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Country music superstar Larry Gatlin plays Dexter.
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Country music superstar Larry Gatlin helped usher in a new era of live entertainment in Dexter last Friday with the successful introduction to the Encore Musical Theatre Project.
Artistic Director Daniel Cooney said that the musical showing, fueled by Broadway and local talent, garnered quite a crowd at the 800-seat Dexter Center for Performing Arts.
"We had to have been halfway to three-quarters full, which is great considering our very minimal budget," Cooney said.
"We did very little advertising, aside from calling people, word-of-mouth and the article (in The Dexter Leader and Chelsea Standard)."
With the positive response, there will be a fund-raiser planned in the future now that organizers have submitted the paperwork for nonprofit tax-exempt status, according to Cooney.
"We are encouraged and will be moving forward as quickly as possible," he said.
"We've been getting e-mails from a bunch of different folks asking how they can help."
Cooney said the goal right now is to get donations and other financial backing to make the "Encore Musical Theatre Project" drop that last word and become a reality.
Eventually the community will be called upon for more than financial support.
"We are going to work with local talent, we will need a local technical director and someone to do costumes, and we'll be working with the community at every level," Cooney said.
"This will be a great chance for us to take advantage of the creativity and talent that this community possesses."
Cooney pointed out that locals such as Matt Hook, senior pastor of Dexter United Methodist Church, performed "Stairway to Paradise;" and "If I were a Rich Man" was performed by Stephen West, a new transplant to Dexter Village and a faculty member of University of Michigan's Department of Voice.
He also said several serious, qualified candidates have asked about applying for key positions such as technical director.
"We're going to need local talent and workers to make this happen, since we can't afford to bring people in from New York on a regular basis, like we did this time," Cooney said. "That's why I think Dexter is the right place."
A fully operational Encore Musical Theatre would not just be a venue for entertainment, but would likely attract a number of opportunities for talent development.
Cooney, who grew up in Westland, is a graduate of the Yale School of Drama and has worked on national tours of "Evita," "Fiddler on the Roof," "The Civil War" and "Les Miserables."
He also has credits as artistic director of the Music Theatre of Michigan and Broadway Advance, teaches at New York University and has a private studio in New York City.
Cooney and partners, Anne and Paul Koch, are currently looking at buildings in the downtown area, although no locations have been locked in yet, he said.
The couple owns Koch Masonry on Baker Road and live in Chelsea.
The Dexter Area Chamber of Commerce has praised the Encore Musical Theatre, and other local officials see it as a sound strategic move for the development of Dexter's downtown.
"It blends in perfectly with what we're doing over the next five years," said Downtown Development Authority Chairman Dan O'Haver. "If the theater happens in five years, we will have the new library opened, we will have established a park along Mill Creek at Mill Pond, and there will be various other entertainment and recreational opportunities as the downtown naturally grows — all within walking distance of each other."
O'Haver was bullish on the effect such an addition to the downtown would have, characterizing support of the theater as "an investment in property values around the theater."
"We're talking about making Dexter more of a destination for the arts and recreation, and that impacts positively on all of our property values," he said.
O'Haver, who attended Friday's show, also said a "Broadway-caliber" theater would go well with the "eatertainment" and shopping sectors that have grown significantly along and around Main Street over the past several years.
He said downtown restaurants have reached a "critical mass" and would benefit greatly from the theater, and that theatergoers would have plenty of access to parking and business, due to the levels of traffic in the district after hours.
"It's a really good use of our infrastructure and our resources downtown," O'Haver said. "You have the parking overlap when the work traffic and the offices close and all of the normal daily businesses close down.
"You're left with a lot of empty parking spots and something like this really helps maximize your parking resources."
The focus in the village has been mainly on economic development, he added. The Downtown Development Authority will bond for $4 million after preparations last year and also approved a five-year master plan that calls for major improvements throughout the district over the next several years.
"To have an opportunity such as this is pretty amazing, since it would take months and years to attract the interest and investment if we were to do this on our own, and here we have people who are making it happen on their own.
"This is a unique opportunity that the community needs to seize."
O'Haver said he hopes that the momentum continues.
"It took a while for The Purple Rose in Chelsea to get up and running at the level that it's at now, so I hope (Cooney and the Kochs) have the perseverance and patience to make this come to fruition."
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