My daughters are involved with a theatre group known as the College Street Players. The College Street Players are directly affiliated with the Hartselle Fine Arts Center. I had the opportunity today to sit down with Jennifer Sittason, the Vice Chairman of the HFAC and talk with her about how the College Street Players came to be. I wish you could have seen how excited she was to share with me how the Fine Arts Center came to be.
You see the Hartselle Fine Arts Center began as a school. It was built in 1916. In November 1922, a reporter with a Birmingham newspaper wrote: “You will have to travel up and down and across Alabama to find a finer grammar school building than is the Hartselle Public School structure. It is classic looking with its great pillars.”
As a matter of fact I myself went to this school. I attended FE Burleson Elementary School for 1st through 5th Grade. The first time I walked my own daughters into this building was to watch the College Street Players production of Charlotte’s Web. I had a nostalgic flashback walking in the door. I immediately recalled the smell of the old wood floors and the creak of the stairs and as we walked into the auditorium that was a library when I attended, I pointed at the stage and was able to tell my girls about the time I acted up there when I was in 5th grade. I was the nagging wife in our school’s production of Rip Van Winkle.
It wasn’t until 2001 that this building was left empty. The elementary enrollment had outgrown the capacity of the building and a new one was on the way. When the building of the new elementary school was complete and the students moved in… the city left this beautiful historic building falling apart behind them.
However there were many who just could not live with the thought of this building falling apart or being destroyed. Community volunteers who attended classes in the building or whose families attended the school there went to work with the Hartselle Historical Society to save the building with a dream of turning it into a fine arts center. They began by raising about $218,000, spending the first $144,000 replacing the roof and facing and restoring the white columns.
For six years the group worked to raise funds in order to restore and repair the building and finally in 2006 the birth of the College Street Players was announced. The first auditions would be held February 9th, 2006 for an inaugural performance. Auditions were announced by the first board members, Lisa King- President, Christie Kieschnick- Vice President, Edd Balch- Treasurer, and Page Dunlap- Secretary. Later that same year the first full scale production would be held in the new Fine Arts Center. The Best Christmas Pageant Ever would be directed by Edd Balch and the production would be held December 0f 2006.
Now here we are exactly 8 years later and the College Street Players are currently in rehearsals for their production of The Little Mermaid Jr directed by Dena Nagel, the President of the CSP. The Little Mermaid Jr hosts a cast of at least 85 kids. The Fine Arts Center and the College Street Players continues to make an impact in not just the city of Hartselle but it also reaches out to the surrounding cities and communities.
So what are the benefits of drama and theatre in education? There are many benefits. Gai Jones, a theatre educator states that “Theatre addresses the skills which benefit children’s education and development in five general areas: physical development/kinesthetic skills, artistic development /drama and theater skills, mental development/thinking skills, personal development/intra-personal skills, and social development/interpersonal skills.” Kimberley Haynes from educator.com writes, “While many parents fear participation in drama will damage their child’s academic progress, a UCLA study concluded that students involved in the arts tend to have higher academic performance and better standardized test scores — nearly 100 points better on the SAT, according to a separate study by The College Board.”
This beautiful building is not just for theatre use by the College Street Players. The Fine Arts Center also opens its doors up for a wonderful program called Jewels for Prom. Young girls who do not have the money to purchase a prom dress are sent an invitation to the Center where they will walk in to experience their very own shopping day with dresses donated by The Something Blue Shoppe. The girls also receive other gifts. This is all underwritten by the Something Blue Shoppe and Nucor Steel and other small businesses in the area. Hartselle City and Morgan County are blessed to have the Hartselle Fine Arts Center and the College Street Players. I know they have been a blessing and a joy in our family’s life.
This building is also available for rental for concerts, weddings, birthday parties, banquets, etc. They also partner with the Huntsville Symphony to host violin lessons. So if this interests you, give them a call. Trust me, this would be a beautiful venue for a wedding. They would love for you to utilize their facilities.
The Hartselle Fine Arts Center is run by volunteers and the facility rentals are what keep the lights on. The Center does not receive any funds from the city. They have just received their 501C3 status, which means any donations made to the Center are tax deductible. If the arts are important to you, if the history of this building is important to you… why not consider making a donation or at least remember them the next time you need a venue.