Council gives green light to contract for management of Colonial

LACONIA — A critical step in the curtain going up at the restored Colonial Theatre occurred Monday when the City Council gave its endorsement to a multiyear contract between the city and a Massachusetts firm which will manage the venue.

City Manager Scott Myers told the council that the 5½-year contract with Spectacle Management represents a balance between ensuring Colonial’s mission as a community auditorium, while also recognizing the risk that Spectacle will be taking on as it manages the 750-seat theater, which is in the final stages of a $15 million restoration.

The council voted 5-0 to direct Myers to sign the contract on behalf of the city. Councilor Bob Hamel, who was out of state, missed the meeting.

Spectacle Management President Peter Lally said he expected to sign the contract in the coming days.

Under the terms of the contract, Spectacle will provide year-round marketing, ticketing, booking, food and beverage services, calendar management, technical services, and facility management services for the theater. In addition, it will provide a full-time operations manager to be based at the theater, and will train and hire box office associates, house managers, security, technical and food/beverage staff, as well as develop a corps of volunteer ushers from the local community. Spectacle will also develop and maintain a website and other social media presence to promote the Colonial.

Powerhouse Theatre Collaborative, a program of the Belknap Mill led by Bryan and Johanna Halperin, will be the resident theater company of the Colonial.

“It’s going to take a little time to get things established,” Lally said Tuesday.

Lally said that he hopes to schedule “some sort of event” at the Colonial as soon as possible so people will have an opportunity to see the restored theater’s interior.

The Colonial will have 750 seats, but the state’s current COVID guidelines for theaters and other indoor entertainment venues limits audience size to 50 people, Lally said.

“Even if it’s 50, we’d like to do something so we can let people see the space,” Lally said.

The city will be able to reserve up to 15 days a year for events such as Putnam Fund programs, library events, city government uses and School Department affairs. In addition, Laconia-based non-profit organizations will have the opportunity to hold performances at the theater and will be charged a fee for the days they use the facility. Those rental fees will be matched by money from a special fund set up to help defray the cost of non-profit uses.

Spectacle will provide $12,500 in start-up seed money for the resident theater company, paying artists in residence $6,250 per year for the first two years of the contract.

Large-scale theatrical productions may have to be put off because of the pandemic, but smaller-scale productions will be offered either online or outdoors as part of the collaborative’s inaugural Mill Series, the Halperins said in a news release on Tuesday.

Lally said Spectacle and the city have been negotiating the terms of the contract in earnest since May.

“We are looking forward to working with the entire community to make the Colonial the anchor of a vibrant downtown and the Lakes Region’s premium entertainment destination,” Lally said.