THEATER GROUP SEARCHES FOR A FIXED HOME

The Broadway Community Theatre is homeless.

Although it never truly has had a permanent home, for the past four years the company has counted on using the Concord Theatre to mount their productions.

A week before BCT was to present its next -- "Life With Father" -- problems arose with the theater's ceiling. The show couldn't go on, and the BCT board searched hurriedly for a new venue.

Central High School, which usually has other activities occupying its auditorium, came to the rescue. The postponed play will be presented Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the high school auditorium.

"They were very generous...," said Marta Green, president of the BCT board. "It helps so much."

But Green doubts the Central auditorium is the answer to the company's need for a permanent performance space.

"I've been on the board five years, and we have never even been able to use it for rehearsals," she said.

The Concord Theatre also appears to be out of the picture. Kim McDowell, a spokeswoman for Concord Publishing, said major ceiling repairs are needed to the theater, which puts it "out of use indefinitely."

The lack of a permanent home always has plagued the company. Scenery and property are stored in a barn outside Jackson. Sets usually can't be built until the space becomes available -- typically two weeks before opening night. Rehearsals are done on the run.

For "Life With Father," first-time BCT director George Kralemann has been rehearsing the 16-member cast at Centenary Methodist Church on nights when it is available. Monday nights they've been using Jefferson School, where Kralemann's father, Gary, is the principal.

The 23-year-old director, a veteran of numerous University Theatre productions, took the job when asked, despite an earlier disappointing experience with BCT -- as an actor in "Pure as the Driven Snow."

"I realized the community theater was lacking something -- mainly a theater," he said.

A proposal to stage "Steel Magnolias" this summer is in limbo because of the lack of a theater.

The company now is in good financial condition after past years of shakiness, board member Laura Brothers said, and is in a position to pay rent.

The board discusses solutions to the company's homelessness all the time.

"We don't have a lot of choices," said Brothers, who is employed by the Southeast Missouri Council on the Arts, which sponsors BCT.

"The schools in the area that have stages all use those cafetorium-type rooms for volleyball and scout meetings. They wouldn't be able to tie them up for the six weeks a performance takes to produce."

Brothers said all BCT can do is look and hope something comes along. One possibility lies in the Colonial Cape Girardeau Foundation's purchase of St. Vincent's Seminary, which is yet to be finalized.

The seminary has a stage that might serve BCT if it eventually is offered. The stage is very small and plagued by columns.

But Brothers echoes the thoughts of many involved with the all-volunteer BCT when she says, "We'll take what we can get."