So I am at work earlier this week and I get a call from Side Notes. Had I seen the article about the Englert sending a letter to the Johnson County board of supervisors about there concerns of Coralville building a performance space in there fair city. No, I said, but I will read it and check out your post.
WTF!!! I have also read that the Englert was asked for there input, but I agree totally with Side Notes that the letter did not sound like and expression of opening dialogue and more like a whining threat to force Coralville to not build the space.
ICCT originally pledged IN A CONTRACT an amount of 40K with an additional 10k. Along in THE CONTRACT was the agreement that ICCT would be the in house theater for the space and we would have a special price agreement. Percentage of ticket sales and concessions sales were included IN THE CONTRACT.
Later, when things changed and ICCT got shafted, for lack of a better word, the Englert started asking for that last 10K that was IN THE CONTRACT. If the whole in house theater thing was just an agreement, how did they know the amount. They said there was no contract. HMMMMMMMM.
After the Englert closed as a movie theater and someone was planning on turning it into another bar, I took it upon myself to e-mail all of the members of the Iowa City city council and inform them of the economic benefits of having a large live performance space downtown. It would bring wanted patronage to the local restaurants and hotels and it would give people a good reason to come downtown. I also mentioned the possibility of hosting an IACT theater festival which gets held every other year and in which ICCT had participated and won several times. This would bring in money from out of town and from across the state.
The Englert is a fine performance place. I really enjoy being on that stage, and I also enjoy being in the audience. I especially enjoy working with Chris ( you know who you are). You are a super tech person! But the whining has got to stop.
The Englert is there because of all the people ( not corporations) who worked there buts off to raise money, and the people who have there names on the backs of those theater seats. I have my name on one and my husband has his name on another.
It was meant to be a local artist performance space. Most local organizations cannot afford to perform there. ICCT is on a financial tight wire because of the savings they sunk into a place that they thought they would now be able to call home. A real theater.
Coralville and City Circle are no threat to you. Get over yourself.
And......... As long as I am ranting, what about this state wide ban on smoking in Iowa thing? The state finally passes a higher state tax on cigarettes to help fill the state coffers. (don't let them try to fool you into thinking anything else). And then they ban smoking in public places.
Now, I am not a smoker and I like the idea of going out with friends on a TTT and not have to come home smelling like an ash tray. But there is something about this whole thing that I really don't like.
This is a totalitarian law. Sure, smoking is bad for you, and maybe we can get some people to stop smoking and keep the rest of us from being effected by second hand smoke. But, what could be next? New York is trying to stop the sale of fatty foods. Twinkies really aren't good for you, should the state pass a law banning them? Are we going to start legislating when we should start wearing winter coats? You can only buy state sponsored bio fuels. Better make a law that doesn't allow alcohol of any kind in the state because it is bad for you.
Now you may say, the state passed this law to protect our health. I'm sorry but I'm pretty sure most of the state legislature doesn't really care about our health. This is just the state flexing there power muscles.
I want to end with a quote from Benjamin Franklin: Anyone who give up a little freedom for safety, deserves neither freedom or safety.
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3 comments:
absolutely stupid question, but: what happened to the contract? how and why has it gone missing? and is there anyone still around connected with ICCT who might actually have a copy...?
(questions that have been asked time and again, i know, but oddly enough i've never really received a straight answer from ANYONE.
The best we could find were some of the initial drafts. I remember signing it as I was on the ICCT board at the time. For some reason the copy that we would have kept disappeared. I don't know when or how and I don't know if we ever received a signed copy back from the Englert, but Nelle does have a point which I have brought up a number of times. The Englert kept pestering us for the final 10K that was in the contract. How did they know we still owed them 10K if they did not have the contract? We decided to play nice, (didn't pay the 10K, because the Englert did not uphold their end either), and that is basically where ICCT is at today, pretty much priced out of doing anything but large musicals on a shoestring budget at the Englert. The person who was ICCT's main contact at the time with the Englert is no longer in the area. I do have some contact with him and he has searched hi and low for a copy of the contract, thus we have some of the early drafts, but no final signed copies.
The reason why you may not be getting any answers from anyone is because they were not involved at the time.
Some people who where involved just don't want to talk about it because they screwed up.
It was a good idea. The ball got dropped by someone who is no longer in the area.
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