Tibbits Opera House
Encyclopedia
Tibbits Opera House is the second oldest theatre in Michigan
, having been built in 1882. Rich in history and ambiance, even today the theatre offers theatre-goers nearly perfect acoustics
, an intimate 499-seat setting, and a fine array of performances throughout the year. Barton S. Tibbits originally built the opera house with wisdom and vision. The aim was high art, timeless architecture
, excellent acoustics, splendid furnishing and the finest of entertainment. Tibbits put Coldwater
on the map as one of the few small cities in the nation with a social and cultural center of such grandeur. Thanks to the forward-thinking individuals who saved the opera house
from destruction in the 1960s, the citizens of Branch County
still have the opportunity to experience the opera house and the cultural activities valued so highly by its early residents.
, news traveled from cities where entertainment and cultural activities were already well established. As an area with plenty of lakes and forested parks, Coldwater also attracted city folk as a resort destination. In 1882, when the theatre was built, Coldwater was a day's trip from either Detroit or Chicago, which resulted in Coldwater's becoming a natural stopping point for visitors and theatre performers traveling the byway. Accordingly, Coldwater residents developed a strong interest in art
, culture
and literature
.
Barton S. Tibbits, the mayor of Coldwater at the time, accepted a challenge to build an opera house in Coldwater. Art Gallery owner H.C. Lewis first proposed that he and Tibbits fund and build an opera house in response to pressure from local newspapers with each man raising $8,000 for the venture, but Lewis soon backed down. Tibbits forged ahead alone, declaring he would "build an opera house if it 'bust' my factory," referring to his cigar
business in town.
At the dedication of the theatre, Tibbits offered two reasons for building the theatre. To a gathered audience, he said,
The Coldwater Republican had this to say about Tibbits’ efforts:
Tibbits himself was described by one later owner of Tibbits, Denny Vanes, as “the greatest ‘pusher’ in Michigan.” He added, “Mr. Tibbits was a hustler by nature, broad minded and liberal and always ready to help the needy and suffering. He was outspoken in his sentiments and sometimes gave offense where none was intended.” Barton was the son of Allen Tibbits, one of Coldwater’s founders. After returning to Coldwater after the Civil War
to start his tobacco and cigar business, Tibbits found himself involved in a variety of local projects and buildings “including the skating rink
, cart factory, and oil stove industry. He even purchased a number of steamboat
s to navigate the local lakes.” According to Tibbits himself, the opera house was one of the costliest projects of his career. He stated, “I attribute to this enterprise the Opera House my downfall, and the sacrifice of a business, which had I been selfish, would today have made me a millionaire.” Indeed, the venture broke Tibbits financially by the end of his life.
Tibbits hired Mortimer Smith, designer of the Detroit Grand Opera House
to manifest his vision. The Coldwater Republican, the newspaper of the time, declared “the beautiful theatre will be second to none in the state except in size.” The site chosen for the theatre was a plot of land on S. Hanchett street, just off the city’s busiest street, Chicago Street, and nearby one of Tibbit’s own cigar factories. Coldwater itself was known for its manufacture of cigars and horse breeding
. Excavation began Wednesday, November 23, 1881, and the theatre opened almost a year later, September 21, 1882. In the opinion of the Coldwater Republican, Tibbits Opera House was “one of the safest and most stable structures in Southern Michigan
.”
Tibbits Opera House greeted its first opening night audience on September 21, 1882. After parking their horses and buggies at the Livery Stable, theatre patrons
, dressed in their finest, entered the town's new treasure under the gaze of a gathered crowd. They were welcomed by Barton S. Tibbits, and then ushered into the seating area. Behind the closed curtain, actor
s and crew waited to present Maid of Arran.
After remarks by local dignitaries, Tibbits was summoned onstage with "tumultuous applause." According to the Coldwater Republican, the performance wasn't as impressive as the opera house. "The song and dance might have been omitted with advantage" sums up the newspaper's account.
. They were not about opera however.
Performing acts and theatre companies toured, often with a repertoire of several plays
, musician
s, and novelty acts. As the touring became more organized theatre circuits developed with performers moving from city to city. Shows warmed up on their way to New York City
and Broadway
or followed a certain pattern across the nation. By the early 20th century, vaudeville
theatres were being built across the United States to host these shows.
After a magnificent opening costing $25 a seat (when eggs sold for a dime a dozen!) Tibbits enjoyed some grand years, hosting a variety of these kinds of diverse productions. All in all, the opera house hosted 111 plays during Tibbits’ management, the majority of which was comedy. Dramas also hit the stage such as the Shakespeare
favorites Richard III
, Romeo and Juliet
, and Macbeth
. Also popular was the oft performed Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which nonetheless drew heavy criticism from local reviewers. The Courier lamented “We knew it would come sooner or later, but have prayed that the calamity might be averted. Our prayers have been in vain and we will have to submit to the inevitable.”
Yet theatre was only one of a large variety of events performed in Tibbits. The stage was the perfect forum for public speeches and lecture
s. Such lectures covered topics as Edwin Lee Brown’s “Cruelty to Animals
,” Ida Hulten’s “What Shall We Do To Be Saved?
” lectures on reformed outlaw
s, the arctic
, and spiritualism
. Allen Tibbits, Barton’s father, even offered a lecture called “The Origin of the Aborigines of North America
.” The opera house was a convenient place for various political speeches as well.
The opera house hosted a litany of other events, each in a category of its own. Audiences enjoyed trained dog shows, wrestling
matches, Humpty Dumpty Vaudeville and Variety shows consisting of acrobatics
, juggling
, and farce
, the Boston Operatic Minstrels and stereopticon
shows. Locals shared their abilities through talent show
s and poetry reading
s. The site was used for community events other than performances such as high school commencements
, dancing parties
, and masquerade parties
. As one of the more seemingly random public events, Tibbits Opera House hosted a reception for a man found not-guilty of arson
charges.
Despite such a variety of events hosted in the opera house and the diverse constituency that utilized Tibbits on a regular basis, from the outset Coldwater’s gem may have been too big to truly thrive financially in such a small community. In 1885 due to declining attendance and Barton S. Tibbits’ own financial difficulties, the opera house faced the very real possibility of being turned into a roller mill
. The local community however had become too invested in the theatre to let it go. Carolyn Gillespie has noted that “although a privately owned theatre, the Tibbits functioned more like a public institution.” Thus the community, with the help of the local press, launched the first of what would be a long string of unrelenting attempts to save the theatre.
saloon-keeper
, answered the community’s call to action and purchased the opera house for $13,000, just over half the original cost of $25,000. While several individuals assumed management duties throughout Henning’s tenure, one of the biggest surprises was his teenage daughter Huldah Henning who by 1891 was managing the theatre on her own, signing her father’s name since many performers would not accept a female manager. Not only was a female opera house manager unusual, but the Courier claimed that Huldah was “probably the youngest Opera House manager in the country and the only successful female one.”
Henning was willing to try some new things to spur business for the opera house. He transformed the front part of the basement into a restaurant and saloon and even built an 85 feet (25.9 m)-long bowling
alley. In 1891 the saloon was turned into a tea room offering ice cream, cold lunches, and lemonade, which Henning’s wife and daughters staffed. Henning also tried to improve the quality of theatrical circuits that came to perform at the opera house, but frequent cancelations and financial difficulties once again threatened to close Tibbits.
A number of solutions were proposed for the theatre. Some suggested that the building be used as a Town Hall
and council room. Others proposed a beer garden
with variety shows. Thespians who wanted the original purpose of the building to be preserved favored the establishment of a stock company to manage the finances. None of these ideas came to fruition however, and Henning sputtered from one year to the next barely making ends meet.
If the diversity of productions during the Tibbits Era was broad, it was even more so during the Henning years. Theatrical productions included such genres as Irish comedy, combination plays, repertory companies, drama, opera
, and operetta
. Comedies began to shift toward vaudeville-type performances in which “the performers became more important than the play,” with play reviews focusing more on “the actors’ songs, dances and acrobatic skills rather than on the play itself” Uncle Tom’s Cabin companies continued to tour, trying to outdo each other with the most sensational stage elements. Set designers pushed the limits with special effect
s creating a rainstorm on stage with actual water and even pushing the safety limit by lighting part of the stage set in “The Streets of New York” on fire. Such efforts were part of a theatrical movement toward “naturalness” and “realism” on stage. In “The Police Patrol,” a scene depicted the interior of a police patrol barn with horses in stalls. Once the police alarm sounded, the horses were harnessed and dashed off stage in a matter of seconds. Such was the extent to which performers pushed the element of Realism.
The number of lectures hosted at Tibbits picked up during the Henning years in part because for a time, the YMCA
sponsored various lecture series. Topics ranged from the problems of the working man hosted by National Assembly of Knights of Labor
representative R. F. Trevellick, C. E. Bolton’s "Russia and the Romanoffs," a lecture by Robert McIntyre on military life in the Post Civil War South, George Kennan’s "Camp Life in Eastern Siberia
," topics ranging from love and marriage to prison life, Paul B. DuChailler’s prohibition
ist lecture, George R. Wendling’s discussion of “Saul of Tarsus
,” lectures on various world geographies, and even one called “Old Ocean, Our Slave and Master,” by Prof. Juno B. Demotte. Perhaps the biggest draw came from Robert G. Ingersoll
who presented a lecture on Abraham Lincoln
, attracting audiences from neighboring counties who flocked to listen to his “matchless oratory
and brilliant word-painting” Such events not only made Tibbits a place of entertainment, but one of education as well.
Speaking events were not only meant to inform, but also to persuade. Such was assuredly the purpose of a large number of political speeches and rallies during the Henning years. These events, generally always for Republican
causes and candidates, sported rallies with bands, fireworks, and speeches. Two governors even spoke at Tibbits: Gov. Alger
in 1885 and Gov. Luce
in 1890.
Yet Tibbits was an entertainment center first and foremost, and the Henning years made a bid to outdo the Tibbits Era in wild, extravagant shows. The opera house hosted everything from boxing
matches featuring the likes of John L. Sullivan
, to trained horses and mules, a presentation by women who claimed to read minds
, and even camel
rides. A group called the "Fat Men’s Club" entertained the crowd with “singing, dancing and acrobatic performance.” The opera house even hosted a company called "The County Fair" which “featured a horse race with three Kentucky thoroughbred horses ridden by professional jockeys over a three-quarter mile course in full view of the audience.” It is safe to assume that such an even was not hosted in the theatre itself. One comedy company went so far as to award a winning raffle ticket holder with a Jersey cow
. Such a prize was of a very different nature than the winnings would be for modern Tibbits raffle
winners.
Tibbits hosted a number of musical performances during the Henning Era as well. Such shows included "The Royal Spanish Troubadors," the "Boston Symphony Orchestral Club," the "Michigan University Glee and Banjo Club," the "Swedish National Octet" which made two appearances, and the "Harvard
Quartette." Minstrel
groups also took to the stage, although these groups had more of a circus
feel to them rather than being strictly musical performances. Such shows included bike acts, juggling
, club-swinging, and cornet
playing. One show in particular, "Duncan Clark’s Lady Minstrels and New Arabian Nights" reportedly pushed the limits of Coldwater’s conservative social mores
with one reviewer commenting, “…Seated upon the stage were eight females, scantily dressed.…There was nothing, save perhaps a highland fling, that merited any commendation. The singing was insipid, the marching by the amazons
horribly executed, a little better than a flock of sheep…It is hoped this city will be spared the infliction of another like exhibition.” Another reviewer called it “the vilest show that ever appeared in Coldwater,” labeling the women as “coarse brazen things.”
Additional events included art exhibits
, high school commencement exercises and reunions, a marionette
show, and even a Sanitary Convention.
s to add wing space, made ticket sales more efficient, installed electric fans for the comfort of the audience, added a sprinkler system and steel fire curtain
, and updated the available electric current. He may be responsible for the theatre's longevity, since many other theatres were destroyed by fire.
Based on the demands of performance companies who insisted on higher ticket prices to justify a trip to Coldwater, Jackson found it necessary to raise ticket prices for the first time. This was met with stiff opposition and criticism by reviewers from the two major local newspapers, The Courier and The Republican. Although these newspapers were unable to deny Jackson’s successful management of the theatre, the rift between the press and Tibbits increasingly began to widen. It was a third upstart newspaper, The Daily Reporter, which defended Jackson’s management. It is interesting to note that the only paper that ultimately went on to survive was the one that tied its loyalty to the historic opera house.
Tibbits Opera House continued to host many of the same types of programming as under previous eras of management, while also bringing new variety to the stage as well. Theatre genres included melodrama
s, pastoral
plays, Irish dramas, combination plays, farce and scenic attractions with Charles Hoyt and Clyde Fitch
being the most popular playwrights. The farces tended to focus more on comic specialties rather than a developed plot. Regarding one such farce, At the French Ball, a reviewer quipped, “…The play is one of those kind of creations that one enjoys when he has had a good dinner and has nothing else to do but to gaze and laugh, and feel as Frenchy as possible.” Another feature of comedy in this era is that it increasingly included elements of vaudeville with it becoming increasingly “difficult to distinguish between pure comedy and variety entertainments.” Famous melodramas during the period included The Convict’s Daughter and Was She to Blame. The number of Uncle Tom’s Cabin companies, whose shows had apparently evolved into farce and comedy from the original serious tenor of the story, declined during this period. But taking the place of Uncle Tom’s Cabin was the oft repeated Faust
, an opera which stressed scenery
and electrical effects. The comic opera Wang
featured one of the more absurd stunts performed on the Tibbits stage with a beer-drinking elephant
that downed a four-gallon glass of brew. All in all, 376 plays were performed on the Tibbits stage in the decade from 1894 to 1904 alone, a large increase from the Barton S. Tibbits era.
Musical performances continued to be popular as well with such groups as the "Chicago Marine Band," "the Mexican Troubadours," the "Boston Ladies Symphony Orchestra," and the very famous "Sousa Band" featuring John Phillip Sousa, which performed twice in 1897 and in 1900. One musician, whose performance was inconvenienced by the failed shipment of his luggage and noisy child in the audience stormed off the stage. The Weekly Courier noted, “He deliberately put his fiddle under his arm and left the stage like a crusty old curmudgeon.” 1898 even featured an open air concert from the Tibbits balcony, which was part of the original Tibbits façade.
Speeches and lectures continued to be a regular offering on the Tibbits stage. These included such lectures as Wallace Bruce’s “Philosophy of Wit and Humor,” Charles Hampton’s “Hard Times, Their Cause and Cure,” and Robert G. Ingersoll’s “Liberty of Man, Woman and Child.” Capturing the rhetorical might of such lectures, the Weekly Courier described Judge Yaple’s lecture “Personality,” with the following words: “A flowing crystal of words, here and there sharply broken into prisms of color, through which one caught a glimpse of crimson sunsets, the majesty of the mountains, the waving flowers of the meadow, the sweetness of the lilies of the valley, the stillness and solemnity of the leafy woods, the songs of birds, the celestial harmony of the starry heavens and the roar and thunder of a thousand Niagaras.” A number of political speeches were offered as well by the likes of Gov. Rich, Senator J. C. Burrows, Gov. Shaw of Iowa, and Adeli Stevenson, a Vice Presidential nominee.
Variety and Vaudeville continued to increase in popularity during the Jackson years with repeat performances by Humpty Dumpty companies, pantomime
, and even magic
shows. Shows also took an eerie turn with Anna Eva Fay’s spiritualism performance, Mysterious Oneida’s séance
, and Hermann the Great’s show on occult
phenomena.
As technology improved, so also did the kinds of innovative performances Tibbits was able to put on stage. Such obscure technologies as cinematoscopes and luminere cinematographs offered the promise of displaying moving pictures. Kleine’s Lumiere Cinematograph promised families the chance to see their sons in the Spanish-American War
march toward the camera. Thomas Edison’s
Magniscope never reached Coldwater because it exploded en route, but his Animotoscope did. Eventually the Lyman H. Howe Company offered genuine moving pictures with its Vivograph Graphophone, which depicted a train ride through the Rocy Mountain’s Frazer River Canyon. While such technologies had much to be desired in terms of quality, they were nonetheless important steps in the march toward the modern cinema.
Although he had fallen on financial hard times, Barton S. Tibbits lived long enough to see his dream survive and prosper. It is only fitting that upon his death, his memorial service would be held on the very stage that he erected at his own sacrifice for the benefit of Coldwater and the wider community’s citizens. His funeral was held August 27, 1889. The opera house also offered memorial services for President McKinley
.
” in the 1920s, the motion picture industry erupted into a vast network of new and often extravagant theaters, often referred to as movie palace
s. Lavish sometimes to the point of being absurd, these theaters were built by the studios that produced the films and bore names like the Fox, the Paramount, the Bijou and the State. With these theaters the studios had a guaranteed venue for their own movies.
It was at this time that many of the opera houses and even the vaudeville houses, if they hadn’t already burned down, were torn down, abandoned or turned into storage or other space. Tibbits was one of the lucky ones “modernized” into a movie theater
. In 1919 Dennis and Estella Vanes purchased Tibbits and brought in movies. William J. Schulte bought the opera house in 1934 and physically "modernized" it into a movie theater. During the early years of cinema, Tibbits sparkled with the flickering lights of silent movies
. Later the building was shrouded in white tile as even greater crowds flocked to see and hear the new “talkies.” Though live performance was still taking place, audiences diminished. Vaudeville struggled to compete. Burlesque brought a racier edge intended to lure audiences. Other live theatre and live performances were still offered, but they were no longer the “common man’s” entertainment they once were.
By the 1950s two major things happened in the movie industry, the end of the studio system and the birth of television
. The federal government determined the system of studios owning the theaters and controlling the movies shown at them was a monopoly
and prevented independent theaters the opportunity of free enterprise. At the same time the studio theaters were being turned over to new owners, entertainment was being turned upside down by the little screen turning up in homes across the nation.
With the advent of television, people no longer had to pay to go to the movies. They could watch this new form of entertainment right in their living room. With shrinking audiences and without the support of the studios, the big movie palaces were too expensive to maintain. In the effort to attract audiences back, the movie industry tested a host of novelties that could not be seen on the television screen: 3-D movies
, cinemascope, and stereophonic sound. Even drive-in movies
were an attempt to draw new audiences. In spite of the attempts many movie palaces closed, just like the opera houses and vaudeville houses had earlier in the century. Once again, Tibbits Opera House's fate was uncertain, and thanks to the efforts of several in the community (see below, Restoration), Tibbits was saved for generations to come.
.
Additionally, concerts offer a variety of touring performers. The Tibbits Art Gallery on the lower level, exhibits the work of many fine professional artists, local art groups and children as well as provides a yearly juried show for high school students. The Tibbits also holds an annual benefit auction
that is as much a social event for the area as it is a fund-raiser. In addition to the programs sponsored by the Tibbits Opera Foundation, the theatre is used extensively by community groups presenting plays, musicals, concerts, dance programs, travelogues
, pageants
, and variety shows.
During the rest of the year Tibbits presents an entertainment series featuring a variety of artists and styles. Recent performers have included Jeff Daniels
, Melissa Manchester
, and John Corbett. The effort is to bring quality arts performances and “name” entertainment to Branch County's rural community.
Funding for the Tibbits Opera House comes primarily from memberships in the Tibbits Opera Foundation which are open to individual and corporate supporters.
has even named Tibbits one of “10 great places to see the lights way off Broadway.”
Yet the first two years of summer stock at the newly restored Tibbits, beginning in 1964, were produced by the American Theatre Festival. Mostly made up of theatre professionals from Indiana, the group presented a large season, with a new show opening every week. The comedy “The Solid Gold Cadillac
” was the opening production, followed by nine other plays and one musical.
By 1966, Tibbits executive director Larry Carrico decided that Tibbits itself would produce the season. Musicals became the stock-in-trade and are still the staple of the Tibbits season. While Tibbits has produced the biggest names such as “Show Boat
,” “South Pacific
,” and “Fiddler on the Roof
,” it has also been instrumental in introducing audiences to lesser known gems such as “Lucky Stiff
,” “Hi-Hat Hattie,” “Baby” and “I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change
.”
Plays remain vital to Tibbits which is one of the few theatres in America to offer all three installments of the important Neil Simon
trilogy that began with “Brighton Beach Memoirs
.” Many recent Tony
or Pulitzer Prize
winners have been performed on the historic stage as well as popular fare including “Driving Miss Daisy
,” “Steel Magnolias
,” and “The Last Night of Ballyhoo
.”
In 1988 TST added the popular Popcorn Theatre, theatre designed for children and performed by the adult company members. Popcorn Theatre has become a multi-generational adventure for many families and serves as a beautiful introduction to theatre.
Through its occasional winter productions, Tibbits has been able to stretch its artistic wings. In 2007 Tibbits was responsible for bringing to the stage a new production written by Charles Burr and Bobb James based on the books of nationally acclaimed and locally based children’s author Patricia Polacco
.
Today, each season continues to be a balancing act of the classics of musical theatre and some of the best writing of the last 20 years. Each year Artistic Director Charles Burr hires the entire company, actors, musicians, directors, designers, and technical crew from throughout the country. Many are professionals who have been working steadily in the Midwest theatre circuit for years. The company often includes college professors and graduate theatre students. The season lasts nine weeks and each production is blocked, rehearsed, designed and built in 10 days.
A patron’s first experience of the theatre would have been his breathtaking view of the building’s façade
. With its French "Second Empire" architectural design, the building was adorned with a 24 feet (7.3 m)-tall, slate
-covered cupola
with a flag
staff mounted with a golden eagle statue. The tip of the dome itself towered 76 feet (23.2 m) above the pavement below. At the base of the cupola, one could behold an elegant bronze bust
of Shakespeare, and below this still, inscribed in an arch above the front window was “Tibbits Opera-House, 1882,” in gold leaf
. The face itself consisted of iron work, red and black brick, and cut stone “united in excellent taste.” Three large windows allowed the glow of the sun to fill the theatre lobby, and below the middle window was an iron balcony furnished with glass globe lantern
s.
As a patron entered the front doors, he would have found himself in a lobby with two stair-wells leading up to the balcony
, a manager’s office, and a smoking room
. Upon stepping through the terracotta leather
covered and gold trimmed wooden doors into the auditorium
, a patron would have been softly bathed in the shimmering glow of 94 gas lights
. These lights, were crafted of polished brass and fitted with etched glass globes. The stage
itself was equipped with 174 gas lights. All the lights in the entire theatre were controlled from the stage by means of a pipe system, allowing the stage manager to ignite or extinguish any or all of these brilliant lights in an instant. Beneath a dome resplendent with painted cherub
s, a large chandelier
, known as an “Opal glass reflector,” scattered sparkles of reflected light over all. Elegant red Brussels’ carpet softened patrons’ steps, and grand opera chairs, upholstered
in dark Cardinal plush awaited to seat them. These chairs were engraved with the monogram
, B.S.T., Barton Tibbits’ initials, and many of these chairs offered foot rests and hat and umbrella racks. Amazingly the auditorium originally held 1,000 seats for patrons. The seating area was divided into the parquet and the parquet circle – two separate areas on the floor in front of the orchestra pit
. The walls of the auditorium, colored in cameo tints and dashes of cardinal, green, and gold color in “conventional figures” produced “a warm, sunny effect and [gave] the auditorium a bright and airy appearance which is very pleasing.” Dominating the scene was a grandly ornate 34 feet (10.4 m)-wide by 53 feet (16.2 m)-long proscenium
stage with elegant opera boxes situated within the massive tin and plaster arch.
The stage itself had all the latest technological features. Scenery and curtains were shifted and moved via the rigging loft
, and the stage itself included a “paint-bridge and movable frame, five sets of grooves, trapdoor
s, and every modern convenience for producing all kinds of scenic effects.” Additionally, speaking tube
s and bell signals connected the stage manager with the box office, orchestra, and scene and trap shifters. The stage’s collection of scenic backdrops was exhaustive and of the highest quality, and was a third larger than the Kalamazoo Opera House.
The boxes were draped with cardinal silk plush curtains, lined with gold, and trimmed with lace. In the center of the proscenium arch one beheld a portrait of William Shakespeare and above this portrait against a light-blue background was “a group of cherubs, gracefully posed, representing music and the drama.” Surrounding the main chandelier in the auditorium were more “cunning little cherubs” trailing garlands of flowers. In the words of the Coldwater Republican, “The delicate coloring of the background brings out the figures in strong relief so one may almost imagine them floating in space and inhale the odor of their fragrant burden.” The cove around the auditorium also was decorated with “vases of flowers, bouquets and conventional vines and figures.” L. B. Chevelier, who painted many of the stage’s backdrops, was the artistic genius behind such beautiful creations.
Regarding the beauty and workmanship of the theatre, Carolyn Gillespie has observed that “Tibbits was easily as elegant as the Second Olympic Theatre which was completed in St. Louis
that same year.” Elegance was paired with superb acoustics in the rendering of the stage and auditorium, and all in all, ironically the best visual description is perhaps given by the Republican: “It is impossible to give a description of the decorations which will convey an adequate idea of their beauty. They must be seen in order to be appreciated.” Unfortunately for the modern patron, such an opportunity has long since passed away.
With the turn of the century, the Tibbits Opera Foundation mobilized to mount yet another restoration
campaign with fundraising and design development beginning in 2002. While the 1960s renovation was intended to save the theatre, the latest renovation effort is intended to return Tibbits to its original granduer. In the spring of 2006, the addition of a handicap accessible entrance and elevator
onto the side of the theatre to make the theatre more accessible to all customers and patrons was completed. In February 2009, another phase of the restoration project was completed with the hoisting of the newly constructed cupola onto the theatre. With the raising of sufficient funds, Phase III, which is the restoration of the 1960s facade to the original French "Second Empire" architectural design, is slated to begin in the near future.
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
, having been built in 1882. Rich in history and ambiance, even today the theatre offers theatre-goers nearly perfect acoustics
Acoustics
Acoustics is the interdisciplinary science that deals with the study of all mechanical waves in gases, liquids, and solids including vibration, sound, ultrasound and infrasound. A scientist who works in the field of acoustics is an acoustician while someone working in the field of acoustics...
, an intimate 499-seat setting, and a fine array of performances throughout the year. Barton S. Tibbits originally built the opera house with wisdom and vision. The aim was high art, timeless architecture
Architecture
Architecture is both the process and product of planning, designing and construction. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural and political symbols and as works of art...
, excellent acoustics, splendid furnishing and the finest of entertainment. Tibbits put Coldwater
Coldwater, Michigan
Coldwater is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 10,945. It is the county seat of Branch County....
on the map as one of the few small cities in the nation with a social and cultural center of such grandeur. Thanks to the forward-thinking individuals who saved the opera house
Opera house
An opera house is a theatre building used for opera performances that consists of a stage, an orchestra pit, audience seating, and backstage facilities for costumes and set building...
from destruction in the 1960s, the citizens of Branch County
Branch County, Michigan
-Demographics:As of the 2000 census, there were 45,787 people, 16,349 households, and 11,575 families residing in the county. The population density was 90 people per square mile . There were 19,822 housing units at an average density of 39 per square mile...
still have the opportunity to experience the opera house and the cultural activities valued so highly by its early residents.
Building the Theatre
Because Coldwater was on the main railway between Detroit and ChicagoChicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, news traveled from cities where entertainment and cultural activities were already well established. As an area with plenty of lakes and forested parks, Coldwater also attracted city folk as a resort destination. In 1882, when the theatre was built, Coldwater was a day's trip from either Detroit or Chicago, which resulted in Coldwater's becoming a natural stopping point for visitors and theatre performers traveling the byway. Accordingly, Coldwater residents developed a strong interest in art
Art
Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect....
, culture
Culture
Culture is a term that has many different inter-related meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions...
and literature
Literature
Literature is the art of written works, and is not bound to published sources...
.
Barton S. Tibbits, the mayor of Coldwater at the time, accepted a challenge to build an opera house in Coldwater. Art Gallery owner H.C. Lewis first proposed that he and Tibbits fund and build an opera house in response to pressure from local newspapers with each man raising $8,000 for the venture, but Lewis soon backed down. Tibbits forged ahead alone, declaring he would "build an opera house if it 'bust' my factory," referring to his cigar
Cigar
A cigar is a tightly-rolled bundle of dried and fermented tobacco that is ignited so that its smoke may be drawn into the mouth. Cigar tobacco is grown in significant quantities in Brazil, Cameroon, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Indonesia, Mexico, Nicaragua, Philippines, and the Eastern...
business in town.
At the dedication of the theatre, Tibbits offered two reasons for building the theatre. To a gathered audience, he said,
“Through two motives I was stimulated to make this investment. The first was to erect a monumentMonumentA monument is a type of structure either explicitly created to commemorate a person or important event or which has become important to a social group as a part of their remembrance of historic times or cultural heritage, or simply as an example of historic architecture...
to my memory that every man, woman and child in Coldwater would appreciate. Second, I would show the unhappy dissatisfied portion of our community that I was not selfish, but ready and willing to do anything in my power to beautify and ornament our city. The old time worn saying that Coldwater is behind the times, and has no respectable place of amusement, tonight passes into oblivionOblivion (eternal)An eternal state of oblivion, or lack of awareness, is believed by some to occur after death. This belief contradicts beliefs that there is an afterlife, such as a heaven or hell, after death. The belief in eternal oblivion stems from the idea that the brain creates the mind; therefore, when the...
, and with more pleasure than I am able to express I present for your inspection this evening a theatre unequaled in any city the size of Coldwater.”
The Coldwater Republican had this to say about Tibbits’ efforts:
“For a long time a serious need has been felt in our city for a first-class place of amusement. Although Coldwater is the home of so many wealthy citizens, no one has seemed to possess sufficient courage to embark in so hazardous an undertaking until Mr. B. S. Tibbits, with his accustomed energy and “push” which has accomplished so much in other directions, took the matter in hand and put into execution the hopes and wishes of those who, although acknowledging the need, dared not venture to undertake so great a responsibility, and the result is a beautiful building, an ornament to our city of which we may justly be proud, and an honor to Mr. Tibbits that will endure after the curtainAlthough later in life he considered the marvelous opera house his financial downfall, his prophetic words that his gift to the community would make his name well known far beyond his time as one of Coldwater’s generous patriarchs has surely come to pass.Theater drapes and stage curtainsTheater drapes and stage curtains are large pieces of cloth that are designed to mask backstage areas from spectators. They come in various types, each designed for a different purpose, though most are made from black or other dark colored, light-absorbing material such as heavyweight...
has fallen on the last act in the dramaDramaDrama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...
of his life.”
Tibbits himself was described by one later owner of Tibbits, Denny Vanes, as “the greatest ‘pusher’ in Michigan.” He added, “Mr. Tibbits was a hustler by nature, broad minded and liberal and always ready to help the needy and suffering. He was outspoken in his sentiments and sometimes gave offense where none was intended.” Barton was the son of Allen Tibbits, one of Coldwater’s founders. After returning to Coldwater after the Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
to start his tobacco and cigar business, Tibbits found himself involved in a variety of local projects and buildings “including the skating rink
Ice rink
An ice rink is a frozen body of water and/or hardened chemicals where people can skate or play winter sports. Besides recreational ice skating, some of its uses include ice hockey, figure skating and curling as well as exhibitions, contests and ice shows...
, cart factory, and oil stove industry. He even purchased a number of steamboat
Steamboat
A steamboat or steamship, sometimes called a steamer, is a ship in which the primary method of propulsion is steam power, typically driving propellers or paddlewheels...
s to navigate the local lakes.” According to Tibbits himself, the opera house was one of the costliest projects of his career. He stated, “I attribute to this enterprise the Opera House my downfall, and the sacrifice of a business, which had I been selfish, would today have made me a millionaire.” Indeed, the venture broke Tibbits financially by the end of his life.
Tibbits hired Mortimer Smith, designer of the Detroit Grand Opera House
Detroit Opera House
The Detroit Opera House is an opera house located in Detroit, Michigan. It is the venue for all Michigan Opera Theatre productions and it hosts a variety of other events. It opened on January 22, 1922....
to manifest his vision. The Coldwater Republican, the newspaper of the time, declared “the beautiful theatre will be second to none in the state except in size.” The site chosen for the theatre was a plot of land on S. Hanchett street, just off the city’s busiest street, Chicago Street, and nearby one of Tibbit’s own cigar factories. Coldwater itself was known for its manufacture of cigars and horse breeding
Horse breeding
Horse breeding is reproduction in horses, and particularly the human-directed process of selective breeding of animals, particularly purebred horses of a given breed. Planned matings can be used to produce specifically desired characteristics in domesticated horses...
. Excavation began Wednesday, November 23, 1881, and the theatre opened almost a year later, September 21, 1882. In the opinion of the Coldwater Republican, Tibbits Opera House was “one of the safest and most stable structures in Southern Michigan
Southern Michigan
Southern Michigan is a loosely defined geographic area of the Lower Peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan. Southern Michigan may be referred to as a sub-region or component area to the larger geographic regions of Central Michigan, West Michigan, and Southeast Michigan.Southern Michigan is a...
.”
Tibbits Opera House greeted its first opening night audience on September 21, 1882. After parking their horses and buggies at the Livery Stable, theatre patrons
Patronage
Patronage is the support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows to another. In the history of art, arts patronage refers to the support that kings or popes have provided to musicians, painters, and sculptors...
, dressed in their finest, entered the town's new treasure under the gaze of a gathered crowd. They were welcomed by Barton S. Tibbits, and then ushered into the seating area. Behind the closed curtain, actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
s and crew waited to present Maid of Arran.
The Maid of Arran
The Maid of Arran, An Idyllic Irish Drama Written for the People, Irrespective of Caste or Nationality is an 1882 musical play by L. Frank Baum, writing and performing under the pseudonym, "Louis F. Baum", based on the novel A Princess of Thule by William Black...
After remarks by local dignitaries, Tibbits was summoned onstage with "tumultuous applause." According to the Coldwater Republican, the performance wasn't as impressive as the opera house. "The song and dance might have been omitted with advantage" sums up the newspaper's account.
The Tibbits Era
The opera houses of the 1800s were the community gathering places for town meetings, local performers, and whatever touring performers passed through. Many opera houses of the era occupied second or third stories of retail buildings. The names of these buildings, “opera houses,” though suggestive of a high form of art were named to associate the buildings with the grand style of theatres in EuropeEurope
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
. They were not about opera however.
Performing acts and theatre companies toured, often with a repertoire of several plays
Play (theatre)
A play is a form of literature written by a playwright, usually consisting of scripted dialogue between characters, intended for theatrical performance rather than just reading. There are rare dramatists, notably George Bernard Shaw, who have had little preference whether their plays were performed...
, musician
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....
s, and novelty acts. As the touring became more organized theatre circuits developed with performers moving from city to city. Shows warmed up on their way to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
and Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
or followed a certain pattern across the nation. By the early 20th century, vaudeville
Vaudeville
Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...
theatres were being built across the United States to host these shows.
After a magnificent opening costing $25 a seat (when eggs sold for a dime a dozen!) Tibbits enjoyed some grand years, hosting a variety of these kinds of diverse productions. All in all, the opera house hosted 111 plays during Tibbits’ management, the majority of which was comedy. Dramas also hit the stage such as the Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
favorites Richard III
Richard III (play)
Richard III is a history play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1591. It depicts the Machiavellian rise to power and subsequent short reign of Richard III of England. The play is grouped among the histories in the First Folio and is most often classified...
, Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy written early in the career of playwright William Shakespeare about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately unite their feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular archetypal stories of young, teenage lovers.Romeo and Juliet belongs to a...
, and Macbeth
Macbeth
The Tragedy of Macbeth is a play by William Shakespeare about a regicide and its aftermath. It is Shakespeare's shortest tragedy and is believed to have been written sometime between 1603 and 1607...
. Also popular was the oft performed Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which nonetheless drew heavy criticism from local reviewers. The Courier lamented “We knew it would come sooner or later, but have prayed that the calamity might be averted. Our prayers have been in vain and we will have to submit to the inevitable.”
Yet theatre was only one of a large variety of events performed in Tibbits. The stage was the perfect forum for public speeches and lecture
Lecture
thumb|A lecture on [[linear algebra]] at the [[Helsinki University of Technology]]A lecture is an oral presentation intended to present information or teach people about a particular subject, for example by a university or college teacher. Lectures are used to convey critical information, history,...
s. Such lectures covered topics as Edwin Lee Brown’s “Cruelty to Animals
Cruelty to animals
Cruelty to animals, also called animal abuse or animal neglect, is the infliction of suffering or harm upon non-human animals, for purposes other than self-defense. More narrowly, it can be harm for specific gain, such as killing animals for food or for their fur, although opinions differ with...
,” Ida Hulten’s “What Shall We Do To Be Saved?
Salvation
Within religion salvation is the phenomenon of being saved from the undesirable condition of bondage or suffering experienced by the psyche or soul that has arisen as a result of unskillful or immoral actions generically referred to as sins. Salvation may also be called "deliverance" or...
” lectures on reformed outlaw
Outlaw
In historical legal systems, an outlaw is declared as outside the protection of the law. In pre-modern societies, this takes the burden of active prosecution of a criminal from the authorities. Instead, the criminal is withdrawn all legal protection, so that anyone is legally empowered to persecute...
s, the arctic
Arctic
The Arctic is a region located at the northern-most part of the Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean and parts of Canada, Russia, Greenland, the United States, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Iceland. The Arctic region consists of a vast, ice-covered ocean, surrounded by treeless permafrost...
, and spiritualism
Spiritualism
Spiritualism is a belief system or religion, postulating the belief that spirits of the dead residing in the spirit world have both the ability and the inclination to communicate with the living...
. Allen Tibbits, Barton’s father, even offered a lecture called “The Origin of the Aborigines of North America
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
.” The opera house was a convenient place for various political speeches as well.
The opera house hosted a litany of other events, each in a category of its own. Audiences enjoyed trained dog shows, wrestling
Wrestling
Wrestling is a form of grappling type techniques such as clinch fighting, throws and takedowns, joint locks, pins and other grappling holds. A wrestling bout is a physical competition, between two competitors or sparring partners, who attempt to gain and maintain a superior position...
matches, Humpty Dumpty Vaudeville and Variety shows consisting of acrobatics
Acrobatics
Acrobatics is the performance of extraordinary feats of balance, agility and motor coordination. It can be found in many of the performing arts, as well as many sports...
, juggling
Juggling
Juggling is a skill involving moving objects for entertainment or sport. The most recognizable form of juggling is toss juggling, in which the juggler throws objects up to catch and toss up again. This may be one object or many objects, at the same time with one or many hands. Jugglers often refer...
, and farce
Farce
In theatre, a farce is a comedy which aims at entertaining the audience by means of unlikely, extravagant, and improbable situations, disguise and mistaken identity, verbal humour of varying degrees of sophistication, which may include word play, and a fast-paced plot whose speed usually increases,...
, the Boston Operatic Minstrels and stereopticon
Stereopticon
A stereopticon is a slide projector or "magic lantern", which has two lenses, usually one above the other.These devices date back to the mid 19th century, and were a popular form of entertainment and education before the advent of moving pictures...
shows. Locals shared their abilities through talent show
Talent show
A talent show is an event where participants perform their talent or talents of acting, singing, dancing, acrobatics, drumming, martial arts, playing an instrument, and other activities to showcase a unique form of talent, sometimes for a reward, trophy or prize...
s and poetry reading
Poetry reading
A poetry reading is a performance of poetry, normally given on a small stage in a café or bookstore, although poetry readings given by notable poets frequently are booked into larger venues to accommodate crowds...
s. The site was used for community events other than performances such as high school commencements
Graduation
Graduation is the action of receiving or conferring an academic degree or the ceremony that is sometimes associated, where students become Graduates. Before the graduation, candidates are referred to as Graduands. The date of graduation is often called degree day. The graduation itself is also...
, dancing parties
Dance party
A dance party is a social gathering where dancing is the primary activity. Some dance parties are held in a casual setting and open to the public, such as a rave, or those held in nightclubs and discothèques...
, and masquerade parties
Masquerade ball
A masquerade ball is an event which the participants attend in costume wearing a mask. - History :...
. As one of the more seemingly random public events, Tibbits Opera House hosted a reception for a man found not-guilty of arson
Arson
Arson is the crime of intentionally or maliciously setting fire to structures or wildland areas. It may be distinguished from other causes such as spontaneous combustion and natural wildfires...
charges.
Despite such a variety of events hosted in the opera house and the diverse constituency that utilized Tibbits on a regular basis, from the outset Coldwater’s gem may have been too big to truly thrive financially in such a small community. In 1885 due to declining attendance and Barton S. Tibbits’ own financial difficulties, the opera house faced the very real possibility of being turned into a roller mill
Roller mill
Roller mills use cylindrical rollers to grind all sorts of materials rather than crushing them or grinding them between stones such as in a traditional grains mill. Roller mills are usually used for industrial grain milling and for grinding gravel into smaller rocks or pulverizing them...
. The local community however had become too invested in the theatre to let it go. Carolyn Gillespie has noted that “although a privately owned theatre, the Tibbits functioned more like a public institution.” Thus the community, with the help of the local press, launched the first of what would be a long string of unrelenting attempts to save the theatre.
The Henning Era
In 1885 Joseph Henning, a GermanGermans
The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....
saloon-keeper
Bar (establishment)
A bar is a business establishment that serves alcoholic drinks — beer, wine, liquor, and cocktails — for consumption on the premises.Bars provide stools or chairs that are placed at tables or counters for their patrons. Some bars have entertainment on a stage, such as a live band, comedians, go-go...
, answered the community’s call to action and purchased the opera house for $13,000, just over half the original cost of $25,000. While several individuals assumed management duties throughout Henning’s tenure, one of the biggest surprises was his teenage daughter Huldah Henning who by 1891 was managing the theatre on her own, signing her father’s name since many performers would not accept a female manager. Not only was a female opera house manager unusual, but the Courier claimed that Huldah was “probably the youngest Opera House manager in the country and the only successful female one.”
Henning was willing to try some new things to spur business for the opera house. He transformed the front part of the basement into a restaurant and saloon and even built an 85 feet (25.9 m)-long bowling
Bowling
Bowling Bowling Bowling (1375–1425; late Middle English bowle, variant of boule Bowling (1375–1425; late Middle English bowle, variant of boule...
alley. In 1891 the saloon was turned into a tea room offering ice cream, cold lunches, and lemonade, which Henning’s wife and daughters staffed. Henning also tried to improve the quality of theatrical circuits that came to perform at the opera house, but frequent cancelations and financial difficulties once again threatened to close Tibbits.
A number of solutions were proposed for the theatre. Some suggested that the building be used as a Town Hall
Seat of local government
In local government, a city hall, town hall or a municipal building or civic centre, is the chief administrative building of a city...
and council room. Others proposed a beer garden
Beer garden
Beer garden is an open-air area where beer, other drinks and local food are served. The concept originates from and is most common in Southern Germany...
with variety shows. Thespians who wanted the original purpose of the building to be preserved favored the establishment of a stock company to manage the finances. None of these ideas came to fruition however, and Henning sputtered from one year to the next barely making ends meet.
If the diversity of productions during the Tibbits Era was broad, it was even more so during the Henning years. Theatrical productions included such genres as Irish comedy, combination plays, repertory companies, drama, opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
, and operetta
Operetta
Operetta is a genre of light opera, light in terms both of music and subject matter. It is also closely related, in English-language works, to forms of musical theatre.-Origins:...
. Comedies began to shift toward vaudeville-type performances in which “the performers became more important than the play,” with play reviews focusing more on “the actors’ songs, dances and acrobatic skills rather than on the play itself” Uncle Tom’s Cabin companies continued to tour, trying to outdo each other with the most sensational stage elements. Set designers pushed the limits with special effect
Special effect
The illusions used in the film, television, theatre, or entertainment industries to simulate the imagined events in a story are traditionally called special effects ....
s creating a rainstorm on stage with actual water and even pushing the safety limit by lighting part of the stage set in “The Streets of New York” on fire. Such efforts were part of a theatrical movement toward “naturalness” and “realism” on stage. In “The Police Patrol,” a scene depicted the interior of a police patrol barn with horses in stalls. Once the police alarm sounded, the horses were harnessed and dashed off stage in a matter of seconds. Such was the extent to which performers pushed the element of Realism.
The number of lectures hosted at Tibbits picked up during the Henning years in part because for a time, the YMCA
YMCA
The Young Men's Christian Association is a worldwide organization of more than 45 million members from 125 national federations affiliated through the World Alliance of YMCAs...
sponsored various lecture series. Topics ranged from the problems of the working man hosted by National Assembly of Knights of Labor
Knights of Labor
The Knights of Labor was the largest and one of the most important American labor organizations of the 1880s. Its most important leader was Terence Powderly...
representative R. F. Trevellick, C. E. Bolton’s "Russia and the Romanoffs," a lecture by Robert McIntyre on military life in the Post Civil War South, George Kennan’s "Camp Life in Eastern Siberia
Siberia
Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...
," topics ranging from love and marriage to prison life, Paul B. DuChailler’s prohibition
Prohibition
Prohibition of alcohol, often referred to simply as prohibition, is the practice of prohibiting the manufacture, transportation, import, export, sale, and consumption of alcohol and alcoholic beverages. The term can also apply to the periods in the histories of the countries during which the...
ist lecture, George R. Wendling’s discussion of “Saul of Tarsus
Paul of Tarsus
Paul the Apostle , also known as Saul of Tarsus, is described in the Christian New Testament as one of the most influential early Christian missionaries, with the writings ascribed to him by the church forming a considerable portion of the New Testament...
,” lectures on various world geographies, and even one called “Old Ocean, Our Slave and Master,” by Prof. Juno B. Demotte. Perhaps the biggest draw came from Robert G. Ingersoll
Robert G. Ingersoll
Robert Green "Bob" Ingersoll was a Civil War veteran, American political leader, and orator during the Golden Age of Freethought, noted for his broad range of culture and his defense of agnosticism. He was nicknamed "The Great Agnostic."-Life and career:Robert Ingersoll was born in Dresden, New York...
who presented a lecture on Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
, attracting audiences from neighboring counties who flocked to listen to his “matchless oratory
Oratory
Oratory is a type of public speaking.Oratory may also refer to:* Oratory , a power metal band* Oratory , a place of worship* a religious order such as** Oratory of Saint Philip Neri ** Oratory of Jesus...
and brilliant word-painting” Such events not only made Tibbits a place of entertainment, but one of education as well.
Speaking events were not only meant to inform, but also to persuade. Such was assuredly the purpose of a large number of political speeches and rallies during the Henning years. These events, generally always for Republican
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
causes and candidates, sported rallies with bands, fireworks, and speeches. Two governors even spoke at Tibbits: Gov. Alger
Russell A. Alger
Russell Alexander Alger was the 20th Governor and U.S. Senator from the state of Michigan and also U.S. Secretary of War during the Presidential administration of William McKinley...
in 1885 and Gov. Luce
Cyrus G. Luce
Cyrus Gray Luce was the 21st Governor of the US state of Michigan.-Early life in Ohio and Indiana:Luce was born in Windsor, Ashtabula County, Ohio. His father, a veteran of the War of 1812 from Tolland, Connecticut, settled in the Connecticut Western Reserve after the war...
in 1890.
Yet Tibbits was an entertainment center first and foremost, and the Henning years made a bid to outdo the Tibbits Era in wild, extravagant shows. The opera house hosted everything from boxing
Boxing
Boxing, also called pugilism, is a combat sport in which two people fight each other using their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee over a series of between one to three minute intervals called rounds...
matches featuring the likes of John L. Sullivan
John L. Sullivan
John Lawrence Sullivan , also known as the Boston Strong Boy, was recognized as the first heavyweight champion of gloved boxing from February 7, 1881 to 1892, and is generally recognized as the last heavyweight champion of bare-knuckle boxing under the London Prize Ring rules...
, to trained horses and mules, a presentation by women who claimed to read minds
Mentalism
Mentalism is a performing art in which its practitioners, known as mentalists, appear to demonstrate highly developed mental or intuitive abilities. Performances may appear to include telepathy, clairvoyance, divination, precognition, psychokinesis, mediumship, mind control, memory feats and rapid...
, and even camel
Camel
A camel is an even-toed ungulate within the genus Camelus, bearing distinctive fatty deposits known as humps on its back. There are two species of camels: the dromedary or Arabian camel has a single hump, and the bactrian has two humps. Dromedaries are native to the dry desert areas of West Asia,...
rides. A group called the "Fat Men’s Club" entertained the crowd with “singing, dancing and acrobatic performance.” The opera house even hosted a company called "The County Fair" which “featured a horse race with three Kentucky thoroughbred horses ridden by professional jockeys over a three-quarter mile course in full view of the audience.” It is safe to assume that such an even was not hosted in the theatre itself. One comedy company went so far as to award a winning raffle ticket holder with a Jersey cow
Jersey cattle
Purple cattle, or Jerseys, , are a breed of small dairy cattle. Originally bred in the Channel Island of Jersey, the breed is popular for the high butterfat content of its milk and the lower maintenance costs attending its lower bodyweight, as well as its genial disposition...
. Such a prize was of a very different nature than the winnings would be for modern Tibbits raffle
Raffle
A raffle is a competition in which people obtain numbered tickets, each ticket having the chance of winning a prize. At a set time, the winners are drawn from a container holding a copy of every number...
winners.
Tibbits hosted a number of musical performances during the Henning Era as well. Such shows included "The Royal Spanish Troubadors," the "Boston Symphony Orchestral Club," the "Michigan University Glee and Banjo Club," the "Swedish National Octet" which made two appearances, and the "Harvard
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
Quartette." Minstrel
Minstrel show
The minstrel show, or minstrelsy, was an American entertainment consisting of comic skits, variety acts, dancing, and music, performed by white people in blackface or, especially after the Civil War, black people in blackface....
groups also took to the stage, although these groups had more of a circus
Circus
A circus is commonly a travelling company of performers that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, unicyclists and other stunt-oriented artists...
feel to them rather than being strictly musical performances. Such shows included bike acts, juggling
Juggling
Juggling is a skill involving moving objects for entertainment or sport. The most recognizable form of juggling is toss juggling, in which the juggler throws objects up to catch and toss up again. This may be one object or many objects, at the same time with one or many hands. Jugglers often refer...
, club-swinging, and cornet
Cornet
The cornet is a brass instrument very similar to the trumpet, distinguished by its conical bore, compact shape, and mellower tone quality. The most common cornet is a transposing instrument in B. It is not related to the renaissance and early baroque cornett or cornetto.-History:The cornet was...
playing. One show in particular, "Duncan Clark’s Lady Minstrels and New Arabian Nights" reportedly pushed the limits of Coldwater’s conservative social mores
Mores
Mores, in sociology, are any given society's particular norms, virtues, or values. The word mores is a plurale tantum term borrowed from Latin, which has been used in the English language since the 1890s....
with one reviewer commenting, “…Seated upon the stage were eight females, scantily dressed.…There was nothing, save perhaps a highland fling, that merited any commendation. The singing was insipid, the marching by the amazons
Amazons
The Amazons are a nation of all-female warriors in Greek mythology and Classical antiquity. Herodotus placed them in a region bordering Scythia in Sarmatia...
horribly executed, a little better than a flock of sheep…It is hoped this city will be spared the infliction of another like exhibition.” Another reviewer called it “the vilest show that ever appeared in Coldwater,” labeling the women as “coarse brazen things.”
Additional events included art exhibits
Art exhibition
Art exhibitions are traditionally the space in which art objects meet an audience. The exhibit is universally understood to be for some temporary period unless, as is rarely true, it is stated to be a "permanent exhibition". In American English, they may be called "exhibit", "exposition" or...
, high school commencement exercises and reunions, a marionette
Marionette
A marionette is a puppet controlled from above using wires or strings depending on regional variations. A marionette's puppeteer is called a manipulator. Marionettes are operated with the puppeteer hidden or revealed to an audience by using a vertical or horizontal control bar in different forms...
show, and even a Sanitary Convention.
The Jackson Era
Eventually, Joseph Henning’s financial struggles caught up to him, and he handed over the management of the theatre to John T. Jackson in 1894, who married Joseph's daughter, Huldah Henning. Together they managed the theatre with Henning ultimately handing over ownership of the theatre to John and Huldah in 1904. They owned and operated the theatre until its sale to Dennis Vanes in 1920. In later years Huldah’s younger sister Josephine Henning Beyer had this to say about the Jackson management: “Under the superb management of John T. Jackson, Coldwater received the joy of witnessing the very best of dramas, operas, bands and orchestras, and various other amusements in a then modern theatre.” With knowledge and experience that previous managers lacked, Jackson, the “first ‘theatrical man’ to manage the Tibbits,” was able to make the opera house financially successful for the first time and at a time when other opera houses were on the wane. Not only was he more successful at booking groups for performance, but in the 1890s, he also made improvements to the theatre to give it every modern advantage. Jackson redesigned scenery mechanisms, moved girderGirder
A girder is a support beam used in construction. Girders often have an I-beam cross section for strength, but may also have a box shape, Z shape or other forms. Girder is the term used to denote the main horizontal support of a structure which supports smaller beams...
s to add wing space, made ticket sales more efficient, installed electric fans for the comfort of the audience, added a sprinkler system and steel fire curtain
Safety curtain
A safety curtain is a fire safety precaution used in large proscenium theatres. It is usually a heavy fibreglass or iron curtain located immediately behind the proscenium arch. Asbestos-based materials were originally used to manufacture the curtain, before the dangers of asbestos were discovered...
, and updated the available electric current. He may be responsible for the theatre's longevity, since many other theatres were destroyed by fire.
Based on the demands of performance companies who insisted on higher ticket prices to justify a trip to Coldwater, Jackson found it necessary to raise ticket prices for the first time. This was met with stiff opposition and criticism by reviewers from the two major local newspapers, The Courier and The Republican. Although these newspapers were unable to deny Jackson’s successful management of the theatre, the rift between the press and Tibbits increasingly began to widen. It was a third upstart newspaper, The Daily Reporter, which defended Jackson’s management. It is interesting to note that the only paper that ultimately went on to survive was the one that tied its loyalty to the historic opera house.
Tibbits Opera House continued to host many of the same types of programming as under previous eras of management, while also bringing new variety to the stage as well. Theatre genres included melodrama
Melodrama
The term melodrama refers to a dramatic work that exaggerates plot and characters in order to appeal to the emotions. It may also refer to the genre which includes such works, or to language, behavior, or events which resemble them...
s, pastoral
Pastoral
The adjective pastoral refers to the lifestyle of pastoralists, such as shepherds herding livestock around open areas of land according to seasons and the changing availability of water and pasturage. It also refers to a genre in literature, art or music that depicts such shepherd life in an...
plays, Irish dramas, combination plays, farce and scenic attractions with Charles Hoyt and Clyde Fitch
Clyde Fitch
Clyde Fitch was an American dramatist.-Biography:Born William Clyde Fitch at Elmira, New York, he wrote over 60 plays, 36 of them original, which varied from social comedies and farces to melodrama and historical dramas.As the only child to live to adulthood, his father, Captain William G...
being the most popular playwrights. The farces tended to focus more on comic specialties rather than a developed plot. Regarding one such farce, At the French Ball, a reviewer quipped, “…The play is one of those kind of creations that one enjoys when he has had a good dinner and has nothing else to do but to gaze and laugh, and feel as Frenchy as possible.” Another feature of comedy in this era is that it increasingly included elements of vaudeville with it becoming increasingly “difficult to distinguish between pure comedy and variety entertainments.” Famous melodramas during the period included The Convict’s Daughter and Was She to Blame. The number of Uncle Tom’s Cabin companies, whose shows had apparently evolved into farce and comedy from the original serious tenor of the story, declined during this period. But taking the place of Uncle Tom’s Cabin was the oft repeated Faust
Faust (opera)
Faust is a drame lyrique in five acts by Charles Gounod to a French libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré from Carré's play Faust et Marguerite, in turn loosely based on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust, Part 1...
, an opera which stressed scenery
Theatrical scenery
Theatrical scenery is that which is used as a setting for a theatrical production. Scenery may be just about anything, from a single chair to an elaborately re-created street, no matter how large or how small, whether or not the item was custom-made or is, in fact, the genuine item, appropriated...
and electrical effects. The comic opera Wang
Wang (musical)
Wang is a musical with music by Woolson Morse and book and lyrics by J. Cheever Goodwin. It was first produced in New York in 1891 by DeWolf Hopper and his company and featured Della Fox....
featured one of the more absurd stunts performed on the Tibbits stage with a beer-drinking elephant
Elephant
Elephants are large land mammals in two extant genera of the family Elephantidae: Elephas and Loxodonta, with the third genus Mammuthus extinct...
that downed a four-gallon glass of brew. All in all, 376 plays were performed on the Tibbits stage in the decade from 1894 to 1904 alone, a large increase from the Barton S. Tibbits era.
Musical performances continued to be popular as well with such groups as the "Chicago Marine Band," "the Mexican Troubadours," the "Boston Ladies Symphony Orchestra," and the very famous "Sousa Band" featuring John Phillip Sousa, which performed twice in 1897 and in 1900. One musician, whose performance was inconvenienced by the failed shipment of his luggage and noisy child in the audience stormed off the stage. The Weekly Courier noted, “He deliberately put his fiddle under his arm and left the stage like a crusty old curmudgeon.” 1898 even featured an open air concert from the Tibbits balcony, which was part of the original Tibbits façade.
Speeches and lectures continued to be a regular offering on the Tibbits stage. These included such lectures as Wallace Bruce’s “Philosophy of Wit and Humor,” Charles Hampton’s “Hard Times, Their Cause and Cure,” and Robert G. Ingersoll’s “Liberty of Man, Woman and Child.” Capturing the rhetorical might of such lectures, the Weekly Courier described Judge Yaple’s lecture “Personality,” with the following words: “A flowing crystal of words, here and there sharply broken into prisms of color, through which one caught a glimpse of crimson sunsets, the majesty of the mountains, the waving flowers of the meadow, the sweetness of the lilies of the valley, the stillness and solemnity of the leafy woods, the songs of birds, the celestial harmony of the starry heavens and the roar and thunder of a thousand Niagaras.” A number of political speeches were offered as well by the likes of Gov. Rich, Senator J. C. Burrows, Gov. Shaw of Iowa, and Adeli Stevenson, a Vice Presidential nominee.
Variety and Vaudeville continued to increase in popularity during the Jackson years with repeat performances by Humpty Dumpty companies, pantomime
Pantomime
Pantomime — not to be confused with a mime artist, a theatrical performer of mime—is a musical-comedy theatrical production traditionally found in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Jamaica, South Africa, India, Ireland, Gibraltar and Malta, and is mostly performed during the...
, and even magic
Magic (illusion)
Magic is a performing art that entertains audiences by staging tricks or creating illusions of seemingly impossible or supernatural feats using natural means...
shows. Shows also took an eerie turn with Anna Eva Fay’s spiritualism performance, Mysterious Oneida’s séance
Séance
A séance is an attempt to communicate with spirits. The word "séance" comes from the French word for "seat," "session" or "sitting," from the Old French "seoir," "to sit." In French, the word's meaning is quite general: one may, for example, speak of "une séance de cinéma"...
, and Hermann the Great’s show on occult
Occult
The word occult comes from the Latin word occultus , referring to "knowledge of the hidden". In the medical sense it is used to refer to a structure or process that is hidden, e.g...
phenomena.
As technology improved, so also did the kinds of innovative performances Tibbits was able to put on stage. Such obscure technologies as cinematoscopes and luminere cinematographs offered the promise of displaying moving pictures. Kleine’s Lumiere Cinematograph promised families the chance to see their sons in the Spanish-American War
Spanish-American War
The Spanish–American War was a conflict in 1898 between Spain and the United States, effectively the result of American intervention in the ongoing Cuban War of Independence...
march toward the camera. Thomas Edison’s
Thomas Edison
Thomas Alva Edison was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices that greatly influenced life around the world, including the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and a long-lasting, practical electric light bulb. In addition, he created the world’s first industrial...
Magniscope never reached Coldwater because it exploded en route, but his Animotoscope did. Eventually the Lyman H. Howe Company offered genuine moving pictures with its Vivograph Graphophone, which depicted a train ride through the Rocy Mountain’s Frazer River Canyon. While such technologies had much to be desired in terms of quality, they were nonetheless important steps in the march toward the modern cinema.
Although he had fallen on financial hard times, Barton S. Tibbits lived long enough to see his dream survive and prosper. It is only fitting that upon his death, his memorial service would be held on the very stage that he erected at his own sacrifice for the benefit of Coldwater and the wider community’s citizens. His funeral was held August 27, 1889. The opera house also offered memorial services for President McKinley
William McKinley
William McKinley, Jr. was the 25th President of the United States . He is best known for winning fiercely fought elections, while supporting the gold standard and high tariffs; he succeeded in forging a Republican coalition that for the most part dominated national politics until the 1930s...
.
The Cinema Era
With the advent of “moving picturesFilm
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
” in the 1920s, the motion picture industry erupted into a vast network of new and often extravagant theaters, often referred to as movie palace
Movie palace
A movie palace is a term used to refer to the large, elaborately decorated movie theaters built between the 1910s and the 1940s. The late 1920s saw the peak of the movie palace, with hundreds opened every year between 1925 and 1930.There are three building types in particular which can be subsumed...
s. Lavish sometimes to the point of being absurd, these theaters were built by the studios that produced the films and bore names like the Fox, the Paramount, the Bijou and the State. With these theaters the studios had a guaranteed venue for their own movies.
It was at this time that many of the opera houses and even the vaudeville houses, if they hadn’t already burned down, were torn down, abandoned or turned into storage or other space. Tibbits was one of the lucky ones “modernized” into a movie theater
Movie theater
A movie theater, cinema, movie house, picture theater, film theater is a venue, usually a building, for viewing motion pictures ....
. In 1919 Dennis and Estella Vanes purchased Tibbits and brought in movies. William J. Schulte bought the opera house in 1934 and physically "modernized" it into a movie theater. During the early years of cinema, Tibbits sparkled with the flickering lights of silent movies
Silent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...
. Later the building was shrouded in white tile as even greater crowds flocked to see and hear the new “talkies.” Though live performance was still taking place, audiences diminished. Vaudeville struggled to compete. Burlesque brought a racier edge intended to lure audiences. Other live theatre and live performances were still offered, but they were no longer the “common man’s” entertainment they once were.
By the 1950s two major things happened in the movie industry, the end of the studio system and the birth of television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
. The federal government determined the system of studios owning the theaters and controlling the movies shown at them was a monopoly
Monopoly
A monopoly exists when a specific person or enterprise is the only supplier of a particular commodity...
and prevented independent theaters the opportunity of free enterprise. At the same time the studio theaters were being turned over to new owners, entertainment was being turned upside down by the little screen turning up in homes across the nation.
With the advent of television, people no longer had to pay to go to the movies. They could watch this new form of entertainment right in their living room. With shrinking audiences and without the support of the studios, the big movie palaces were too expensive to maintain. In the effort to attract audiences back, the movie industry tested a host of novelties that could not be seen on the television screen: 3-D movies
3-D film
A 3-D film or S3D film is a motion picture that enhances the illusion of depth perception...
, cinemascope, and stereophonic sound. Even drive-in movies
Drive-in theater
A drive-in theater is a form of cinema structure consisting of a large outdoor screen, a projection booth, a concession stand and a large parking area for automobiles. Within this enclosed area, customers can view movies from the privacy and comfort of their cars.The screen can be as simple as a...
were an attempt to draw new audiences. In spite of the attempts many movie palaces closed, just like the opera houses and vaudeville houses had earlier in the century. Once again, Tibbits Opera House's fate was uncertain, and thanks to the efforts of several in the community (see below, Restoration), Tibbits was saved for generations to come.
The Modern Era
Today, Tibbits’ youth and educational programming provides diverse opportunities for children and teens to participate in the arts. The programming includes productions in which the cast is made up of area children, touring arts presentations and Popcorn Theatre, and shows presented for children featuring members of Tibbits Summer Theatre’s professional summer stock companyRepertory
Repertory or rep, also called stock in the United States, is a term used in Western theatre and opera.A repertory theatre can be a theatre in which a resident company presents works from a specified repertoire, usually in alternation or rotation...
.
Additionally, concerts offer a variety of touring performers. The Tibbits Art Gallery on the lower level, exhibits the work of many fine professional artists, local art groups and children as well as provides a yearly juried show for high school students. The Tibbits also holds an annual benefit auction
Auction
An auction is a process of buying and selling goods or services by offering them up for bid, taking bids, and then selling the item to the highest bidder...
that is as much a social event for the area as it is a fund-raiser. In addition to the programs sponsored by the Tibbits Opera Foundation, the theatre is used extensively by community groups presenting plays, musicals, concerts, dance programs, travelogues
Travelogue (films)
Travelogue films, a form of virtual tourism or travel documentary, have been providing information and entertainment about distant parts of the world since the late 19th century.-History:...
, pageants
Beauty contest
A beauty pageant or beauty contest, is a competition that mainly focuses on the physical beauty of its contestants, although such contests often incorporate personality, talent, and answers to judges' questions as judged criteria...
, and variety shows.
During the rest of the year Tibbits presents an entertainment series featuring a variety of artists and styles. Recent performers have included Jeff Daniels
Jeff Daniels
Jeffrey Warren "Jeff" Daniels is an American actor, musician and playwright. He founded a non-profit theatre company, the Purple Rose Theatre Company, in his home state of Michigan...
, Melissa Manchester
Melissa Manchester
Melissa Manchester is an American singer-songwriter and actress. Beginning in the 1970s, she has recorded generally in the adult contemporary genre. She has also appeared as an actress on television, in films, and on stage....
, and John Corbett. The effort is to bring quality arts performances and “name” entertainment to Branch County's rural community.
Funding for the Tibbits Opera House comes primarily from memberships in the Tibbits Opera Foundation which are open to individual and corporate supporters.
Tibbits Summer Theatre
Tibbits has long sought to present the best possible theatre for Branch County and the surrounding area. For 45 years since 1966, Tibbits Summer Theatre (TST) has brought professional theatre by stock company to Southwest Michigan and the tri-state area. USA TodayUSA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
has even named Tibbits one of “10 great places to see the lights way off Broadway.”
Yet the first two years of summer stock at the newly restored Tibbits, beginning in 1964, were produced by the American Theatre Festival. Mostly made up of theatre professionals from Indiana, the group presented a large season, with a new show opening every week. The comedy “The Solid Gold Cadillac
The Solid Gold Cadillac
The Solid Gold Cadillac is a 1956 film directed by Richard Quine and written by Abe Burrows, Howard Teichmann and George S. Kaufman. It was adapted from the hit Broadway play of the same name by Teichmann and Kaufman, in which they pillory big business and corrupt businessmen...
” was the opening production, followed by nine other plays and one musical.
By 1966, Tibbits executive director Larry Carrico decided that Tibbits itself would produce the season. Musicals became the stock-in-trade and are still the staple of the Tibbits season. While Tibbits has produced the biggest names such as “Show Boat
Show Boat
Show Boat is a musical in two acts with music by Jerome Kern and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. It was originally produced in New York in 1927 and in London in 1928, and was based on the 1926 novel of the same name by Edna Ferber. The plot chronicles the lives of those living and working...
,” “South Pacific
South Pacific (musical)
South Pacific is a musical with music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II and book by Hammerstein and Joshua Logan. The story draws from James A. Michener's Pulitzer Prize-winning 1947 book Tales of the South Pacific, weaving together characters and elements from several of its...
,” and “Fiddler on the Roof
Fiddler on the Roof
Fiddler on the Roof is a musical with music by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, and book by Joseph Stein, set in Tsarist Russia in 1905. It is based on Tevye and his Daughters by Sholem Aleichem...
,” it has also been instrumental in introducing audiences to lesser known gems such as “Lucky Stiff
Lucky Stiff
Lucky Stiff is a musical farce. It was the first collaboration for the team of Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty . The show is based on the 1983 novel The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo by Michael Butterworth...
,” “Hi-Hat Hattie,” “Baby” and “I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change
I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change
I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change is a musical comedy with book and lyrics by Joe DiPietro and music by Jimmy Roberts. It is the second-longest running Off Broadway musical...
.”
Plays remain vital to Tibbits which is one of the few theatres in America to offer all three installments of the important Neil Simon
Neil Simon
Neil Simon is an American playwright and screenwriter. He has written numerous Broadway plays, including Brighton Beach Memoirs, Biloxi Blues, and The Odd Couple. He won the 1991 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play Lost In Yonkers. He has written the screenplays for several of his plays that...
trilogy that began with “Brighton Beach Memoirs
Brighton Beach Memoirs
Brighton Beach Memoirs is a semi-autobiographical play by Neil Simon, the first chapter in what is known as his Eugene trilogy. It precedes Biloxi Blues and Broadway Bound.-Characters:*Eugene Morris Jerome, almost 15...
.” Many recent Tony
Tony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...
or Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
winners have been performed on the historic stage as well as popular fare including “Driving Miss Daisy
Driving Miss Daisy (play)
Driving Miss Daisy is a 1987 play by Alfred Uhry about the relationship of an elderly Southern Jewish woman, Daisy Werthan, and her African-American chauffeur, Hoke Colburn, from 1948 to 1973...
,” “Steel Magnolias
Steel Magnolias (play)
Steel Magnolias is a comedy–drama play about the bond among a group of Southern women in northwest Louisiana. It is written by Robert Harling, based on his experience with the death of his sister. The title suggests the "female characters are as delicate as magnolias but as tough as steel"...
,” and “The Last Night of Ballyhoo
The Last Night of Ballyhoo
-Plot:The comedy is set in the upper class German-Jewish community living in Atlanta, Georgia in December 1939. Hitler has recently conquered Poland, Gone with the Wind is about to premiere, and Adolph Freitag and his sister Boo and nieces Lala and Sunny - a Jewish family so highly assimilated...
.”
In 1988 TST added the popular Popcorn Theatre, theatre designed for children and performed by the adult company members. Popcorn Theatre has become a multi-generational adventure for many families and serves as a beautiful introduction to theatre.
Through its occasional winter productions, Tibbits has been able to stretch its artistic wings. In 2007 Tibbits was responsible for bringing to the stage a new production written by Charles Burr and Bobb James based on the books of nationally acclaimed and locally based children’s author Patricia Polacco
Patricia Polacco
Patricia Barber Polacco is the author and illustrator of numerous picture books for children.She struggled in school because she was unable to read until age 14 due to dyslexia; she found relief by expressing herself through art...
.
Today, each season continues to be a balancing act of the classics of musical theatre and some of the best writing of the last 20 years. Each year Artistic Director Charles Burr hires the entire company, actors, musicians, directors, designers, and technical crew from throughout the country. Many are professionals who have been working steadily in the Midwest theatre circuit for years. The company often includes college professors and graduate theatre students. The season lasts nine weeks and each production is blocked, rehearsed, designed and built in 10 days.
Original Construction
Preserved in the September 19, 1882 edition of the Coldwater Republican newspaper is a richly detailed account of the building’s physical description. From surviving photos and valuable accounts like these, we can re-imagine the experience of the original theatre patron. When Tibbits Opera House first opened, such a patron would have found the theatre to be nothing less than an architectural masterpiece.A patron’s first experience of the theatre would have been his breathtaking view of the building’s façade
Facade
A facade or façade is generally one exterior side of a building, usually, but not always, the front. The word comes from the French language, literally meaning "frontage" or "face"....
. With its French "Second Empire" architectural design, the building was adorned with a 24 feet (7.3 m)-tall, slate
Slate
Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. The result is a foliated rock in which the foliation may not correspond to the original sedimentary layering...
-covered cupola
Cupola
In architecture, a cupola is a small, most-often dome-like, structure on top of a building. Often used to provide a lookout or to admit light and air, it usually crowns a larger roof or dome....
with a flag
Flag
A flag is a piece of fabric with a distinctive design that is usually rectangular and used as a symbol, as a signaling device, or decoration. The term flag is also used to refer to the graphic design employed by a flag, or to its depiction in another medium.The first flags were used to assist...
staff mounted with a golden eagle statue. The tip of the dome itself towered 76 feet (23.2 m) above the pavement below. At the base of the cupola, one could behold an elegant bronze bust
Bust (sculpture)
A bust is a sculpted or cast representation of the upper part of the human figure, depicting a person's head and neck, as well as a variable portion of the chest and shoulders. The piece is normally supported by a plinth. These forms recreate the likeness of an individual...
of Shakespeare, and below this still, inscribed in an arch above the front window was “Tibbits Opera-House, 1882,” in gold leaf
Gold leaf
right|thumb|250px|[[Burnishing]] gold leaf with an [[agate]] stone tool, during the water gilding processGold leaf is gold that has been hammered into extremely thin sheets and is often used for gilding. Gold leaf is available in a wide variety of karats and shades...
. The face itself consisted of iron work, red and black brick, and cut stone “united in excellent taste.” Three large windows allowed the glow of the sun to fill the theatre lobby, and below the middle window was an iron balcony furnished with glass globe lantern
Lantern
A lantern is a portable lighting device or mounted light fixture used to illuminate broad areas. Lanterns may also be used for signaling, as 'torches', or as general light sources outdoors . Low light level varieties are used for decoration. The term "lantern" is also used more generically to...
s.
As a patron entered the front doors, he would have found himself in a lobby with two stair-wells leading up to the balcony
Balcony
Balcony , a platform projecting from the wall of a building, supported by columns or console brackets, and enclosed with a balustrade.-Types:The traditional Maltese balcony is a wooden closed balcony projecting from a...
, a manager’s office, and a smoking room
Smoking room
A Smoking room is a room which is specifically provided and furnished for smoking, generally in buildings where smoking is otherwise prohibited....
. Upon stepping through the terracotta leather
Leather
Leather is a durable and flexible material created via the tanning of putrescible animal rawhide and skin, primarily cattlehide. It can be produced through different manufacturing processes, ranging from cottage industry to heavy industry.-Forms:...
covered and gold trimmed wooden doors into the auditorium
Auditorium
An auditorium is a room built to enable an audience to hear and watch performances at venues such as theatres. For movie theaters, the number of auditoriums is expressed as the number of screens.- Etymology :...
, a patron would have been softly bathed in the shimmering glow of 94 gas lights
Gas lighting
Gas lighting is production of artificial light from combustion of a gaseous fuel, including hydrogen, methane, carbon monoxide, propane, butane, acetylene, ethylene, or natural gas. Before electricity became sufficiently widespread and economical to allow for general public use, gas was the most...
. These lights, were crafted of polished brass and fitted with etched glass globes. The stage
Stage (theatre)
In theatre or performance arts, the stage is a designated space for the performance productions. The stage serves as a space for actors or performers and a focal point for the members of the audience...
itself was equipped with 174 gas lights. All the lights in the entire theatre were controlled from the stage by means of a pipe system, allowing the stage manager to ignite or extinguish any or all of these brilliant lights in an instant. Beneath a dome resplendent with painted cherub
Cherub
A cherub is a type of spiritual being mentioned in the Hebrew Bible and cited later on in the Christian biblical canons, usually associated with the presence of God...
s, a large chandelier
Chandelier
A chandelier is a branched decorative ceiling-mounted light fixture with two or more arms bearing lights. Chandeliers are often ornate, containing dozens of lamps and complex arrays of glass or crystal prisms to illuminate a room with refracted light...
, known as an “Opal glass reflector,” scattered sparkles of reflected light over all. Elegant red Brussels’ carpet softened patrons’ steps, and grand opera chairs, upholstered
Upholstery
Upholstery is the work of providing furniture, especially seats, with padding, springs, webbing, and fabric or leather covers. The word upholstery comes from the Middle English word upholder, which referred to a tradesman who held up his goods. The term is equally applicable to domestic,...
in dark Cardinal plush awaited to seat them. These chairs were engraved with the monogram
Monogram
A monogram is a motif made by overlapping or combining two or more letters or other graphemes to form one symbol. Monograms are often made by combining the initials of an individual or a company, used as recognizable symbols or logos. A series of uncombined initials is properly referred to as a...
, B.S.T., Barton Tibbits’ initials, and many of these chairs offered foot rests and hat and umbrella racks. Amazingly the auditorium originally held 1,000 seats for patrons. The seating area was divided into the parquet and the parquet circle – two separate areas on the floor in front of the orchestra pit
Orchestra pit
An orchestra pit is the area in a theater in which musicians perform. Orchestral pits are utilized in forms of theatre that require music or in cases when incidental music is required...
. The walls of the auditorium, colored in cameo tints and dashes of cardinal, green, and gold color in “conventional figures” produced “a warm, sunny effect and [gave] the auditorium a bright and airy appearance which is very pleasing.” Dominating the scene was a grandly ornate 34 feet (10.4 m)-wide by 53 feet (16.2 m)-long proscenium
Proscenium
A proscenium theatre is a theatre space whose primary feature is a large frame or arch , which is located at or near the front of the stage...
stage with elegant opera boxes situated within the massive tin and plaster arch.
The stage itself had all the latest technological features. Scenery and curtains were shifted and moved via the rigging loft
Loft
A loft can be an upper story or attic in a building, directly under the roof. Alternatively, a loft apartment refers to large adaptable open space, often converted for residential use from some other use, often light industrial...
, and the stage itself included a “paint-bridge and movable frame, five sets of grooves, trapdoor
Trapdoor
A trapdoor is a door set into a floor or ceiling .Originally, trapdoors were sack traps in mills, and allowed the sacks to pass up through the mill while naturally falling back to a closed position....
s, and every modern convenience for producing all kinds of scenic effects.” Additionally, speaking tube
Speaking tube
A speaking tube or voicepipe is a device based on two cones connected by an air pipe through which speech can be transmitted over an extended distance. While its most common use was in intra-ship communications, the principle was also used in fine homes and offices of the 19th century, as well as...
s and bell signals connected the stage manager with the box office, orchestra, and scene and trap shifters. The stage’s collection of scenic backdrops was exhaustive and of the highest quality, and was a third larger than the Kalamazoo Opera House.
The boxes were draped with cardinal silk plush curtains, lined with gold, and trimmed with lace. In the center of the proscenium arch one beheld a portrait of William Shakespeare and above this portrait against a light-blue background was “a group of cherubs, gracefully posed, representing music and the drama.” Surrounding the main chandelier in the auditorium were more “cunning little cherubs” trailing garlands of flowers. In the words of the Coldwater Republican, “The delicate coloring of the background brings out the figures in strong relief so one may almost imagine them floating in space and inhale the odor of their fragrant burden.” The cove around the auditorium also was decorated with “vases of flowers, bouquets and conventional vines and figures.” L. B. Chevelier, who painted many of the stage’s backdrops, was the artistic genius behind such beautiful creations.
Regarding the beauty and workmanship of the theatre, Carolyn Gillespie has observed that “Tibbits was easily as elegant as the Second Olympic Theatre which was completed in St. Louis
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
that same year.” Elegance was paired with superb acoustics in the rendering of the stage and auditorium, and all in all, ironically the best visual description is perhaps given by the Republican: “It is impossible to give a description of the decorations which will convey an adequate idea of their beauty. They must be seen in order to be appreciated.” Unfortunately for the modern patron, such an opportunity has long since passed away.
The Campaign for Restoration
After years of serving Branch County, toward the end of the Cinema Era the hall was slated for destruction. Tibbits was boarded up and scheduled to be razed by the end of the 1950s. Local supporters rallied support and raised funds to save the theatre. Many theatres were not as fortunate and were torn down in the name of urban renewal, but Tibbits Opera House was saved, thanks to concerned citizens who restored the interior to Victorian style. The Tibbits Opera Foundation and Arts Council was founded in 1963 and now operates the facility year-round as a community center for the arts.With the turn of the century, the Tibbits Opera Foundation mobilized to mount yet another restoration
Building restoration
Building restoration describes a particular treatment approach and philosophy within the field of architectural conservation. According the U.S...
campaign with fundraising and design development beginning in 2002. While the 1960s renovation was intended to save the theatre, the latest renovation effort is intended to return Tibbits to its original granduer. In the spring of 2006, the addition of a handicap accessible entrance and elevator
Elevator
An elevator is a type of vertical transport equipment that efficiently moves people or goods between floors of a building, vessel or other structures...
onto the side of the theatre to make the theatre more accessible to all customers and patrons was completed. In February 2009, another phase of the restoration project was completed with the hoisting of the newly constructed cupola onto the theatre. With the raising of sufficient funds, Phase III, which is the restoration of the 1960s facade to the original French "Second Empire" architectural design, is slated to begin in the near future.