and a recording studio yet to be engaged.” While, supporting all this are 800 volunteers. “As ushers and ticket takers, they get to meet the community and have formed new friendships among one another. Students from the college have also found work in the ticket office, in marketing and technical services.  They’re seeing the performing arts as a career they hadn’t considered before,” Piel lists.

“The first reaction of visiting performers is how much they like the Three Stages facility itself, how well equipped it is, how nice the staff is to them, that the physical layout is so inviting,” Pier says. “Then, when they get an audience that is so enthusiastic and their performance is sold out, then it’s so much the better.  They end up staying in local hotels, eating in local restaurants, shopping nearby and having a really good experience here. One touring company was here for almost 10 days, then went on to New Zealand. They had a fantastic time and plan to return.”

That cycle brings spending back into the Folsom area and that’s worth standing up to applaud. For information about Three Stages and its performances, visit threestages.net. More about Folsom Lake College is found at flc.losrios.edu.

John Poimiroo of El Dorado Hills is a travel writer who specializes in California destinations.