THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, March 8, 1996 TAG: 9603060128
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: Ida Kay's Portsmouth
SOURCE: Ida Kay Jordan
LENGTH: Medium: 82 lines
It's no surprise that Hugh Copeland wants to test Willett Hall as a regular venue for his Hurrah Players, a Norfolk-based theater group catering to children.
The play ``Jack and the Beanstalk'' will run for two weekends at Willett, opening next Friday.
Willett is one of the region's best auditoriums. It has a larger stage and more backstage space than Wells Theater. It has about the same number of seats as Chrysler Hall and Harrison Opera House, but it has fewer ``bad'' seats than either of those Norfolk halls. It is far more comfortable than Chrysler, and the music sounds better here. Furthermore, Willett has acres of free parking close to the front door.
Copeland appreciates the virtues and says he hopes the Hurrah Players audience will come and see.
``I'd like to use it for our shows on a regular basis,'' he says.
That would be a great arrangement for everyone involved.
The Hurrah Players fit with Portsmouth's effort to become a hub of children's activities around the Children's Museum of Virginia, which attracts thousands of people from other cities.
Willett Hall once again is taking on life under management of Ports Events.
A decade ago, then-City Manager George Hanbury saw the possibilities for the well-designed auditorium. He persuaded City Council to spend $2 million to upgrade the hall. Although it was built in the 1940s as a city auditorium, it had become primarily a school auditorium and not a community facility.
When Hanbury saw what a fine place it was, he saw it as a way to attract people from other cities.
After the remodeling, Hanbury hired retired Navy Vice Adm. C.E. ``Ebbie'' Bell, a former manager of Norfolk's Scope and Chrysler Hall activities. Bell began a process of building a reputation for Willett. Through trial and error, he tested the market and began to attract a regular and growing audience.
Then Hanbury left and Bell soon after.
Willett Hall, for want of a better place in the city bureaucracy, was operating as part of the Parks and Recreation Department. Without an entrepreneur such as Bell in place, that was a mistake. Parks and Recreation is in business to provide activities for local people, not to attract patrons from other cities.
In fact, Parks and Recreation Director Lydia Patton told me that one of the reasons for cutting back on activities at Willett was that her staff had checked license tags in the parking lot and found more from other cities than from Portsmouth. The department had missed Hanbury's point altogether, but Hanbury was gone and nobody questioned that position.
Willett limped along for a number of years and lost any momentum that might have started with Bell's full schedule of activities. It was difficult for the staff to move because they were bogged down under several layers of management.
Meanwhile, some City Council members began to push for something to be done. Ultimately, the city came to an agreement with Ports Events, the private non-profit agency that stages the Seawall Festival and about a dozen other events that bring people to the city.
Gradually, the pace is building at Willett. Attendance is good although not yet at the sold-out level for most shows.
But more and more people are coming to events from out of town. If you don't believe it, check the faces at intermission and see how many you don't recognize!
Willett's location on the edge of the Midtown area also makes it part of the Vision 2005 plan to take the city's new look all the way to that point. The city has scheduled a beautification project for High Street from Airline Boulevard to Willett Drive.
Building the market for Willett Hall also will help build a market for Midtown. It's all tied together.
In addition, there is the possibility of offering tourist deals. For instance, the Children's Museum and the Hurrah Players could create a package with a trolley bus transporting children and their families between Downtown and the auditorium.
That would be one way to encourage families from out of town to explore Portsmouth beyond the parking lot at the Children's Museum and the parking lot at Willett. by CNB