The Lewiston-Clarkston Valley has watched the drama surrounding the Lewiston Civic Theatre building at 805 Sixth Ave. unfold for almost a year. In August 2016, Lewiston's building official, John Smith, condemned the building because water damage had compromised the safety of the structure. In addition, the city closed the road at Eighth Street between Fifth and Sixth avenues as a safety precaution should the building collapse. Six months later, the theater told the Lewiston City Council it didn't have the means to make needed repairs on the building and deeded the property over to the city. In April, an 8-foot fence was installed around the structure, and the road reopened. The community waits to see what will become of the old church that has been the home of the Lewiston Civic Theatre for the past 45 years. Once alive with laughter, song and dance, the building now stands empty, the stage and seats collecting dust.
Leading Roles
John Nydegger, 90, drama and speech professor who retired from Lewis-Clark State College. He served the Lewiston-Clarkston Valley community for 24 years, was instrumental in shaping the Lewiston Civic Theatre and was instrumental in building the LCSC speech and drama program from the ground up.
Thomas Hennigan, 63, instructional technology administrator at LCSC, the son of Shirlee Hennigan, retired speech and drama professor at Lewis-Clark State College, grew up around theater, participating in both the Lewiston Civic Theatre and the LCSC drama program.
Fred Scheibe, 85, Lewiston Civic Theatre director for more than 35 years before his retirement in 1999. He continues to be active in the organization, bringing regular encouragement and support to directors, productions and patrons alike. He has long been associated with the essence of the Lewiston Civic Theatre.
Prologue
If there is one word that describes the Lewiston Civic Theatre, it has to be resilient.
Through the years, members of this theatrical organization have learned to swing with the punches, especially where venues are concerned. John Nydegger and Thomas Hennigan have dedicated a majority of their lives to theater, especially in the Lewiston-Clarkston Valley. Both remember the Lewiston Civic Theatre's grass roots, the challenges brought about by different venues, and almost 50 years spent in the 110-year-old Methodist church building along Sixth Avenue.
Despite the trials faced in its 56-year history, however, this organization continues to adapt in order to fulfill the old theatrical adage: The show must go on.
Act I: No stage for the opening scene
Theatrical productions debuted in 1961 in the valley with a group of actors calling themselves the Banana Belt Theatre. Their first performance was for the Lewiston Centennial Celebration.
With a vision of making theater a permanent fixture in the L-C Valley, the troupe's members began to get organized. They elected officers and a board of directors, and began offering performances to the public.
In December 1963, however, the president of the group, James J. Pietz, met with the board of directors to discuss disbanding. The group had no permanent home, which meant there was no place to store costumes, sets and props. The group needed its own space. If it were to survive, it would also need to go in a new direction.
Nydegger had moved to Lewiston earlier that year, and was working at Lewis-Clark Normal School, (now Lewis-Clark State College).
"Jim Pietz approached me and asked me if I would consider putting together a civic theater like the one I had put together in Iowa," Nydegger said. "I accepted the challenge, and the Lewiston Civic Theatre was born. The only thing we needed was a venue."
Act II: A steady drizzle at the Porthouse Theatre
Charles Kemenak, the Lewiston Parks and Recreation director, heard of the theater's problems, and offered the group a possible venue. The beach house as it was known, was a brick bathhouse which stood at the south end of what is now Kiwanis Park.
"The beach house was an old, abandoned, tiny little building on Snake River Avenue, located on Lewiston Beach, which was directly across from the Clarkston Public Beach. When I first saw it, all the windows had been broken out," Nydegger said. "But we loved the gift we had received from the city and began refurbishing the little house. For us, it was a work of pure love."
With some financial support from local businesses and a lot of hard work on the part of Lewiston Civic Theatre members, it wasn't long before the beach house began to look more like a theater. As the remodel neared completion, people started bringing personal items from home with which to furnish the building. Nydegger remembers bringing in an old window air conditioner to battle the heat during summer performances.
The transformed beach house was given a new name - the Porthouse Theatre. It had a 12- by 20-foot stage and could seat 25 people.
"The first show we did at the Porthouse was one of the old-time melodramas - you know, where the audience hisses at the villain and cheers the hero." David Leroy, a Lewiston High graduate who would become Idaho's 36th lieutenant governor and the state attorney general, played the part of the villain.
Hennigan remembers the Porthouse Theatre as well. "One of the first productions they did there was the 'Magruder Murder Mystery.' It was a trial-based play. Dan Quinlan Sr., a local attorney, was in it, as was Dr. Bob Wilson, a local children's dentist."
Act III: Delivering excellence, come heat or high water
Nydegger directed most of the early performances until his school responsibilities increased. Fred Scheibe, who had been dancing in a Broadway production in New York City, returned to Lewiston when his show closed. He and Nydegger co-directed plays for a while, until Scheibe took over as the theater's permanent director, eventually being hired as the artistic director for the City of Lewiston, a position he would hold until his retirement.
Scheibe's penchant for excellence is demonstrated in an early memory he has of a rehearsal for "Bus Stop," at the Porthouse Theatre. Reportedly, Scheibe became annoyed that the entire cast showed up half an hour late for rehearsal. He informed the cast that they should give him a call if they felt like coming to rehearsal and he would think about showing up. Reportedly, the next day, he was given a call, and all of the performers were on time after that. Scheibe demanded excellence and received it, something L-C Valley patrons began to become accustomed to.
"The Porthouse Theater was always at the mercy of the elements," Nydegger said. "If it rained, we suffered rain. If it snowed, we suffered snow. If we had a couple of nice days, we reveled in them. But the real problem was the Snake River."
Before the dams were put in, if the river flooded, the Porthouse flooded. When the river water receded, it left standing water and thick mud all over the floors, Nydegger said. Many performances were canceled because of flooding. If a show was in progress when the water began to rise however, cast members and audience alike kept a close watch on the amount of water seeping in under the door, placed sandbags in front of the main entrance, and prayed that performers and audience alike wouldn't be swept away.
Act IV: Borrowed stages, borrowed time
As the Civic Theatre's popularity grew, so did its need for a larger venue. The group began staging performances at Lewiston High School and Lewis-Clark Normal School auditoriums. Hennigan said that when he and his family moved to Lewiston in the fall of 1969, the first performance they saw was "The Lion in Winter," and it was performed on an outdoor stage which was built off the loading dock doors just off the LCSC theater. "They just built a stage out of platforms, and they had outdoor performances. Just bring your own chair," Hennigan said.
In the early 1970s, when Lower Granite Dam was under construction, the Civic Theatre abandoned the Porthouse and moved into a building along Main Street in Lewiston. Located across from Eng's Restaurant, it was near where Towne Square is currently located. The group named this location the Goldstone Storefront Theatre.
Act V: Church Conversion
With a goal of building their own playhouse, Thomas Campbell, the president of the theater's board of directors at the time, began a fundraising campaign. Although a great deal of money was raised by the community, it was not enough to build the theater they had hoped for.
When the Methodist church building was offered for sale for $40,000, the Civic Theatre found its new home. The church was renamed the Anne Bollinger Art Center, in honor of an opera singer born in 1919 in Lewiston.
The first show performed at the new location was in September 1972. According to a Tribune article written in 1985, there was an overlap between the congregation moving out and the theater group moving in. Fred Scheibe was directing the show. "We were sharing the stage," he is quoted as saying. "The minister, Edsel White, said it picked up his business, because folks came to church every week to see how far we had progressed with the set. In fact, for a while, his pulpit was an old beaten-up Volkswagen that was one of our props."
Hennigan remembers then-Gov. Cecil Andrus attending the theater's dedication show, "Oklahoma."
"Ten years later, the governor returned for the mortgage burning, when they again performed 'Oklahoma,' " Hennigan said. "I designed and stage managed" that second production.
Over the years, a great deal of transformative work was done to the old building as it morphed from a church to a viable theater. The auditorium was remodeled. The owners of the Roxy Theater donated their seats to the Civic Theatre when it closed, and these were re-stuffed, reupholstered and painted. A new stage was built. The downstairs lobby was remodeled to include a box office and an office for Scheibe. The backstage was remodeled and restrooms were installed for the performers. The theater group also restored all the beautiful stained glass windows in the building - a special project of former board member Jackie Haight.
Nydegger said he felt Scheibe worked miracles on stage at the Civic. "He is a great director with vision. It was Scheibe who mixed things up and brought memorable, professional shows to the valley."
Act VI: Tragic flaw
The Lewiston Civic Theatre thrived along Sixth for 46 years. As time passed, however, the gothic stone building declined, as old buildings do, eventually causing it to be a potential hazard.
"When it was condemned, the poor place mentally and emotionally fell to pieces," Nydegger said. In the end, "It was nobody's fault, but it was everybody's fault.
"It was built to be a church. You could keep pouring thousands of dollars into that old building, but it is still going to be a church."
He said he hopes the next home of the Lewiston Civic Theatre is more conducive to the needs of the community in terms of size and place.
Hennigan agreed. "My hope is that space can be found in the current Lewiston High School auditorium. I think that building, as we move into the new high school construction phase, has a lot of potential to house the theater. I don't know if that is a permanent solution or if it would be better than building from the ground up, but it certainly is a space we could use."
When asked what the future of the Civic Theatrr holds, Nydegger was blunt: "Unless the Civic gets some sizable amounts of money, it is going to continue to be homeless. They will be vagabonds - which, when you think about it, they have been for the past 50 years."
