Dixon council earmarks $200,000 for theater revitalization

DIXON – The City Council will donate $200,000 to help revitalize the Historic Dixon Theatre.

The council came to a consensus Tuesday to allocate the funding as seed money for the theater’s goals of booking bigger acts and developing community and youth programs at the historic building at 114 S. Galena Ave.

Mayor Li Arellano Jr. said theater productions help draw traffic and tourism to town and meshes with the city’s goals for the future, including bringing developments to the riverfront and Interstate 88 corridor.

Funds will come from leftover money for the city’s upcoming budget, which begins May 1, and the city’s donation would be matched by around $250,000 in private funding as well as sharing staff with Dixon Stage Left.

Last week, Tim Boles, president of the nonprofit Historic Dixon Theatre Group that manages the facility, spoke to the council about the donation and plans for an ambitious lineup for the next few years.

Featured acts the theater would like to land include Franc D’Ambrosio, the Broadway actor known for playing the Phantom in “Phantom of the Opera,” and famed jazz pianist and vocalist Judy Carmichael, who would have a 3-week residency in Dixon and emcee the theater’s 100th anniversary in March 2022.

Other acts would include the Chicago Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, and the one-woman show “Bette Davis Ain’t for Sissies.” Tribute bands still would be booked, and the group also is looking into social programs, a children’s theater program, and outdoor theater performances.

There would also be community theater productions, including “A Christmas Carol.”

Plans to get more use out of the theater and raise its profile started in 2016, following about 2 years of confusion as to whether it was owned by nonprofit Dixon Theatre Renovation Inc. or the county. The city, county and nonprofit entered into a partnership in 2017 to create a new group that will take on ownership and decisions for the nearly century-old theater.

In 2017, before a new group was formed, the theater made an agreement with Florida-based production company Cue Theatricals, which brought seven nationally touring shows to the facility, but decided not to pursue a second season.

Historic Dixon Theatre Group replaced DTRI in 2019, rebranding the Historic Dixon Theatre as The Dixon: Historic Theatre, but new programming was delayed because of COVID-19.