PLAY IS THE THING

WASILLA — An appreciative audience cheered as Larry Bottjen kicked the Mat-Su Borough manager.

“Oh, yeah, I kicked him on stage and got a great laugh every time,” Bottjen said, recalling the first Valley Performing Arts production of “Harvey” 35 years ago. “It was an ad-lib, too.”

Now the organization’s artistic director, Bottjen was one of the original VPA board members and has spent 35 years filling various roles on- and off-stage. In “Harvey,” he played the sanitarium strong-arm.

“I manhandled the star,” he said. That star was Wes Howe, borough manager and the lead character. Because the impromptu kick generated such a laugh, Howe told Bottjen to kick him every time.”

It’s one of hundreds of fond memories Bottjen has of VPA as the nonprofit begins its 35th season. That season started this past weekend with the opening of “Pride & Prejudice,” which runs through Oct. 3. It’s part of a 35th-year lineup of seven productions that has executive director Garry Forrester excited.

“It’s a milestone,” he said. “I haven’t been able to ascertain specifically, but I’ve been told we’re one of the oldest community theaters in the state. This season is the realization for this organization of our longevity. What’s the normal lifespan of a business? Typically, most fail within their first two years of existence.”

Valley Performing Arts began in 1976, taking over the old St. John Lutheran Church, moving the building onto the state fairgrounds, Forrester said. That was the home of Valley community theater until 1993, when it moved into another building on the fairgrounds. Three years later, that building was moved to VPA’s current location near downtown Wasilla.

That first season is also memorable for Carol Rice, one of VPA’s founding members. She also played the sister of the lead character in “Harvey.”

“Oh, it was fun,” she recalls, adding her character never believed her brother could interact with a giant invisible rabbit. “Absolutely not. She believed he was a nut case, but she’s the one who kept getting tossed into the insane asylum.”

VPA has come a long way over the past three and a half decades, she said. That first season, there were no seats in the building, so volunteers scoured the fairgrounds for benches and made cushions from foam and fabric remnants. There was also no heat, which made changing costumes a pretty chilly affair.

“It was pretty cold, but it worked,” she said. “Now, I think they’ve come quite a ways and I was privileged to be in ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ back in 2000 or 2001.”

The theater has enjoyed steady growth over the past four years and is at the point of discussing further expansion, Forrester said.

“We’re looking at either finding a new location, use the existing location, looking at the feasibility of growing from where we are now,” he said. “What we’re up against is we’re consistently getting to a point where our attendance is going up and up and up, where sellouts are becoming quite frequent.”

In fact, season ticket sales have skyrocketed. Four years ago, there were a little more than 400 season ticket holders. Last season, it was 600. For the 2010-2011 season, the conservative projection is 620, Forrester said, adding that there are 580 eone week into the season.

“That speaks to the strength of the organization and also the strength of the volunteers,” he said. “There’s a lot to be said for the word of mouth that comes from the actors and actresses.”

One of the main reasons VPA is not only still around after 35 years, but contemplating growth, is because of a fundamental shift in board philosophy, Bottjen said.

The board decided the productions would be more family oriented and dictated more by customer preference. The result, he said, is an organization that was $35,000 in the red four years ago to now selling out most shows and generating more sponsorships.

“To see it evolve to the point from where you were pinching pennies every day to now thinking about building your own building, that’s huge,” he said.

The anniversary is also an opportunity for a few upgrades at VPA’s current facility, Forrester said. An actual red carpet is being used on production nights and the familiar pink exterior is getting a facelift. Those driving by now see a light tan building.

The story is the familiar pink was an accident, that the building needed paint and when all the leftover paint from creating sets was combined, that was the color.

“A woman came up to me and said, ‘Thank you! I’ve hated that pink building for the last 10 years,’” Forrester said. “I said that it’s been pink longer than that, and she said, ‘I know, but I’ve only been here for 10 years, so my hatred’s only 10 years old.’”

The challenge now, Forrester said, is continuing to build on what’s been successful. It takes about $2,000 a weekend to cover the costs of a production, and ticket sales are the largest sources of income. Sponsorships and advertisements in the VPA programs also helps.

“We know we want to be here for the next 35 years,” he said. “We would like to be able to become a cornerstone in the community from a performing arts standpoint. Anchorage has that; we want to do the same thing in the Valley. It takes time, it takes effort, it takes funding.”

As long as VPA continues its run of producing community theater, Bottjen will be happy. As a former board member and current artistic director, Bottjen has done just about every job there is at the theater, from acting to operating the lighting board.

“If you hang around there long enough, sooner or later somebody’s going to put you to work,” he said. “They can’t get rid of me, so they put me to work.”

Contact Greg Johnson at greg.johnson@frontiersman.com or 352-2269.