December 01, 2005
The impresario
When you look at the Capitol Center for the Arts today, it is hard to believe that 20 years ago it was a rat-trap, literally falling apart. It smelled, it was unsafe, and the seats were beat up and uncomfortable. Backstage was, well, the pits.
Handicap accessibility was nil. When the great violinist Itzhak Perlman played there one winter, they had to put him and his wheelchair on a forklift to get him into the theater. The night he played, the heat didn’t work. Perlman wore an overcoat onstage.
A string of owners had done their best to keep the theater going, but none had the wherewithal to restore it. It was only a matter of time before it closed down. And then, in 1989, at the age of 62, it did.
At the first stirrings of community action to bring the theater back to life, I was skeptical. The dollar figures were enormous, the plans grandiose.
Cindy Flanagan, an early champion of the theater project, took the Monitor brass on a tour of the place to try to win the paper’s support. We stood in a dungeon with garbage all around us and wires hanging from the ceiling while Flanagan explained what a fabulous reception area this would make. She took us onstage and backstage and tried to make us see enormous potential in the dust and grime. Frankly, I was glad to get out of the place alive.
Community leaders pressed on. Paul Hodes, Marty Gross and others came to the paper with charts on how the financing could be made to work and architectural renderings that made the place look spectacular.
Although the Monitor cheered the project on, behind our editorials I’m sure the community could see that only one hand was clapping.
But Flanagan, Hodes, Gross and a large cast of others did it. They got the money, they captured the imagination of the arts community, the business community, the whole community, and they resurrected the old Capitol Theater. It was a miracle, one of Concord’s finest hours.
Yet no amount of community enthusiasm could make this risky venture go. Who would woo new patrons, book the shows, engage the community for the long haul, line up sponsors and keep them involved, make the Cap Center not just a venue for big names but a community resource, put the fannies in the seats? The last piece of the puzzle was an impresario.
The community found one in M.T. Mennino. For 11 years, she did all of the above and also helped lead yet another major renovation and addition that made this jewel of the community shine even brighter.
Mennino’s death at age 56 yesterday was a shock and a loss to Concord.
Now, in tribute to all that she accomplished, and with her model to guide them, the center’s board must find her worthy successor. There will never be another M.T., but if she were still with us, the first words on her lips would surely be: The show must go on.
Posted by Mike Pride at December 1, 2005 12:16 PM