Author: waszut_barrett@me.com

Over time, the St. Louis Scottish Rite collection was altered to solve the problem of warping boards that were rubbing. This was the same approach used by the Minnesota Masonic Heritage Center as they made the argument in the May 5 online article, “After a great deal of deliberation, the rigging experts and the team decided to hang the historic drops using a modern webbing and pipe pocket configuration instead of the wooden battens. The approach would also allow for less stress to the drops, as the lightweight conduit in the pipe pockets would not weigh as heavily on their aging muslin.”

If the pipe is too light, it will not pull out the wrinkles and the scenery looks a fright.

Wooden battens remain the perfect solution as the weight remains evenly distributed along the bottom edge as the battens “clamp” the fabric and not pierce it. It is never a good decision to replace the wooden battens with pipe pockets. Warping boards are a common situation that is easily remedied; the order of the boards is swapped.

The Valley of St. Louis also encountered warping battens and selected to install pipe pockets during the 1970s. The pipe pockets that replaced the wooden battens failed, causing pipes to plummet to the stage floor. New pipe pockets were sewn onto the bottom and they also failed. The St. Louis Scottish Rite collection is one example and proof that attaching jute webbing and pipe pockets to historic scenery doesn’t work at all. Similarly to the Minnesota Masonic Heritage Center, the Valley of St. Louis used thin conduit and reinforced the seams. Both failed. This has happened across the country as the battens are viewed as a liability and not an integral part of the original system, necessary for the longevity of each piece.

At the St. Louis Scottish Rite, approximately twenty-five percent of all the scenery was compromised and unable to be lowered to the stage floor. As the pipes were removed from ripping pockets, the loose curtains caught on neighboring lines being raised and lowered. Fortunately for me, there were a variety of rigging experts on hand during the USITT convention to offer advice and a helping hand.

When drops are narrowly spaced on 2-inch to 4-inch centers, the weight of a wooden batten that is clamped to the top and bottom of each scene is an essential part of the counterweight system. It is the perfect weight to safely pull out the wrinkles and effectively stretch the painted fabric. If wrinkles are visible, as it the case with the Fort Scott collection, the drops are not stretched because the weight at the bottom is too light. Insufficient weight promotes wrinkles and the drops are more likely to catch on neighboring lines.

Jute webbing also increases the likelihood of the fabric catching on a neighboring line as the top wooden batten no longer stretches the fabric taut and straight. On the top, jute webbing with grommets and tie lines were sewn along the edge of the thin old fabric. The May 5 MMHC online article also states “Rather than position them the standard 12 inches apart, grommets are placed six inch apart in the webbing to better distribute the hanging stress across the top.” It is not only about the stress and the placement of grommets. Tie lines running though the grommets and attaching the drop to a pipe have a tendency to shift over time causing the fabric to slightly bunch – like a shower curtain.

This problem was visible during the Singers in Accord Concert at the Minnesota Masonic Heritage Center during February 2017. Unlike ties lines and jute webbing, top wooden battens prevent any shifting from occurring. With wooden battens on the tops and the bottoms of each drop, it is impossible for the fabric to “bunch” and catch on neighboring lines.

A final point has to do with the bigger picture and the preservation of heritage. When pipe pockets and jute webbing replace the original wooden battens, the heritage is lost and the ability to appropriately display these artworks destroyed. We are no longer looking at a historic artifact. In the long run, it would have been cost-effective to digitally photograph each drop and hang printed replicas on new muslin instead of irreparably damaging the original artifacts. I compare the MMHC decision and the subsequent destruction of the Fort Scott scenery collection to the repurposing of any antique. The difference is that this was not a craft project that took an old book and transformed it into a keepsake box. The painted scenes now only remain as a shadow of history, failing to preserve any heritage.

This erasure of history at the Minnesota Masonic Heritage Center brings to mind the song “Every Day a Little Death” from “A Little Night Music.” As each drop is forever altered and history lost, there is a “little sting” in my heart and in my head.

“Every day a little sting
In the heart and in the head
Every move and every breath
And you hardly feel a thing
Brings a perfect little death”

To be continued…

“Pack up the Luggage, La, La, La. Unpack the luggage, la, la, la. Pack up the luggage, la, la, la. Hi, ho, the glamorous life!”

I was on the road again! The “glamorous life” aspect was debatable. While driving to St. Louis for the United States Institute of Theatre Technology (USITT) convention during March 2017, my favorite musical selections were all from “A Little Night Music.” This trip was another escape from the Minnesota Masonic Heritage Center fiasco. Seeing the now irreparably damaged drops at the Ives theater urged me to try and save other collections since the fate of the Fort Scott scenery was no longer in my hands. I could now focus on the future of other collections.

Several months prior to my departure, I had contacted the executive secretary of the St. Louis Valley to schedule an appointment. Visiting a Scottish Rite theater while attending USITT had become my standard practice. It all started in 2009 when USITT was held in Cincinnati, Ohio. I had visited the Scottish Rite and York Rite theaters that were just down the street from the convention center to finish some research for my dissertation. That year, one of my return trips to the Scottish Rite theater I even included Bob Moody. He was the scenic artist responsible for this third generation of Scottish Masonic scenery in the building. When the scenery was painted, he had been in the employ of Volland Studio and was testing his newly acquired scenic art skills. He chuckled as he looked back at his early work. There was a lot of spatter everywhere!

When the conference returned to Cincinnati in 2015, I took another visitor to the Scottish Rite theater -Rick Boychuk. We ascended high above the stage and looked at the rigging installation in detail. This system also had an identification tag as in Winona, Minnesota. The label credited the manufacture and installation of the rigging to the same company that produced the scenery – Volland. For the next few years, I brought as many people to Scottish Rite theaters as possible. There is nothing that compares to seeing the scenery properly lit and in the original venue.

Now I was traveling to St. Louis and excited to see a collection produced in the same era as the Fort Scott scenery. Again, this was a Volland collection as Hugo Volland was a Scottish Rite member. Remember, by the 1920s, Volland Studio had replaced Sosman & Landis Studio as the leading manufacturer of Southern Jurisdiction scenery. This was nearing the peak of Volland productivity.

On the morning of March 7, 2017, I left Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, and the Theatre Museum of Repertoire Americana behind, driving toward St. Louis. As scheduled, I parked in the ramp next to the skyway behind the Scottish Rite Cathedral by 9:50 AM. I wound my way to the executive offices and located Bret Akers. He was extremely excited for me to evaluate their collection as the Valley of St. Louis was at a crossroads. As with many other Scottish Rite theaters across the country, St. Louis was trying to juggle the increased expenses of deferred maintenance issues and decreased income from plummeting membership.

In 1924, the Scottish Rite bodies in St. Louis, Missouri had moved into their newly constructed home that had cost in excess of two million dollars. One door down on the same the street was an even more impressive edifice – the Masonic Temple. The two buildings were a testament to the rapid expansion of the Fraternity and income generated from candidate classes with hundreds of members. The Scottish Rite auditorium was 165 feet wide and 130 feet long, seating approximately 3000 Masons. The Proscenium opening was 96 feet wide. Some degree productions necessitated a cast of 450 actors. They sometimes called in the help of the Shrine.

For the next four days, I painstakingly examined the rigging system and all of the scenery. Each day, I invited a variety of scenic artists from across the country to share the experience. Who knows when they would have this opportunity again.

“Bring up the curtain, la, la, la
Bring down the curtain, la, la, la
Bring up the curtain, la, la, la
Hi, ho, the glamorous life”

To be continued…

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

The Minnesota Masonic Heritage Center general director’s statement, “We aren’t buying anymore toys for you!” was just one of the many jibes that he had made since I was first hired. I have tried to keep this tale fun and full of interesting facts, but there was an underlying atmosphere of abuse while working with the CEO and general director during my two years on the project. It started out as a very subtle undercurrent that grew into a raging river by the spring of 2016.

I work with men all of the time and take all of their comments in stride, considering the context, factoring in the age of the man, and understanding the region that I am visiting. I have seldom encountered disrespect while working with Masons across the country. However, there is always the “test” as I begin any Masonic project and consider it as a type of initiation. The men are curious to see how much I really know. I realize that this is why scenery inventory sheets are never available at the beginning of most projects. The absence of these documents has necessitated the creation of a fun game called, “Guess that degree in three feet.” This game involves my calling out the scene and the corresponding degree for the drop being lowered from the flies within the first three feet of visibility. It earns the immediate respect of the men. After an hour of gentle “play,” all of the books and photographs pertaining to a scenery collection are soon placed on my worktable. It really doesn’t bother me as I see it as an opportunity to hone my own skills and knowledge about degree productions. In all of these interactions, I have seldom sensed any vibe from my Masonic volunteers other than genuine respect.

Now I speak of the men that I have worked with side-by-side in the restoration and evaluation “trenches.” I am not speaking of the Masons who occasionally come in to check on my “progress.” I understand that there are many Freemasons who truly resent me for my understanding of the Craft. Many of these same men, not only dislike me for my gender, but also my knowledge as an outsider. It has never bothered me though, as I continue to focus on the bigger picture – preserving Masonic heritage. I am not trying to infiltrate an organization and suggest that they suddenly begin the initiation of women.

What I encountered while working on the Minnesota Masonic Heritage Center was something else entirely and I was completely unprepared for it. The reference to the Fort Scott drops as my “toys” was neither the beginning nor the end of a torrent of disrespect. I had no other option than to rise above it and try to ignore it at the time. There was nothing else I could do, as the general director was there to stay for the long term. Like me, he had been hired without committee selection or board approval. The CEO had single hiring and firing authority and he would never dismiss his friend; doing so would admit that he made a mistake. The CEO and general director had a working history that spanned over two decades and I was odd “man” out.

The type of disrespectful treatment that I encountered on the project was so foreign to me that I didn’t even know what to do other than document it. As the abuse increased throughout the fall of 2015, I decided to keep a daily record of all interactions and started to carefully file away all emails on a separate hard drive. I have always had a work journal, but it solely documented materials, labor, research, and process – never anything personal. From that point on, I kept a detailed log of every interaction and every derogatory statement. This turned into my own personal publication titled, “Memoirs of a Masonic Mishap.” It kept me sane during 2016. Simply stated, work and all interactions with the CEO and general director became sheer hell.

I had a hunch that I was being set up for a very big fall as the emails from the CEO began to suggest that I was unskilled for my position. He was attempting to systematically discredit me and remove my name from all contributions. My colleagues began to suggest that I just leave the abuse and resign from my position, saying, “Go! Just leave them high and dry!” However, I simply couldn’t do that. I truly believed that the heritage center had the potential to be something special and I wanted to remain a part of it. There had to be a way to change this and I threw myself into every project even more.

But like the scenery, it is difficult to make people appreciate something that they just don’t value.

To be continued…

The devaluation of historical scenery at one theater can affect the understanding and appreciation of others. At the same time we were planning the future of the Fort Scott collection in the Ives Auditorium, the City of Winona was also planning for the future for their Masonic collection.

During the summer of 2014, Paul Sannerud and I had put the entire Winona scenery collection to bed over the course of two action-packed weeks. Under the City’s watch, the collection had suffered extensive water damage from a leaking roof. To facilitate repairing the roof and restoration of the theater, Sannerud and I were hired to remove and place all of the drops into a custom-designed storage unit. This would protect the scenery during the renovation. Here is the link to images of the drops from my 2010 evaluation so you can see the collection in its entirety: https://www.cityofwinona.com/…/Historic-Masonic-Theater-Bac…

An individual representing the City of Winona contacted the general director of the Minnesota Masonic Heritage Center during the fall of 2015 to discuss the significance and value of the Winona Scottish Rite scenery collection. Remember, at this time I was the Curatorial Director for the Minnesota Masonic Heritage Center. The general director chose to not include me in the discussion concerning the Winona scenery collection and I was unaware of the conversation until he casually mentioned it a few weeks later.

I was finishing a meeting and packing up my notes when the general director made an offhanded comment about the City of Winona needing to find a home for their scenery collection or they were going to throw it away. My surprise changed to dismay and then smoldering anger as he explained his conversation with the individual from Winona. The general director described how he said that there was no market value for the historical scenery at all and the entire collection was simply a “cookie cutter collection” that had been replicated all over the United States. I immediately asked, “Who did you speak with from the City of Winona? Was it Chad Ubl? That’s who handles the management of the Masonic theatre and I’m surprised to believe that they would throw something out that they spent money on to store.” The only name that the general director could remember was “Mike.”

I decided to do a little checking before I tackled any problem, still reeling from the fact that I had not been included in a discussion about a local historical scenery collection. So I called the Sanneruds (Paul Sannerud and Peggy Nelson Sannerud) to see what was going on in Winona. The news of recent events was disheartening and I wondered how much the general director had devalued the Winona collection. I inquired if Ubl had been replaced by a gentleman named “Mike.” Sannerud explained that Ubl was still in the employ of the City, but there was a new plan for the Masonic Theater.

A potential investor, Mike Slaggie of Hurry Back Productions, had entered the picture. An unknown persona at the time, he would forever alter the future of Winona Masonic Theater and their scenery collection. Slaggie planned on making a significant investment in the restoration of the Masonic building as he envisioned it as a future multipurpose arts venue. His vision to restore the building, however, did not include all of the scenery and suggested that preserving the entire scenery collection would be detrimental to the endeavor. He saw a theatre museum as a liability to the overall success of this venture.
Here is a brief summary of why the Winona scenery collection is important on the world stage. The Winona Masonic Center was primarily placed on the National Register because of its scenery collection. Both Lance Brockman and Charlie Nelson (same man for whom the Minnesota Masonic Heritage Center library is named) had made a concerted effort to outline the cultural heritage stored high above the stage. I believe that it is the most complete Masonic collection produced by Sosman & Landis Studio of Chicago.

This 1909 collection includes stage settings for Symbolic Lodge (Blue Lodge), York Rite, Shrine, and Scottish Rite degree productions. The designs for the auditorium interior are still available and contained in the Performing Arts Archives at the University of Minnesota. Additionally, many of the drop designs are also available in the online scenery collection database in the University of Minnesota Libraries (http://umedia.lib.umn.edu/scenicsearch). In other words, there is artistic provenance for the scenery collection. Some of the wooden counterweight frames (arbors) also have original manufacturer tags from Sosman & Landis – the first that I have encountered to date. Rick Boychuk (author of “Nobody Looks Up: the History of the Counterweight Rigging Systems”) could elaborate on the international significance of this particular counterweight rigging system too. Most importantly, I have recently been able to document the earliest use of Masonic scenery in the Southern Jurisdiction to Winona, Minnesota. This was an extremely significant collection that should be preserved in its entirety for future generations and not auctioned off piece-meal. The assessment and comments made by the general director were dead wrong and I believe contributed to the demise of this significant collection.

The Winona incident made me wonder why the general director was going out of his way to devalue historical scenery. Did he not realize that his actions – as a representative of a Heritage Center – had a lasting impact on the future preservation of other fraternal artifacts?

What might have been the outcome if the general director of the Minnesota Masonic Heritage Center had forwarded on the Winona inquiry to the staff member who was hired on in part for her specialization in Masonic scenery?

To be continued…

Scenery Restoration is Dirty Business

The Minnesota Masonic Heritage Center’s “Behind the Scenes” article discusses the “91-year lifespan” of the Fort Scott’s scenery. The author then attributes another age to the collection mentioning a “century of soot.” Both ages are incorrect. All of the Fort Scott drops, except two scenes, will turn 93 years old this Fall. How do we know when Thomas Moses painted the scenes? The artist records the information in his typed manuscript.
In regard to the “century of soot” that needed to be removed from the Fort Scott drops, the author details the cleaning process writing: “Team members remove a century of soot by hand using special dry-chemical sponges. They make several passes until the black soot is gone and traces of pigment are visible on the sponge. Care must be taken not to remove too much pigment.” This statement greatly concerns me as pigment will either immediately lift or not lift at all.

Pigment is not gradually removed from a backdrop. If the binder is still working the paint sticks to the fabric and these gentle archival sponges will not remove the color. Sponges can only remove the pigment if it is already loose and at that point you should not use dry-chemical sponges. Instead, you use an archival putty to carefully “dab away” the dirt. The occasional need for putty instead of sponges is also why Lance Brockman prefers to use bread dough; it immediately picks up the dirt and doesn’t mix the contaminants into the loose pigment. For me, Absorene archival sponges and putty are my preferred alternative as they are easier to ship, transport, and store.

But let us examine the dry-chemical sponge used by the restoration crew and cited by the author in the article. The Minnesota Masonic Heritage Center website links us to the “dry-chemical sponges” website. The website links to a preservation company in Norfolk, England. This really surprised me as I always purchase my archival sponges from St. Louis, Missouri. A low-end substitute can also be found in many paint stores. Why purchase a foreign product, especially after ten cases had been ordered for the Fort Scott scenery restoration from St. Louis during the spring of 2016?

On April 20, 2016 I sent the following email to the general director of the Minnesota Masonic Heritage Center:
“Please order ten cases of the following below (Absorene dry cleaning soot sponge) for the first two phases of drop restoration this spring and summer. Thank you.

Product to Order: Dry Cleaning Soot Sponge #016 (10 cases)
3/4″ x 3″ x 6″ Unwrapped, Bulk Packed, 120 Per Case (order ten cases) Absorene Manufacturing Company, Inc. www.absorene.com 2141 Cass Avenue, St Louis, MO 63106 314-231-6355 Fax 314-231-4028 Pricing is quoted by quantity ordered. Companies, please email or fax us on your company letterhead your request for price quotes. customerservice@absorene.com or Fax: 314-231-4028”

I began to wonder if the current restoration team had used any of the products that I ordered and what had actually happened to that particular investment by Minnesota Freemasons. I then looked at the picture of the dirty sponges in the online article and started to wonder how well the drops had been cleaned, and if the backsides had been cleaned at all. In Fort Scott the surface contaminants had been a combination of mortar dust, bat guano, pigeon droppings, flash powder, oil and coal heat residue, cigar smoke, and a variety of unknown substances – not to mention the dusting pigment. The back of each Fort Scott drop had a visible layer of contaminants and was much blacker than the standard mid-gray hue, common to scenery restoration.

As previously explained (installment #13 – Getting My Hands Dirty), to minimize the airborne spread of these contaminants on site in Fort Scott, I had vacuumed both the front and backside of each drop prior to rolling for shipping. After completing a low-suction dust extraction, I then tested the remaining layers of filth to determine the later cleaning process that would be required during restoration. My Fort Scott tests involved spot testing areas with dry chemical-sponges on various scenes to identify the “problem children” of the collection. The resulting contaminants for every drop remained coal black on the dry-chemical sponge. I envisioned the need for multiple passes with low-suction dust extraction prior to using any sponge during restoration cleaning.

The use of dry-chemical sponges during a final cleaning process brightens the painted surface. People love the instant gratification of a lighter composition in contrast with the original filthy one. That being said, it is even more important to remove the contaminants on the backside of each drop as they pose the greatest health hazard. People often don’t realize that it is the back of a drop that holds the most dirt. The backside contains environmental contaminants embedded in the raw fabric– often a greater health hazard than any dusting pigments. These same contaminants do not settle as easily on the painted surface as it is sealed. In other words, the painted fabric does not have the same “tooth” of raw fabric to facilitate the settling of contaminants.

For the sake of future performers on the Ives stage, I hope that the back of each scene was cleaned extremely well by the “restoration crew” as young performers, the elderly, and those with compromised immune systems are the most at risk.

To be continued…

My article in DIE VIERTE WAND #007 is now available to read online!

This is a publication produced by the Initiative TheaterMuseum Berlin. I am very proud to be part of this international theatre community and very appreciative of the friendships that I made last summer while traveling in Europe. My article is titled “Staging the Scottish Rite: Degree Productions of Freemasonry.” I have included a few images from the publication as an incentive to visit their site. Articles are in German or
English and all are available online.

Here is the link for issue #007 with my article:
https://issuu.com/itheam/docs/itheam_d4w-007

Here is the Initiative TheaterMuseum website: http://www.initiative-theatermuseum.de/i…/publikationen.html

 

Setting the Stage for Fiction

The recent Minnesota Masonic Heritage Center article notes, “To accommodate the size of the [Fort Scott] collection—numbering more than 70 drops—the Auditorium’s stage depth was extended by 10 feet and proprietary rigging developed to hang and store the scenes.” It also explains that the Fort Scott scenery collection was acquired during the planning of the Ives theatre, posting “As plans shaped for the Auditorium’s design, the Minnesota Masonic Heritage Center acquired a large collection of hand-painted Scottish Rite theatre drops that were made available from the sale of the Valley of Fort Scott Scottish Rite building in Kansas.” Both of these statements are incorrect. The plans for the theater and stage were finalized long before Fort Scott was even in the picture. The story needs to be told about how the stage almost ended up in the corner of a room without any space to stage Scottish Rite degrees.

The original 2014 design for the Ives auditorium placed the stage in the corner of a square room; it was not designed like a standard performance venue. This was an understandable oversight as the architectural firm specialized in elder care facilities and not theater spaces. The architects were initially brought on to evaluate and possibly repurpose an existing structure at the Minnesota Masonic Home for a heritage center. As plans changed and the need for new construction became evident, the original architectural firm was retainedeven though they had no previous experience with this type of venue.

I was contacted during July 2014 by Mark Campbell to possibly join the planning team as a theatre consultant for the Minnesota Masonic Heritage Center project. I explained that the project needed theatre consultants that specialized in the new construction of performance spaces, recommending Michael DiBlasi of Schuler Shook. DiBlasi and I had attended two League of Historic American Theatres conferences earlier that year in Chicago and New York City. Schuler Shook and my company, Bella Scena, LLC, were Allied Service Providers for LHAT and we were both currently involved in two historical theater restoration projects: the SOKOL Hall in St. Paul and the Masonic Theatre in Winona, Minnesota. I scheduled a meeting with Campbell to introduce him to DiBlasi at the Minneapolis Scottish Rite. It was during this meeting that Campbell showed us the designs for the proposed auditorium and I voiced concern about the architects placing the stage in the corner of a room.

Schuler Shook was hired for the Minnesota Masonic Heritage Center planning and reconfigured the architect’s existing theater design. Soon after, I was also hired on August 1, 2014 as the project’s historical consultant. During this time, I attended all planning meetings with the architects, theatre consultants, interior designers, museum team, and others to provide source material and resources for a variety of projects. By October 2014, I realized that the small Ives stage would never accommodate degree work in the manner that either Minneapolis or St. Paul Scottish Rite Masons were accustomed to. I expressed concern about the limited number of lines that was currently proposed as it only included space for twelve drops.

It was at this point that I recommended replicating a rigging system that would mimic the line spacing in other Scottish Rite theaters across the country – one that did not use mechanized lines but remained a simple counterweight system. During the fall of 2014, I sought the counsel of both Rick Boychuk and Paul Sannerud to make sure that a safe system could be designed and I was not speaking out of turn. Obviously, it needed to be a system that would adhere to all current safety regulations.

Dan Culhane of SECOA was the designer for what the article refers to as “proprietary rigging.” His design was proposed by Schuler Shook for the Ives stage and accepted by the CEO. But the stage still wasn’t big enough to perform all of the Scottish Rite’s twenty-nine degrees. But how much bigger did the stage need to be as there was no collection to base the final size on?

The CEO directed me to come up with the necessary number of lines needed for a standard Scottish Rite scenery collection. I proposed that hanging seventy drops could stage all twenty-nine degrees and submitted the ideal compositions. The stage was extended ten feet. I then organized an anticipated, but unidentified, historical scenery collection so that the specifications could be provided to our theatre consultants and the rigging design finalized. This plan also took into consideration four empty lines that could accommodate scenery for rental groups – something that I was extremely hesitant to include for fear of damaging scenes on neighboring lines. Remember, there was still no inkling of what historical scenery collection would hang above the Ives stage. Fort Scott was not even on the radar.

My number of seventy lines was derived from looking at the combined collections of Minneapolis and St. Paul as the CEO explained that they would soon fold. But could we time their closing with the installation of the necessary scenery for the opening? After all, St. Paul was a perfect candidate as the collection was already restored, having completed the work myself in 2002. Steve Johnson was going to work on urging the Valley to relocate. I also took into account the possible inclusion of Scottish Rite scenes from Duluth and Winona. My focus was preserving Minnesota Masonic heritage as that was my initial directive and not a nationwide search for another acquisition.

It is important to recall that the CEO had explained that two Scottish Rite Valleys in Minneapolis and St. Paul would merge and meet in the new Heritage Center. However, he also suggested that the Scottish Rite in Duluth might fold due to poor management and the financial difficulties with the Speech Clinic. Therefore, I was creating a compilation of three collections that would be used for future degree work. I was also taking Winona into consideration, even though the City still owned the Masonic drops, as I had just put the collection into storage that summer. In 2014, I sincerely believed that many of the Masonic drops would never see the light of day on the Winona stage. In hindsight, I was correct, as the City of Winona recently announced their plan to auction off all but ten drops from their collection.

During the fall of 2014, the architects and theatre consultants also missed another crucial aspect of staging Scottish Rite degree work – the necessary floor space in front of the proscenium. During one meeting, I brought up this aspect and immediately an additional funding was approved for two rows of removable auditorium seats and a collapsible stage apron.

I have to wonder why no one remembers any of this institutional history, or do they?

To be continued…