The little theater in the heart of Brattleboro, VT.
The Hooker-Dunham Theater and Gallery’s purpose is to provide an open venue for the visual and performing arts. Organizations may also utilize all or part of the space for meetings, benefits, workshops, and conferences. All use of the theater is on a simple share-of-the-cost basis. The manager of the theater is a volunteer position and there are no paid staff, so rentals hopefully will cover most expenses.
The theater could not continue existing were it not for individual and group volunteers. Whether it's handling the box office or getting up on a ladder to fix a lamp, dragging the "marquee" out to the street, or helping with costumes for a production, talented (and sometimes "strong" helps too!) people make the whole thing work.
The Vermont Theater Company organized building a modular (i.e. removable) stage-extension that greatly enhances the flexibility of the playing space. It can be stored when not in use.
Occasionally a group coming in needs some additional help: someone to run the lights for their show or someone to do sound. We’ll pass on names of people who would be pleased to do that work if they’re available.
The gallery space is also available to all artists: actors, theater companies, musicians, photographers, dancers, painters and sculptors, video artists, filmmakers, and performance artists. You hang your show and are free to re-focus the lighting.
There’s a nice synergy between people who come to the theater for something else and are standing in the lobby area looking at what’s up in the gallery.
The hope is that performers and artists of all types will find the Hooker-Dunham Theater and Gallery to be an ideal space for theatrical and musical exploration.
A crucial long-range goal is to make the theater handicapped accessible.
The ideas that first drove the creation of the Hooker-Dunham as a "Theater and Gallery" are essentially the same today as they were when it first took shape. Here's how some of its founders described it years ago:
http://www.gallerywalk.org/HookerDunham.html
