Lucas: Hilton Head's Main Street Youth Theatre to stay on Main Street

Drivers passing Hilton Head Island's Main Street Theatre at 3000 Main Street in recent months may have noticed a slight change in the building's appearance.

Signs on the front and on the property's concrete entrance marker now read "Hilton Head Preparatory School -- Main Street Theatre" signaling a change is underway.

But what that change means to the nonprofit that has called the building home on and off for nearly a decade remains to be seen.

In January of 2015, the theater's owners, James W. Bradshaw of Hilton Head and Carlos E. Evans of Charlotte, donated the building to Hilton Head Preparatory -- a nearly $2-million gift -- so that the school could begin holding its productions at the theater.

In addition, donors hoped the building would be used for community events and other theater productions, including those of Main Street Youth Theatre, the nonprofit organization which has called the building home on and off since 2006.

"The donors thought it was important to keep it open to the community," said Jon Hopman, the school's headmaster.

After the building was given to the school, school officials granted Main Street Youth Theatre the right of first refusal to continue being its primary leasee, but Hopman said the group declined the offer.

Theater board chairman Sheri Sternitzke said the organization, which has struggled financially in the past, just isn't doing as much as it once did.

The group, which first began in 1997 as the Hilton Head Community and Youth Theater, once averaged three to four shows a year.

This year, the organization plans to do two -- one in June and another in December.

"But that could always change depending on how well we do," she said. "If we make money, then we'll do more."

In 2010, the theater group moved from its Main Street address to a larger space on New Orleans Road and rented Hilton Head Island High School's Visual and Performing Arts Center for performances. The move was meant to save the struggling organization money.

The theater group's move was made possible by a $280,262 donation from the estate of Judy Gallagher, a longtime contributor to the organization.

Part of the money was used to pay off and convert about $160,000 in short-term debt to $60,000 in long-term debt, then chairman Barry Bryant said.

In 2012, the organization moved back to the Main Street facility after negotiating a better lease, Sternitzke said, though it could not convince the Town of Hilton Head to purchase the building, a plan that Sternitzke and the board presented to the town in hopes of having a permanent home.

The organization continued to lease from the then owners, Bradshaw and Evans, until the school took ownership last year.

The group, she said, will continue to rent the theater from the school on an "as-needed" basis, and will continue to store its lighting equipment and furniture at the Main Street facility for use by the school.

Despite continued yearly donations from the Gallagher estate, Sternitzke said the organization has no plans to buy or lease a new space.

"There's just no other place on the island that I know of," she said, adding that the 220-seat theater is ideal for the types of shows Main Street Youth Theatre does.

"It's really the perfect size theater for community theater," she said.

While Sternitzke declined to say exactly how much the organization has received from the Gallagher estate over the years, she did say the group expected to receive additional money in 2016.

And while the organization is doing fewer shows and is no longer the primary leasee at 3000 Main Street, the fate of Main Street Youth Theatre is not "up in the air" she said.

"We're in pretty good shape right now," she said.

Follow reporter Mindy Lucas on Twitter at twitter.com/MindyatIPBG.

This story was originally published January 12, 2016 at 4:59 PM with the headline "Lucas: Hilton Head's Main Street Youth Theatre to stay on Main Street."