In Shakespeare’s "As You Like It," he wrote that "All the world’s a stage…" and yet it doesn’t quite work that way for local performing arts groups.
"Right now almost every fine arts group in the area — that’s more than two dozen — rehearse in one building, perform in another and store their equipment in another," says Jan Daly.
Daly wants to change that, and her plan to create the Rosie Belle Performing Arts Theatre in Rochester is still very much alive to accomplish that goal.
In early 2008, she bought the 15,000-square-foot building that covers most of the southwest corner of Fourth Avenue Southwest and South Broadway with the plan to create an affordable performance venue.
While some were doubtful such a project could stay alive for long, it is still kicking almost two years later.
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Rosie Belle is now a certified nonprofit group. It now has a board. The group is applying for funding grants.
With a $50,000 anonymous donation, it hired Yaggy Colby Associates to draw up plans to transform the site.
And now the Rosie Belle gang is in talks with the closed Masque Children’s Theater group about the possibility of buying its building adjacent to the proposed Rosie Belle center.
"We’re looking at all possibilities. We are talking to them," Daly says.
So despite the economy, Rosie Belle is still sticking to the script.
"We’re going to be ready to run when the economy turns around," she says.
