Dropping The Curtain
Filed Under Shower Curtain | Posted on November 28, 2008
For as long as most Seacoast residents can remember, Ioka Theater’s triangular awning has been a familiar landmark in downtown Exeter. It glows on snowy winter evenings among the town’s holiday decorations and casts shadows over pedestrians who shop along Water Street in the summer. The sign protruding from the theater’s brick fa?ade seems embedded in the landscape.
It was just shy of five years ago that Detzler and other co-owners purchased the building. He had a vision of using the facility not only as a movie theater but as a multi-purpose performing arts venue with music, comedy and other live entertainment. He poured money into improvements to make the building more accommodating for traveling artists, expanding the stage and adding in-house production features like lighting, curtains and dressing rooms. But he still found it difficult to draw a crowd in Exeter.
The Ioka has also hosted comedy events, fashion shows, film series—even burlesque dancers and, recently, a professional fight league. Rather than going out in search of popular attractions, Detzler waited for acts to come to him. “What we did was work with producers and promoters who needed a venue. That’s why you had this great, odd variety of acts that were always at the Ioka,” he said.
But Detzler’s thin budget limited his marketing efforts, and many events fell flat. “Either the public just didn’t know what we were doing or didn’t believe that the Ioka could put on a great show,” he said.
Complicating matters was new legislation that required performing arts venues to meet stricter safety codes. Detzler took over the Ioka less than a year after a deadly nightclub fire killed around 100 people in Rhode Island. The tragedy spurred states to pass tougher safety regulations that were expensive to implement, especially for old existing structures like the Ioka.
The legislation gave Detzler a time limit for installing a sprinkler system and other safety measures. “It was a situation where we had to show a certain amount of progress every year toward the eventual implementation of a complete to-code system,” he said.
Detzler would have been forced to start investing significant amounts of money into a sprinkler system next year, and he is in no position to start dumping funds into a project that will not yield any market return. Compounding matters are escalating insurance and utility costs that have “absolutely devastated” the Ioka, he said.
Looking ahead, Detzler does not expect the theater to rebound from its precarious financial situation anytime soon. The first quarter of the year is always a slow time for the Ioka, and it is likely to be especially poor in the dismal economic climate that has descended on the nation. Not only is the economy taking a toll on potential Ioka patrons, but touring acts appear to have scaled back their travel plans.
“Producers aren’t calling us up with show bookings. We’re not seeing the corporate interest we used to,” Detzler said. “The phone just stopped ringing.”
The Ioka is the latest in a string of area performing arts venues that have shut down in recent months. The Bell Center for the Arts in Dover closed in March. The Stone Church in Newmarket sold at auction in September and has not reopened. The Mill Pond Center for the Arts in Durham has been on sale since August, as has the Rockingham Ballroom in Newmarket. And now the Ioka.
Robert Yergeau, owner of the Rockingham Ballroom on Ash Swamp Road, said he is selling the venue because of a career change and not because of financial distress. He bought the ballroom and rescued it from bankruptcy 14 years ago, preserving a business that has existed for 74 years.
Unless the state Legislature does something to loosen safety code requirements for older structures or help pay for upgrades, Detzler worries other historic venues will soon close. Noting that the Ioka brought visitors to Exeter who also spent money at other local businesses and restaurants, he said the entire community would feel the loss.
Tags: arts venues, awning, burlesque dancers, comedy events, dressing rooms, film series, glows, holiday decorations, installing a sprinkler system, ioka theater, marketing efforts, music comedy, new legislation, production features, professional fight, safety regulations, seacoast, snowy winter, winter eveningsRelated posts
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