Copyright © 2025 by Wendy Waszut-Barrett
This is the first of three posts about scenic art for Czech Halls.
This first post focuses on the history of the Czech Community Hall in Cuba, Kansas, detailing my first visit in 2014. The second post will examine the use, and abuse, of extant scenery at historic venues. My third, and final, post will explore the life and career of Jack Ballard (1878-1952), the Nebraska scenic artist credited with painting the scenery.
On May 3, 2025, I was contacted by Lynnette, a representative of the Cuba Booster Club. Their only roll drop had suffered extensive damage during a recent wedding at the hall. While decorating the stage, an individual had fallen into the painted composition, causing a seam to fail. Fortunately, my previous fabric reinforcements along the edge had prevented the entire drop from ripping in two.
I was extremely familiar with this drop, having preserved the entire scenery collection in 2014.
The history of the Czech Community Hall in Cuba, Kansas, is fascinating. The current building replaced an earlier opera house constructed by three Bohemian Lodges, c. 1907-8. After fire razed the building in 1928, a second structure was erected in 1930. The facade of the hall prominently states, “Česka Narodni Sin” (Czech National Hall). Over the years, the hall hosted a variety of events besides live theatre and musical concerts. Meetings, basketball games, roller skating, weddings, family reunions, and other social events drew families to town. The hall remains a vital community hub. Despite a vibrant beginning, membership in the sponsoring lodges declined over the years. The City acquired the building in 1950 and completed a few renovations that included closing off the original balcony and lowering the ceiling.
My first adventure in Cuba was detailed in an article entitled “Czech-American Theatre as Scenic Art Depositories” published in the USITT Northern Boundary Section newsletter (May 2014 issue). I am including a bit of my original text from the article, as well some new information. It will provide much-needed context for my most recent trip to Cuba, Kansas.
Czech-American theatre scenery collections represent one enduring aspect of the Czech culture and a primary resource for cultural historians and theatre practitioners in the Midwest. They depict an aesthetic shift in stage design and scenic art during the late-nineteenth through mid-twentieth centuries. Whereas Scottish Rite theaters contain massive collections in state-of-the-art facilities that showcase dozens of Masonic scenes, Czech-American theaters contain much smaller collections that showcase both their European and American homelands.
The front curtain for a Czech-American stage often depicts the city of Prague, beckoning Czech immigrants to remember their homeland and the importance of the Prague National Theatre. As with many immigrants, their is an innate desire to safeguard their homeland’s heritage. After the formation of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1867, a mass migration of Czech immigrants flooded into the United States. Major Czech settlements were established in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota, Kansas, and Texas.
By the 1880s many of these Czech-American communities founded chapters of Czech cultural organizations, such as Cesko-Slovansky Podporujici Spolek (CSPS), Zapadnf Cesko-Bratrska Jednota (ZCBJ), and the SOKOL, often immediately constructing public meeting facilities with designated performance areas. These ethnic halls often incorporated elevated theatre stages into their design, complete with roll-drop scenery collections for Czech dramatic productions and other community activities. In some larger communities, Sokol halls included a fly loft with a full set of stock scenery for professional theatre troupes to utilize when on tour.
Taken from the Slavic word for falcon, the Sokol movement was a social, cultural, and gymnastics organization founded in Prague during 1862. My first encounter with Czech scenery was in a CSPS-SOKOL Hall in St. Paul, Minnesota. Located at 383 Michigan Street. The hall is the longest-serving Czech-Slovak cultural center in the United States, and the oldest in the State of Minnesota. Three decades ago, I had the privilege of preserving their historic scenery collection, consisting of a front curtain, two European street scenes, two American street scenes, a landscape scene, and a woods scene. In addition to these roll drops there were several painted flats that included wood tormentors, residential tormentors, a double-painted fancy/rustic interior box set, a standard interior box set, and a rustic cottage flat unit. The scenery was painted by Victor Hubal (1888-1972), a local Sokol member. As a scenic artist, Hubal worked for a variety of notable studios, including Chicago’s Sosman & Landis in the early-twentieth century.
My second encounter with Sokol scenery took place in Cuba, Kansas, over a decade ago. The Prague roll drop in Cuba, Kansas, depicts a street scene from Wenceslaus Square in Prague. By the way, St. Wenceslaus is the patron saint of Bohemia. During the fall of 2013, residents Fred and Karen Baxa contacted me concerning the restoration of their purportedly “only” painted scene – a roll drop originally created for the Cuba Sokol in the 1920s.
The Baxas had attended a dinner with representatives of the Brown Grand Theatre in Concordia, Kansas; another of my historic scenery preservation projects. The Brown Grand passed along my contact information.
The Baxas hoped to have the roll drop restored before Cuba’s annual Rock-A-Thon. This is an annual fundraiser where people rock (in rocking chairs) around the clock for a whole week each spring. For a city of only 156 people, this fundraiser generated approximately $35,000.00 each year. During the week-long event, the hall hosted a variety of activities, including Polka dancing, Czech artifacts, Czech food, and lectures on Prague.
The city of Cuba was founded in 1868 by American southerners traveling westward after the Civil War. Receiving its name from a settler who had once lived on the island of Cuba, it did not accurately depict the later demographic of the small town. Many of the early settlers were Czech immigrants from Bohemia, bringing their cultural heritage and food to Kansas. Citizens soon founded a local Sokol chapter to preserve their language and traditions. The spouses of Cuba’s Czech community proclaimed themselves to be “Czech-mates.”
In March 2014, I pulled up in front of the local café on Cuba’s main street. We broke bread – or kolaches – before unloading my restoration studio supplies into the theatre. In addition to a rather battered backdrop, there were several painted flats depicting interiors and woodland scenes that the locals immediately pulled out in addition to the Prague roll drop. Residents explained that much of the damage occurred during wild Czech dances that were held each Saturday night. These massive events often ended in a full-fledged brawl that spilled out on Main Street. In addition to dances, roller-skating, basketball games, and high school plays, were all performed in the Czech Hall. However, all the events were so “rowdy” that many of the teenagers from neighboring French, German, and Swedish towns were prohibited from attending activities with the Czechs.
Residents also explained that the construction of the current (and larger) Czech Community Hall building in 1930 had an equally exciting history. According to residents, the original hall was destroyed by arson in February 1928 as a result of a “love triangle.” A banker’s wife from the neighboring town of Belleville, Kansas, fell in love with a local Czech resident and Sokol member. She was the Czech Hall’s pianist for many of the city’s events. After her husband discovered the amorous liaison, he set fire to the wooden structure. Fortunately, Cuba’s residents were able to rescue the Prague curtain from the burning building and install it after rebuilding their new theatre. There might be some truth to this tale as there were scorch marks on the top stage-right side of the roll-drop that I uncovered during cleaning. After the fire was extinguished, the banker was immediately apprehended and brought to the Belleville jail. Here, he was temporarily released to fill necessary medical prescriptions at the pharmacy across the street. The banker left the jail, entered the pharmacy, purchased some cyanide, and committed suicide in the nearby alley.
The colorful tale was one of many that I heard during my week in Cuba. One story included Laurence Welk’s performance at the Czech Hall and his unintentional stay with a local family when the1936 blizzard prevented his departure. Other tales described various theories surrounding local mafia connections, Al Capone’s possible burial site, and the distribution of alcohol dropped by airplane into haystacks during Prohibition. These stories were my entertainment throughout the duration of the restoration project. Dozens of locals passed through the doors every hour to watch the restoration process and share their local history. This is one of many reasons that I enjoy completing restoration projects on site and working with local volunteers.
Regarding the historical significance of Cuba’s painted scenery, Jack Ballard & Son delivered stock scenery to theaters in Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Colorado, and California. Their theatrical contributions will be in a separate post.
The entire scenery collection was produced with distemper paint (dry pigment paste mixed with diluted hide glue, also known as size water). As with any preservation process, a series of curve balls were thrown my way. The drop was initially primed with a combination of whiting and diluted hide glue (the binder). Unfortunately the binder was mixed too weak, contributing to the overall deterioration of the prime coat. This caused the whiting to shed off of the fabric over time. As the whiting flaked off, layers of distemper paint also fell to the floor, revealing patches of raw fabric. Furthermore, not all of the pigment paste had been properly prepared prior to its mixing with size water. For example, the original sky color incorporated a small amount of Dutch Pink. Some of the Dutch Pink granules never fully dissolved in the sky color mixture. This meant that the consolidation of loose pigment was quite tricky to complete.
In addition to the poor preparation of glue and binder, the roll drop exhibited deterioration from excessive use and constant contact. Much of the original paint was missing from the sides. This type of damage frequently occurs when people repeatedly brush past a roll drop, catching their clothing or costume on the edge of the fabric.
Fortunately, there was enough information left on the roll drop to recreate the entire painted composition.
To be continued…
Thank you só much – this is fáscinating!
You are welcome!
As usual, your artistry and your reporting of it are thoughtful and fascinating. Thank you so much for sharing it!