College theater grand opening postponed

PALMER — Sonja’s Studio of Dance isn’t the only local group anxiously awaiting the opening of the new Glenn Massay Theatre in the Valley Center for Arts and Learning at Mat-Su College.

But Sonja Babcock — owner and director of Sonja’s Studio of Dance — and the rest of the Valley will have to wait until at least February 2015 to celebrate its opening, Theatre Director Matthew Sale told attendees at the Mat-Su Convention an Visitors Bureau luncheon Friday in Palmer.

Babcock began planning this summer to stage an all-Valley performance of the Nutcracker at the new Massay Theatre. Sale said he delivered the bad news this week — the show set to open Dec. 13 will need to find a new venue.

“We were supposed to get the keys last week,” Sale said. “Now we are looking at a mid-February opening.

The delay is two-fold. First, Sale said, the electrical work in the theatre is not yet complete. And second, a new Palmer water tower going in on a hill nearby also is behind schedule.

“The water tower has to be finished before the building can open,” he said.

The cast of the Nutcracker aren’t the only people eager for the Massay Theatre to open. Sale said most weekends between February and May are already booked. The venue will host familiar favorites like the annual Machetanz Art Festival and LunaFest events, Sale said. And the venue is available to rent for other groups like the Mat-Su Borough School District, Mat-Su Concert Band, Mat-Su Community Chorus and Whistling Swan Productions.

“Mike McCormick has already booked several shows in the theater,” Sale said of the Whistling Swan owner.

Bonnie Quill is executive director for the Mat-Su CVB and a member of the Advisory Council for Mat-Su College. She is among the new theatre’s boosters, but not so much for its arty potential as for its economic thrust.

She said the venue opens the Valley to new multi-day events that will draw small groups to the Palmer campus for programs like writers’ workshops and lectures, conferences and conventions for personal development.

That the new theatre off Trunk Road is a short drive from the home of the Gateway Visitor Center on the Glenn Highway just past the Parks and Glenn highways interchange.

“This will give more opportunities to build more beds near the facility,” Quill said.

She said she isn’t aware of any plans to build a new full-service hotel in the area, but if she could choose, the gravel pad CIRI owns at Four Corners would be ideal.

“We’re excited,” Quill said. “This is an awesome facility that will do a lot for the Valley.”

A new market

Funding for the new 30,000-square-foot facility was included in a 2010 general obligation bond that paid for construction of new facilities on University of Alaska campuses in Fairbanks, Anchorage and Palmer.

Although the project was part of a statewide capital improvement plan, Quill said when MSCVB hosted a workshop with meeting planners out of Anchorage they were unaware of the new facility. Where its focus had been on tourism, Quill said the theatre opens the door to a new market — that of smaller group meetings and board retreats.

“They had no idea,” Quill said of those Anchorage meeting planners.

Sale said he’s a bit disappointed the facility’s opening has been delayed. But more than to move in immediately, he said he wants the facility to be flawless.

“I want it to be right. That’s the big thing,” Sale said.

He said an open house and an opening event are planned at the Massay Theatre, but no dates have been set yet. He said he’s going to delay setting dates until he knows for sure when the construction will be complete.

Ideally, he said he’d love to see a dance performance on stage as the opening event because it would really show off the venue. But that may have to wait until spring 2015 when Sonja’s students will perform their spring concert on stage in the new 523-seat venue.

Glenn Massay Theatre

At its Sept. 19 meeting, the University of Alaska Board of Regents approved the naming of the Valley Center for Arts and Learning at Mat-Su College the “Glenn Massay Theatre.”

Massay retired as director of the college in 1995 and was immediately honored with the title “Director Emeritus” of the college.

After earning a doctorate from West Virginia University and performing post-doctoral work at the University of Paris and Bethany College, Massay was hired as the founding President of the Tanana Valley Community College in Fairbanks in 1974.

He moved to Palmer as the Dean of the Mat-Su Community College in 1980, and in the late 1980s he became the Director of Mat-Su College after the retirement of Alvin Okeson and the campus merger with the University of Alaska-Anchorage.

“The Glenn Massay Theatre will be a transformational building in the history of the college,” said Director Talis Colberg. “Like Glenn Massay, the theater will attract many new people to our college. Good things will continue to happen here. Dr. Massay dedicated a major portion of his life to Matanuska-Susitna College and naming the theater after him is a great method of continuing his connection with this school and our community.”

Contact Heather A. Resz at 352-2268 or heather.resz@frontiersman.com.