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Towngate Season Announced: Preview Party is Aug. 28

Oglebay Institute’s Towngate Theatre has announced its 2021-22 season. Audiences can get a sneak peek during the annual season preview party Saturday, August 28.

Titled, “Let Us Entertain You,” the event begins at 7pm in the Gallery at Towngate with hors d’oeuvres, wine and beer and musical entertainment. Then, guests head upstairs for captivating readings from each of the main stage plays featured in this year’s lineup. After the show, guests return to the lobby to enjoy desserts and a champagne toast to kick off another successful season of performing arts.

Oglebay Institute director of performing arts Tim Thompson said the preview party offers a chance to “mingle with others who have a passion for theater and celebrate and support all that Towngate brings to the community.”

Friends of Towngate

The Friends of Towngate, a volunteer group dedicated to raising awareness and funds to support Towngate and its mission, organizes and hosts the event. The group also coordinates volunteers to serve in various roles at the theater such as ushers and concession workers when needed. Proceeds from the season preview party go directly to Towngate and will help fund the upcoming season.

What do people have to look forward to this year at Towngate? A lot, says Thompson.

Season Dedicated to Wheeling Playwright Tom Stobart

Sponsored by Unified Bank, the 2021-22 main stage season is dedicated to the late Wheeling playwright Tom Stobart. It kicks off September 17 with two of Stobart’s one-act plays. It closes in May with his full-length play “Under the Bridge to the Stars.”

Tom Stobart

Stobart was a longtime community theater actor, appearing in more than 100 local plays and musicals. He was also well-known in the community as the proprietor of the Paradox, an eclectic used bookstore in Centre Wheeling. Stobart authored 17 one-act and six full-length plays, many of which were staged at Towngate in the late 70s through the 90s. His play “In Terminal Decline” held Towngate’s box office record for many years. A revival of the show was staged at Towngate in 2015 to sold-out crowds.

Towngate 2021-22 Main Stage Season

“Ever After” and “The Strap,” by T.S. Stobart
September 17, 18, 19, 24, 25
These two one-act plays cover a bittersweet point of view about love. In “Ever After,” an older man and younger woman go from casual acquaintances to inseparable lovers. However, different interpretations of love create obstacles in their relationship. “The Strap” is a play about a loving but volatile romantic relationship. A couple is on the way to the theater to see a play. After the woman discovers that the strap of her purse has broken and needs repair, fireworks change the course of the evening. All of the action, the props, the car and the driving of the car are pantomimed in this comedic but thought-provoking play.

“The Gift of the Magi” by Jon Jory
December 3, 4, 5, 10, 11
Jim and Della are head-over-heels in love, but barely have enough money to afford their one-room apartment. With Christmas right around the corner, they’re challenged with buying secret gifts for each other. A strange twist of fate shows them the true meaning of the holiday.

“The Book of Will” by Lauren Gunderson
March 18, 19, 20, 25, 26
After the death of their mentor, actors Henry Condell and John Heminges are determined to compile William Shakespeare’s First Folio and preserve his words forever. They’ll just have to borrow, beg and band together to get it done.

“Under the Bridge to the Stars” by T.S. Stobart
May 6, 7, 8, 13, 14
Tucker, a man who has lost nearly everything because of his alcoholism, rents a room above a bar where he plans to drink himself to death. When he forms a relationship with Dee, a fellow alcoholic, will it be his salvation or will he cause them both to continue to spiral to rock bottom?

Some other great things happening this year include:

Thompson said, “Towngate is more than traditional theater. People of all ages and backgrounds gather here to create and experience art onstage in a variety of forms.”

Towngate Children’s Theater includes productions of “Snow White,” “The House at Pooh Corner,” “The Nutcracker” and “Cinderella.”

Towngate’s Second Season presents a variety of performing arts programs such as live music, comedy, poetry, theatrical readings and more on select evenings throughout the year. See bands such as Hoard and Jones and the Pussyfooters. Enjoy a night of comedy with Towngate’s improv troupes The Crazy 8s and Left of Centre Players.

Dinner & A Movie at Towngate celebrates the significance of the small-town movie house by bringing classic films back to the big screen. Get ready for “Beetlejuice,” “The Karate Kid,” “The Big Lebowski,” “To Kill a Mockingbird” and “Singin’ in the Rain.” Guests have the option to enjoy a full dinner in The Gallery at Towngate prior to each movie.

The Gallery at Towngate features the work of local and/or emerging visual artists and focuses on community engagement, inclusion and the mingling of visual and performing arts. The art season opens September 10 with an exhibit by Creating Hope Arts.

Creating Hope Arts
Creating Hope Arts, of Bethesda, Ohio, is a project where unique talent flourishes through an array of creative opportunities for adults living above their disabilities.

Other shows will feature work by the West Liberty University Creative Art Therapy Students; mural, portrait and graphic artists Vondel Bell and watercolor and ink artist Lilianna Hardt.

Get Tickets

Towngate remains accessible by keeping admission costs low. “Theater shouldn’t be a luxury for the rich. We strive to keep our ticket costs affordable for everyone,” he said.

According to Thompson, ticket sales only cover about half the cost of producing a play. Fundraising efforts, like the Friends of Towngate season preview party, help bridge the gap.

Purchase tickets for the August 28 Season Preview Party and for any Towngate show at www.oionline.com or by calling 304-242-7700.

Support Towngate

Corporate support, like Unified Bank’s season sponsorship, and individual support are also essential to maintain the building and sustain and expand programming at Towngate.

Oglebay Institute’s Preserving Our Past; Creating Your Future capital campaign is currently underway and funds raised will address critical priorities throughout the Institute, including roof replacement and structural preservation at Towngate.

For more information on ways to give, visit www.OIonline.com/capitalcampaign or contact OI development director Micah Underwood at 304-242-4200.

Towngate Theatre is located in Wheeling’s historic Centre Market District. This church-turned-theater is one of several Wheeling venues operated by the non-profit Oglebay Institute. Other OI facilities include: The Stifel Fine Arts Center and School of Dance on National Road, the Mansion Museum, Glass Museum and Schrader Environmental Education Center in Oglebay.

Oglebay Institute Announces Capital Campaign

The non-profit arts and cultural organization Oglebay Institute hosted an event July 29 to announce the public phase of its $4.4 million Preserving Our Past; Creating Your Future capital campaign to address critical priorities throughout the Institute. The announcement, which coincided with the organization’s 91st anniversary, took place at the Stifel Fine Arts Center in Wheeling—one of the Institute’s historic buildings that will be renovated as a result of the campaign.

Oglebay Institute Capital Campaign Projects

$1.6 million of the funds raised will go toward roof removal and replacement, masonry work, rehabilitation of the front porch columns and other restoration priorities on the 110-year-old Stifel Center. Other projects that will be addressed include roof replacement and structural preservation at Towngate Theatre, exhibit development and audience engagement projects across the Institute and endowment growth.

“Donations to this campaign are an investment in Oglebay Institute’s ability to meet both the current and long-term needs of our community,” Oglebay Institute president Danielle Cross McCracken said.

According to McCracken, campaign priorities were determined through extensive research, discussion and strategic planning throughout the past five years. The most critical restoration projects were identified through a historic structures report, conducted by McKinley and Associates Architecture and made possible through a grant from the WV State Historic Preservation Office in partnership with the Wheeling Historic Landmarks Commission.

Stifel Center is a Monument to Wheeling History and a Place to Create & Connect

Constructed in 1912 and originally the Stifel family home, the building was donated to Oglebay Institute in 1976 for use as a public arts center. “Built of steel-reinforced concrete, it was designed to stand the test of time. However, despite routine care and maintenance, roofs have life-spans and replacement is now critical to prevent additional and even more costly damage,” McCracken explained.

Mr. Stifel required that the building be fireproof, so steel, brick, concrete and block were used throughout. All the floors, including the attic floor, are poured concrete; interior walls, some eight inches thick, are concrete. The structural system to support this massive structure is concrete enclosed steel I-beams supported by piers and bearing walls. This unique construction makes the Stifel Fine Arts Center distinctive because in 1910, when the home was being built, such construction techniques would have been limited to skyscrapers and large commercial buildings, not a single family’s private residence.

 

An iconic focal point of the Dimmeydale neighborhood, the Stifel Fine Arts Center welcomes 13,000 people annually to its classrooms, galleries and picturesque grounds. Stifel Center director Rick Morgan said it serves as “a bridge between the visual arts and the community.”

“On any given day, you can see people connecting to art in a variety of different ways. You can walk into our classrooms and studios and hear artists of all ages and backgrounds sharing techniques and encouraging each other. When you walk through the gallery, you might see someone quietly looking at the art or friends discussing what they think about a particular piece. On the weekends, people fill the building to hear live music and enjoy social events surrounded by artwork. It truly is a community gathering place,” he said.

Upon the death of Mrs. Edward W. Stifel Sr. in 1976 at the age of 97, her children and their descendants deeded Edemar and the surrounding property to Oglebay Institute for use as a public arts center. An iconic focal point of the Dimmeydale neighborhood, the Stifel Fine Arts Center now welcomes 13,000 people annually to its classrooms, galleries and picturesque grounds.

 

The Stifel Fine Arts Center is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Morgan said it’s fitting that it is home to a public arts center because the building itself is “a work of art and a really cool visual symbol of how much our community values arts, culture and history.”

Started in 1910, the construction of this Neoclassical Revival Style mansion of Edward W. Stifel Sr., grandson of J.L. Stifel and a company executive, and his wife Emily Pollock Stifel took two years to complete. It was named Edemar for their three children, Edward, Emily and Mary. The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Restoration Work

Work on the Stifel Fine Arts Center will begin this summer and is expected to be completed by December. No interruption of programming is anticipated.

McCracken said completing restoration work on a historic building of this size is a “complex and very costly process;” thus, the need to raise funds.

John Culler, chairman, Oglebay Institute Board of Trustees, Micah Underwood, Oglebay Institute development director and Danielle Cross McCracken, Oglebay Institute president, review plans for the roof restoration project for the Stifel Fine Arts Center, which is set to begin this summer.

 

“The roof is one of the most important features of an historic building, both functionally, to protect the contents within, and visually, to maintain the architectural and historic integrity of the landmark,” she said. “While Oglebay Institute has been a wonderful steward of this property for more than four decades, a project of this magnitude requires specific materials and highly specialized labor. And because of the meticulous nature of the work, it is very time intensive. All of those factors result in an expensive, but very important, process that the organization simply can’t cover within the confines of our regular non-profit operating budget.”

Lead Donors

Launched in 2019, the campaign has raised more than one million dollars. More than 100 community donors, local businesses and area foundations have supported the campaign.

Lead donors include Emily Hart Burchfield, the James B. Chambers Memorial Foundation, Gary & Missy Glessner, Anne Stifel Honer, Chris & Cheryl Riley, the Schenk Charitable Trust, WesBanco Bank, Inc. and the WV Department of Arts, Culture & History.

Support the Campaign

Now, the nonprofit is asking the public to join the fundraising effort, which is expected to conclude by the end of 2021.

“Community investment created and sustains Oglebay Institute,” said development director Micah Underwood. “Gifts to the campaign, no matter the size, help preserve our buildings, expand opportunities for imagination and develop our financial resources now and for the future.”

To learn more about the Oglebay Institute capital campaign and ways to give, contact the Oglebay Institute development team at 304-242-4200 or visit www.oionline.com/capitalcampaign.

This program is presented with financial assistance from the WV Department of Arts, Culture and History, and the National Endowment for the Arts, with approval from the WV Commission on the Arts.

About Oglebay Institute:

Established in 1930 by community volunteers, Oglebay Institute was formed to “contribute to the joy of living” through arts, nature and cultural experiences.

The Institute operates six venues in Wheeling—The Stifel Fine Arts Center, School of Dance, Towngate Theatre, Mansion Museum, Glass Museum and Schrader Environmental Education Center. Collectively, the hundreds of programs produced each year through the Institute provide education, entertainment and enrichment experiences to more than 70,000 people annually.