How a little church became a cultural mecca

Listen to this article

It’s not often that we see churches on the real estate market, but when we do it takes a creative mind to envision what that property might become. Ten years ago, it was not difficult for Douglas Rice to picture a community theater.

“It started with a church building that was for sale and had been vacant for a few years that was a cute little white church that was built in 1887 as a Baptist mission,” Rice recalled. “And a couple people had tried to buy it and the deals just kept falling through. Finally, after the second or third deal fell through I decided why don’t I buy it?”

At that point he had no real plan for the church; he thought perhaps he would live in it. The building was host to a few events while he wrapped his head around the church’s best use. And then it hit him.

“I started realizing there were a lot of smaller theater groups in town that didn’t have a place to do their plays,” Rice said. “I was thinking of all the companies that just produce one show a year, or two weeks or four weeks out of the year.”

Not entirely a theater person, Rice did serve at one time as a sound designer in New York City, which gave him enough background and wherewithal to recognize what a physical theater needs in order to work. And he also knew that numerous small theater companies would be grateful to have a place they could count on to draw an audience.

“Often I’d go see them in one of the loft spaces at the Hungerford or at Village Gate or an abandoned gas station or in a beauty parlor or above a bar,” Rice said of local theater. “I love that stuff, but I think it made it hard for many of these very talented groups to develop a following because a lot of theatergoers may not be urban explorers.”

Rice began meeting with people about his idea in January 2009. The Multi-use Community Cultural Center, or MuCCC, opened weeks later in Rochester’s Neighborhood of the Arts. NOTA spans a 15-block area from North Union Street to Culver Road, from East Avenue to East Main Street.

“By February I decided I’m going to do it; I’m going to make this a theater and make it available for all the homeless groups, essentially,” he said. “And try to make it affordable.”

That was an important component to making MuCCC work. The thought that theater groups could perform and audiences could immerse themselves in art for a fraction of the cost that other centers charged was a different concept. And if audiences became familiar with the space, they would feel more comfortable coming back again and again to see multiple troupes perform.

The church went through extensive renovations to include amenities that most smaller community theaters do not offer, Rice said.

“No. 1 was a handicap ramp and handicap bathrooms; a lot of smaller places don’t have that, so I made sure it was included here. A lot of smaller places don’t have air conditioning because that’s expensive, so we put air conditioning in,” Rice said. “If someone uses a hair dryer during the show some of the lights go out, so I put in way too much power. All the things that are the little annoying things that get in the way of an artist’s creativity I tried to eliminate.”

Rice had five crews working 24 hours a day for 30 days to get MuCCC up and running. The theater’s first show was March 13, 2009. In its first decade, the 80-seat Atlantic Avenue theater has presented more than 800 different shows and has 17 theater and performance groups that share the space, said John Borek, MuCCC’s director of artist development.

“I believe that the number of performers we have given a space and a voice to is unprecedented in the community,” Borek said. “From the very beginning, Doug and I have focused on serving the artist. Our focus is not on anything but giving the artist a good, positive, supportive space to work in.”

To that end, MuCCC’s staff is volunteer-based. The organization has never had a paid administrator, and much of the staff shares responsibilities.

“We basically give the theater to whoever is using it. There’s a strong element of trust,” Borek explained. “We rent the theater at what our operating cost is, which is $750 a week.”

That $750 is subtracted from ticket sales and the theater companies keep what is left.

“We are so in demand that we are completely booked for 2019,” Borek said. “We book a year to a year and a half out.”

Some seven years ago MuCCC started an Artist in Residence program to honor those people whose work the theater considers “wonderful.” Currently the theater has nearly 100 artists in residence; its youngest inductee was a 3-year-old and its oldest was 88.

“Like we say when we ask them to be artists in residence, we don’t have money to give them but we have recognition,” Borek said. “Once you’re an artist in residence it’s not for a year, it’s a recognition of your skill and commitment to the performing arts.”

MuCCC also features an art gallery that is voluntarily run by a producer at WXXI Public Broadcasting Council. The gallery, open during theater hours, books a different show each month.

MuCCC struggled in its first couple of years, Rice and Borek acknowledged. Rice lost a lot of money, he said, and Borek noted that while the theater was located in NOTA, it took some time for people to figure out who they were.

“People did not go beyond Village Gate or the Memorial Art Gallery,” Borek explained. “So we sort of were pioneers in developing the commercial scene in that part of Atlantic Avenue.”

Indeed, Rice already was a bit of a pioneer when he founded MuCCC. Although much of his career is in New York City, he owns real estate in the MuCCC neighborhood, which gave him a significant appreciation for the local community. So much so that decades ago when officials had proposed turning University Avenue into a six-lane thoroughfare, Rice was an organizing voice to prevent it from happening.

And Rice also is the individual behind the community’s ArtWalk, a permanent urban art trail connecting the area’s arts centers and public spaces that began in the early 2000s. The project was said to have reclaimed the area for pedestrians.

Because costs are kept low for both performers and theatergoers—a night at MuCCC is comparable to a night at the movies—the theater has remained in the black for much of its history. The team is in the midst of a 10th anniversary fundraising campaign that will help the theater install a new LED lighting system, Rice said. The former church also needs new siding.

Rice and his team are looking to raise $40,000 to cover the lighting and siding costs this year.

“Part of the whole vision — I created it and set it up specifically so that we’re not reliant on grants to survive. We do get some grants, but they’re grants that we choose to get. (The) people who run the dance fest apply for one with us and get money to pay for artists,” Rice explained. “But we don’t have to chase a dollar because the ticket sales cover our cost and the artists still make money. And that’s a very important part of the model because we’ve all chased after grants before and it’s not fun.”

For Borek, it has been a very happy 10 years.

“We work with great people who are committed to the arts in the same way, who work really hard to present good, interesting and challenging work, and that’s all you can ask from any arts organization,” he said.

[email protected]/585-653-4021/@Velvet_Spicer