Coldwater: A nod to the past with a focus on the future

(cont.)

Our first stop was the Tibbits Opera House, Southwest Michigan’s most unique theater. Executive Director Christine Delaney, who has worked at the theater in some capacity or another for several years, gave us a loving tour of the building. The Tibbits Opera House was built in 1882 and is the second oldest theater in Michigan. At first it was a stopping place for touring companies on their way from Chicago to Detroit. Ethel Barrymore played here and John Philip Sousa’s band played several times. The names of the greats who performed at the theater grace the walls of the entryway. In later years, it became a movie house, and now it is being restored to its original glory.
In the summer, the Tibbits houses a professional summer stock theater program which in 2006 will produce Oliver, Arsenic and Old Lace, Grease, and Cole Porter’s You’ll Never Know. In the summer of 2005, USA Today named the Tibbits one of “Ten great places to see the lights way off Broadway.” The summer stock company also produces theater for children on summer afternoons.
The building is a busy place the entire year. Over 200 events, including art exhibits, meetings, community and school theater, and classes, are held in the building, keeping it the cultural center of the community.
The same passion that propelled the banker, Tibbits, to spend his entire fortune building a theater that would be “second to none in the state” has kept the passion alive for Delaney, artistic director Charles Burr, and the hundreds of student and professional actors that have “trod the boards” over the last 40 summers.

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