From the Executive Director
I am thrilled to share a significant development with you – the acquisition of the historic build at 724 Cass St by La Crosse Community Theatre!
724 Cass St holds immense promise for LCT, and we have carefully evaluated the advantages it brings to our organization and the broader community.
An it now has a new name: The Lyche Education and Production Center, or LEAP Center for short.
To learn more about the benefits this first phase of expansion will have on the future of YOUR community theatre, read on below!
Rehearsal, Education, and Event Space:
A Better Place to Prepare and Learn
At the Weber Center, we don’t have enough room to rehearse or hold all the classes we’d like to offer.
- Classrooms are used for rehearsals, leaving little room for extra programs.
- We compete for space with ourselves and other groups at the Weber Center.
- Scheduling is tight, and we can’t expand youth or adult classes easily.
The LEAP Center gives us new space for classes, rehearsals, and special events—so we can grow our programs and reach more people. Already, we've utilize the space for Altra Encore Academy classes for youth and teens, LCT's Staged Reading Series, a talenht show fundraiser, and we even were able to offer The School District of La Crosse Theatre Program a space to rehearse when other programs were using the district's auditoriums.
Increased, Safer, and More Secure Storage:
Space of our Own
Right now, we store our costumes, props, and sets in different places across town, and many of them are
hard to access or in poor condition.
The costume annex had roof leaks, and repairs aren’t guaranteed.
Our basement storage had steep stairs that are dangerous for volunteers.
Scenery and props are stored in a warehouse that’s far away, dark, and sometimes floods.
We have to schedule time to access storage during business hours, which makes planning harder.
Too much unused stuff piles up because we don’t have time to sort through it.
The LEAP Center solves this by giving us one, safe, dry place to store everything—closer to the theatre and easier for volunteers to use. Already our costumes have been moved into High Density Storage units in a room that we control. Soon our props and sets will join them. And thanks to the hard work of Sharon Markee, the LCT archives have a new, accessible home where those who wish to research the history of LCT will be able to easily access the information they're looking for.
Larger Offsite Scene Shop:
More Room to Build
Our current shop at the Weber Center is shared with Viterbo University and Rental events, which causes scheduling conflicts and limits what we can build.
- We can’t use the space when the stage is in use by another group.
- Limited access delays set construction and affects production timelines.
- We often have to stop or relocate work when conflicts arise.
A dedicated scene shop in the LEAP Center will give us the freedom to build safely, efficiently, and on our own schedule.
The old dining hall at the LEAP Center is now a nearly finished scenic shop—nearly 400 square feet larger than our current space, where the majority of our construction can take place. We’ve raised the ceiling, added an access door, and installed a lift for moving big pieces. We’re now looking for donors to help us add tools and a dust collection system so the shop can be fully up and running this summer!
And we're not getting rid of the scene shop at the Weber Center. It will still be used for finishing work and painting as our sets move from LEAP to the Lyche Stage!
