PERFORMING ARTS CENTER: CENTER PROPOSAL PART OF ARTISTS' VISIONS OF THE FUTURE

The future of the arts in the region brightened considerably earlier this year with the announcement that an arts center could be built at Southeast Missouri State University in 5-8 years.

The idea is the brainchild of a 75-member group called the Friends of Music, but has been warmly received among artists of all kinds, both those associated with the university and those who are members of the community.

"I only see it as a positive thing," said Dr. Sara Edgerton, who conducts the University Orchestra. Most of those performances occur in acoustically outdated Academic Auditorium, which must be stripped of its front rows of seating when the orchestra combines with the Choral Union.

Edgerton's orchestra consisted of only 10 or 12 players when she came to Southeast in 1991. Now the count is 50 or 60 musicians, one sign of the region's cultural expansion, she says.

"It (the arts center) would probably be a natural part of the growth of music and enjoyment of music I see beginning to happen," Edgerton said.

The region's arts community now is fragmented, says Don Greenwood, one of Cape Girardeau's handful of working fine artists.

"We need some kind of unifying factor. I think an arts center will be just that."

The proposed center would house the university's theater, art and music departments and would provide performance spaces for plays, concerts and dance performances -- both locally-produced and those presented by traveling companies. An art gallery might be part of the project as well.

"I have been fairly captivated by the president's notion of an arts complex," says Dr. Jennifer Strayer, new director of the University Museum.

Bringing music, theater and fine arts into one building will enhance the university's ability to bring more arts programs into the community, she said.

"I'm hoping that comes to fruition."

Though cost estimates for the performing arts center range wildly from $20 to $50 million, the optimism that it can be built stems from the strong backing for the project emanating from the university president's office. But Dr. Dale Nitzschke, who will be inaugurated as the university's 16th president in April, says keeping it affordable will be key to making the dream come true.

He presided over the construction of a $13.4 million theater while president of Marshall University in Huntington, W.Va., in 1991.

Nitzschke's battle plan includes hiring of a new university vice president who would lead the effort to raise private funding for the performing arts center.

Ideally, the center would be located adjacent to the Show Me Center, which Director David Ross expects will have to grow as well at some point in the future.

Expansion would enable the Show Me Center to accept trade shows and similar events without having to turn over the entire arena to them.

"Cape Girardeau's going to grow, Southeast Missouri is going to grow and the university is going to grow. With it the Show Me Center will have to grow or be replaced," Ross said.

He also envisions a future in which the Show Me Center uses interactive technology to allow an audience to participate in a concert, say, in Singapore.

"I saw demonstrations where instead of watching an artist on stage, you got on stage with the artist," Ross said. "You want to play the instrument? Play the instrument."

But he doesn't anticipate a future in which computers squelch the demand for live entertainment.

"Interaction with other people, enjoying the same thing in a group, there's a synergy to that," he said.

"Everybody wants to have an experience that validates what they do, what they enjoy."

Beverly Strohmeyer, executive director of the Arts Council of Southeast Missouri, hopes her organization won't still be looking for a permanent home far into the next century.

The council rents space at 6 N. Sprigg Street and has moved three times during the '90s.

"Whether here or somewhere else, we want to have our own facilities, including a small performance space," Strohmeyer.

She said the university's proposed performing arts center probably would be too large for the organization's needs.

The Arts Council currently brings various kinds of artists into the school to perform. In the future, the organization wants to sponsor artist residencies.

"Instead of just coming in and having a one-time shot, we'd rather have something that would have more impact on the students," she said.

Among artists these days, all conversations come back to the performing arts center proposal.

A fine and performing arts center will give the region's artists a sense of unity that heretofore has been lacking, Greenwood says.

"If you've got two or three working artists in the area, then it's an arts center. If there are half a dozen or more, then you're an art mecca."