SHOW TIME: GROUP SEEKS FUNDS FOR PERFORMING ARTS CENTER AT SOUTHEAST UNIVERSITY

Supporters of the arts want to build a performing arts center large enough to land Broadway shows at Southeast Missouri State University.

State and private funding would be needed to build the center.

The center could be built on the north end of the university campus near the Show Me Center. It could cost $20 to $50 million, said Dr. Robert Fruehwald, who chairs the university's music department.

Fruehwald is a member of Friends of Music, a group of about 75 music supporters that is pushing the project.

The building could cost more than the Show Me Center and the new business building combined.

Fruehwald said a center with proper acoustics costs about $10,000 a seat. "Obviously, it would be wonderful to have a 3,000-seat theater."

Southeast's president, Dr. Dale Nitzschke, said a center could be built in five to eight years.

But he said project supporters have to come up with building plans that are affordable.

Nitzschke and Fruehwald said about half the cost of the project would have to come from private donations. The other half would have to come from the state, they said.

The university plans to hire a vice president for university advancement who would also serve as head of the school's fund-raising foundation.

The vice president's salary would be paid with university funds and private money from the foundation, Nitzschke said. The new vice president would spearhead efforts to raise private funds for construction of a performing arts center, he said.

Nitzschke has first-hand experience with building a performing arts center.

He was president of Marshall University in Huntington, W. Va., from 1984-1990. While there, he spearheaded construction of a 600-seat theater.

The 75,000-square-foot building was completed in 1991 at a cost of $13.4 million. The state funded the project and the university subsequently received some private donations, Nitzschke said.

Supporters of the Cape Girardeau project want a performing arts center that would house the university's music, theater and art departments. It would have classrooms and possibly an art gallery, as well as a theater that could be used for plays, musicals, concerts and ballets.

Big-name ballet troupes, orchestras and traveling Broadway shows could perform on its stage.

Southeast's art, music and theater departments currently are housed in three separate buildings. The music building doesn't have a performance hall and must holds its concerts in Academic Auditorium and other places around town. Bulky musical instruments such as pianos have to be hauled to the performance sites.

Dr. Sterling Cossaboom, a music professor at Southeast and treasurer of Friends of Music, first began talking about the need for a performing arts building on campus seven or eight years ago.

He believes the region can support a $40-$50 million center that would include a 2,000-seat theater.

Cossaboom, who previously chaired the music department, doesn't view a performing arts center as a fanciful idea.

"This isn't pie-in-the-sky," he said.

Cossaboom suggested the arts center should be a joint university-city partnership similar to the one used to construct the Show Me Center.

"It is going to take a significant contribution from the community," he said.

One solution is to float a bond issue that would be financed with motel and restaurant tax money or through establishment of an entertainment tax, he said.

Cossaboom said a performing arts center could be an economic boost for the area.

"One of the things that attracts industry is having a cultural hub," he said. High-powered executives, he said, want the same cultural activities that are available in large cities.

But Cape Girardeau Mayor Al Spradling III said it isn't likely the city would get involved in such a project.

"We just don't have any funding available," he said.

Spradling opposes the idea of an entertainment tax. "I don't think there is anybody in this town that wants another tax."