Springville Payhouse waits for new year for new home

(Daily Herald) Utah's longest-running theater troupe will have to wait for the new year to find out where, if at all, it will be hanging its shingle in the coming years.

The Springville Playhouse, more than 60 years old, has roughly a year and a half left to find a new home before Springville City razes its old library, in the basement of which the group currently performs.

"We tabled things until the new administration takes place," Springville Playhouse president Daryl Tucker said. "We're looking forward to working with the new mayor [Wilford W. Clyde]. He's a former member of our board, and he's been connected to us in the past."

Springville provided the theater group with space in its civic center/library in a 1964 agreement, which essentially granted utility-free, rent-free occupancy to the Springville Playhouse as long as it was possible.

The city hopes to complete construction on a new library within 18 months, at which point the old library lot will be converted into park space and the nonprofit Springville Playhouse may be out in the cold.

Springville city administrator Troy Fitzgerald said there was no economical way to plan for similar space in the new library, but he still hopes to be able to help house the theater group in some way. The current economic climate may prevent an arrangement as ideal as before, he said.

"We haven't had many formal discussions so far," Fitzgerald said. "We look forward to sitting down with them."

Original Article