Episode 27
Join Bonnie G. as She Unveils Dezart Performs' New Playhouse with Michael Shaw
Join Bonnie G as she welcomes Michael Shaw, the artistic director of Dezart Performs, to discuss the exciting news of their recent acquisition of the First Church of Christ Scientist building in Palm Springs, which will be transformed into the new Desert Playhouse. This significant move comes after a thorough reassessment of their previous plans to relocate to Cathedral City, showcasing the organization's growth and commitment to bringing vibrant art and culture to the Coachella Valley. Michael shares insights about the new space, its features, and the community-centered approach they plan to adopt. The episode also highlights the generous support from donors that has made this dream a reality. Tune in to hear about the journey of Dezart Performs, the power of community support, and what lies ahead for this beloved arts organization. Listen to The Desert Scene and stay up-to-date with show information on our website at www.TheDesertScene.com or Subscribe and Download from one of our preferred Podcast Distribution Partners including Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts, Audible, Captivate.fm, or Spotify. This podcast is presented by the Mutual Broadcasting System.
Takeaways:
- Michael Shaw announced the purchase of a new building for Dezart Performs, transforming a church into a community arts center.
- The new location will significantly increase seating capacity and provide more rehearsal space for productions.
- Community support has been overwhelming, with a generous donation of $500,000 aiding the transition to the new building.
- The building's historical significance ties back to the church's original congregation, creating a unique full circle moment.
- Desert Performs aims to foster collaboration with other organizations, making the space available for community events.
- The opening of the new facility is planned for the 2025-2026 season, following necessary renovations.
Transcript
In a land of sunshine where the palm trees sway there's a special show to brighten up your day.
Bonnie G.:From rockin festivals to Broadway dreams.
Bonnie G.:Tune in with Bunny G.
Bonnie G.:It's a desert scene.
Bonnie G.:The desert scene with Barny G.
Bonnie G.:Meet the stars and feel the beast from the Coachella Valley is the place to be for all the culture, fun and harm I need the desert sea.
Michael Shaw:Yeah.
Bonnie G.:With Barney G.
Michael Shaw:Mutual broadcasting welcomes you to the desert scene, featuring conversations with the people who make culture, art and entertainment happen in the Coachella Valley.
Michael Shaw:From local theater to live music, art exhibits, to cinema and beyond.
Michael Shaw:The desert scene is presented by El Portal mexican restaurant in Cathedral City.
Michael Shaw:Now here is your host, Bonnie G.
Host:And welcome to the desert scene.
Host:So happy to have you here.
Host:Very, very happy to welcome to the show my good buddy Michael Shaw, who is the artistic director of Desart, performs, and he's got some big news.
Host:Hey, Michael, how are you?
Michael Shaw:Good day?
Michael Shaw:I'm great.
Michael Shaw:How are you?
Host:Good.
Host:So I'm so, so excited about this new building.
Host:Tell us about it.
Michael Shaw:Oh, my gosh.
Michael Shaw:The word's out.
Michael Shaw:Clearly out.
Michael Shaw:So, as you know, last Sunday we had our season launch party, and we made a big announcement to that, that crowd at 849 that we had just gone into escrow to purchase the first church of Christ Scientist building in Palm Springs and turn it into the new desert playhouse.
Host:Yay.
Michael Shaw:So this happened, as many people.
Michael Shaw:Forgive me, I've got a little bit of a chess cold, so my clearing.
Michael Shaw:No, I'm fine.
Michael Shaw:I just have some congestion.
Michael Shaw:But anyway, as many people know, our plan was originally to move to a location in Cathedral City.
Michael Shaw:And over the last couple of months, after probably last three or four months, we had reassessed that location and its costs and decided that it wasn't practical for us or fiscally sound for us to make that move.
Michael Shaw:So we went on a new search for a new location.
Michael Shaw:And this literally happened almost overnight.
Michael Shaw:And the church went on the market very quickly, and we basically jumped on it.
Michael Shaw:We had a tour of the space.
Michael Shaw:It checked off all the boxes in regards to space and sanctuary size for the audience, backstage use.
Michael Shaw:There's even a Sunday school class which will be converted into a rehearsal hall.
Michael Shaw:There's offices, there's a lobby.
Michael Shaw:And it's just a beautiful building.
Michael Shaw:It's an arbitrary designed building.
Michael Shaw:And it's just to say that we're ecstatic would be.
Michael Shaw:It's an understatement, because it's just.
Michael Shaw:It's exactly.
Michael Shaw:It's unexpected.
Michael Shaw:We didn't obviously, expect to buy a building.
Michael Shaw:But the campaign has been incredibly successful.
Michael Shaw:We continue to obviously seek funds because now we are.
Michael Shaw:Now we're buying a building and we're converting it.
Michael Shaw:So there is additional costs that we originally planned for.
Michael Shaw:Exactly.
Michael Shaw:So it's a big.
Michael Shaw:You know, it's obviously a huge deal for us.
Michael Shaw:It's a.
Michael Shaw:It's a.
Michael Shaw:I think it's going to be a big boom for the community.
Michael Shaw:The church congregation has been the only tenant in that building.
Michael Shaw:They've owned the building for almost 70 years and it just kind of feels like a match made in heaven, if I could say that.
Michael Shaw:Because the architecture is stunning.
Michael Shaw:We obviously are thrilled and honored to have a building of this magnitude.
Michael Shaw:And we will take care of it hopefully as well as the church has and will bring a lot of joy to the community.
Michael Shaw:Our plan has always been to open up a community center.
Michael Shaw:So it's not just us, but we want to be able to have the space available to other organizations.
Host:Right.
Host:Right.
Michael Shaw:So that's, you know, it's a win win for everybody involved but I think mostly for the community.
Host:And David C.
Host:Lee pledged pledge has pledged $500,000.
Host:That's helpful in addition to the other people that have contributed the campaign.
Host: And it's a: Host:That sounds like a perfect size.
Michael Shaw:It's absolutely wonderful.
Michael Shaw:It's 50% larger than what we were originally going to move into in Cathedral City.
Michael Shaw:It's a much better space in terms of available usage.
Michael Shaw:The big.
Michael Shaw:The two big things that we didn't have in the original space was a rehearsal hall, a rehearsal room and ample office space.
Michael Shaw:So this is like, this meets those two needs that we originally weren't expecting.
Michael Shaw:So we can have rehearsals for, you know, an event or another organization can use the rehearsal hall while we're in production in the main sanctuary and it still meets our needs.
Michael Shaw:It actually exceeds our original plan for seating because right now it looks like we can fit comfortably 150, which is great.
Michael Shaw:We're almost doubling our seating capacity right now at the women's club.
Host:Okay, super.
Host: at's going to open up for the: Michael Shaw:Yes.
Michael Shaw:Yes.
Michael Shaw:November.
Michael Shaw:We've already started mapping out a very tight timeline in terms of once we occupy the building, which escrow closes, I believe on November 29.
Michael Shaw:So once that's completed, then we obviously get the keys and we just jump right in.
Michael Shaw:We've already had a number of inspections this last week.
Michael Shaw:We've only been in us for less than two weeks.
Michael Shaw:The last week has been all about inspections and environmental whatever and all the stuff that you have to do to take, you know, to basically make sure that we're, you know, moving into a sound, safe building.
Host:Yeah.
Michael Shaw:And location.
Host:Yeah.
Host:We're going to take a really quick break here on the desert scene.
Host:We're talking to Michael Shaw, artistic director of Desert performs.
Host:They got a new building that's going to open up next fall.
Host:We'll be right back.
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Host:And we are back on the desert scene, talking to Michael Shaw of desert performs.
Host:So, Michael, from what I know of you, I think I know the answer to this question.
Host:But I have a feeling that you're probably gonna get in there and roll up your sleeves with a paintbrush, et cetera, when whatever's needed.
Michael Shaw:As far as this project, you actually do know me very well.
Michael Shaw:I probably will.
Michael Shaw:I don't know.
Michael Shaw:They'll probably make me wear a hard hat or whatever it is, but, you know.
Michael Shaw:But I will.
Michael Shaw:I probably, knowing me, will just be like, oh, well, let me just.
Michael Shaw:Let me just, you know, I want to be involved, obviously, and I want to participate.
Michael Shaw:I will leave, you know, the big work to the professionals.
Host:Good idea.
Michael Shaw:I don't know how I'm doing with, you know, how well I could do with plastering, but it's incredibly heartwarming and incredibly exciting to think that.
Michael Shaw:I don't know, it's funny, I just.
Michael Shaw:People are just like, you must be on the moon right now, you know?
Michael Shaw:And I'm like, of course I'm incredibly excited.
Michael Shaw:But there's.
Michael Shaw:I don't know that it's really hit me right.
Michael Shaw:Yet.
Host:Yeah.
Host:Yeah.
Michael Shaw:You know, we're still in the process, and.
Michael Shaw:But what's been really wonderful is the community support and the excitement that it's stirred up.
Michael Shaw:I mean, people are so, so thrilled for us.
Michael Shaw:It's obviously been a long, long standing dream to have our own space.
Michael Shaw:But then it says it's a building like this.
Michael Shaw:The significance of this building alone and the fact that it's.
Michael Shaw:That we're being honored with this, you know, this stewardship.
Michael Shaw:To take it over, one little fabulous piece of information, a little tidbit that I just recently found out was the church of Christ Scientists has been in, I believe, in Palm Springs since the thirties.
Host:Wow.
Michael Shaw: s being designed and built in: Michael Shaw:Needed a place to hold their services.
Michael Shaw:So, interestingly enough, while the building was being built, before they moved into it, the congregation of the first Church of Christ Scientists actually held their services at the Palm Springs woman's club.
Host:Really?
Host:Wow.
Michael Shaw:I was like, when I read that, I was like, you gotta be careful.
Host:Full circle.
Host:Yes, yes, yes.
Michael Shaw:Total, total twilight zone.
Michael Shaw:It's like, what the heck?
Michael Shaw:So it's.
Michael Shaw:If you believe in it.
Host:I do.
Michael Shaw:It was meant to be.
Michael Shaw:And it just brings an affirmation to this incredible opportunity.
Michael Shaw:I truly feel blessed to have this kind of come our way, and I hope that we do it justice in terms of obviously, maintaining the beauty of the building, which, you know, we wanted.
Michael Shaw:We feel incredibly, I don't know, to be bestowed.
Michael Shaw:This building is really quite an honor, and I'm incredibly excited to take, to bring art to that facility and that community.
Host:And from the one little picture I saw, I think there's ample parking as well, is correct?
Michael Shaw:Yes.
Michael Shaw:The parking lot has 40 spaces on the property.
Michael Shaw:And then there's incredible.
Michael Shaw:An incredible amount of street parking.
Michael Shaw:The church is located right behind Cody Place, right off of South, South Palm Canyon.
Host:Okay.
Michael Shaw:So that whole back neighborhood on Riverside as it spills into random drive and then mesquite, there's.
Michael Shaw:I've never seen a car park back there, but it's all public street parking.
Michael Shaw:So the church, you know, in its heyday, I'm sure that the church, I think the capacity of the church was 157.
Host:Okay.
Michael Shaw:So there is plenty of parking, obviously, for Sunday classes and Sunday services and things like that.
Michael Shaw:So it's kind of ideal for us.
Host:So go back for just a second.
Host:What was the year that Desart first started?
Host:First had, I think you were staged reading in an art studio or tell us about the very, very beginning again.
Michael Shaw: So in: Michael Shaw:She and I partnered together and co founded Des Art, and we were in an art gallery.
Michael Shaw:And the reason that happened was I had become friends with artists in the Backstreet art district back behind Mercedes Benz, and I purchased a couple of pieces of art back then, became friends with the artists.
Michael Shaw:They were wanting to kind of create a salon setting in the gallery where they wanted to bring in not just the visual arts, but poetry readings and plays and comedy and things like that.
Michael Shaw:So Daniella and I became friends over a one woman show that she was presenting there at the gallery.
Michael Shaw:We struck up a friendship, and long story short, we thought, well, maybe we can, like, manage the theatrical end of this salon, and we can start bringing in plays and things like that.
Michael Shaw:So at the time, my goal was to really promote new plays and new playwrights who had unpublished work.
Michael Shaw:So we started out as kind of an incubation, an incubator for new work.
Michael Shaw:And so for the first few years at the gallery, we just presented original new art, new plays, and then that was like, we had, like, 15 or 20 seats.
Michael Shaw:I think we had folding chairs.
Host:Yeah, I remember that.
Michael Shaw:Yeah.
Michael Shaw:Things in there, you know, and it was great fun.
Michael Shaw:And I was still living in Los Angeles and coming out on the weekends, it was great fun to just kind of, like, read new work and present new work to the community, and people just kind of, you know, really desired that.
Michael Shaw: And then after: Michael Shaw:They just couldn't have sustain it because of the financial crisis.
Host:Yeah.
Michael Shaw:So we had to move.
Michael Shaw:Unfortunately, the women's club had just become available, and so we signed an agreement with them.
Michael Shaw:And fast forward 14 years later.
Michael Shaw:We're still there.
Michael Shaw:You know, we're doing our last season there, and it's been a wonderful relationship.
Michael Shaw:The women's club had long known that we were, you know, we're planning on leaving eventually.
Michael Shaw:Eventually.
Michael Shaw:So this whole campaign started about three years ago to raise funds to move into a permanent home.
Michael Shaw:And so it's been very successful, and we're at a place right now where our board truly feels confident that we can take this on.
Michael Shaw:And, of course, David C.
Michael Shaw:Lee's incredibly generous gift and pledge has really been a turning point for us, absolutely, to make this happen.
Michael Shaw:So we're incredibly honored and very fortunate to have this.
Host:Well, Michael Shaw, I am one who believes, and I believe that you have paid your dues.
Host:You and everyone associated with Desar have paid your dues, worked hard, and put it out there in the community.
Host:And put positive vibes out in the community, which is why this has all happened, why this money has come in, why David Seeley's, and why you found this building.
Host:So I don't think.
Host:I don't believe in coincidences.
Host:Congratulations.
Host:You put it out there.
Host:What you give out, you give back, and I think that's what's happening.
Host:So congratulations.
Host:I'm so excited for you.
Michael Shaw:Thank you so much.
Michael Shaw:And it's a joy to share the news with you, as you know.
Michael Shaw:I mean, you and I have been friends for a long time, and I always appreciate your support and your friendship greatly.
Michael Shaw:You're a sweetheart.
Host:Thank you so much.
Host:Well, get better.
Host:Get rid of that cold and have a great day.
Host:Thanks for being here.
Host:And congratulations again.
Host:Really appreciate it.
Michael Shaw:Thanks again.
Michael Shaw:Take care.
Michael Shaw:Bye bye.
Host:All right, thank you.
Host:Michael Shaw and the rest of you will see you the next time on the desert scene.
Bonnie G.:The desert sea with honey G.
Bonnie G.:Meet the stars and feel the beef from the Coachella Valley it's the place to be for all the culture, fun and harmony the desert scene.
Bonnie G.:Yeah, with Bonnie G.
Bonnie G.:The desert scenes where you belong with mutual broadcasting, Bonnie G.
Bonnie G.:Just sing along, just sing along.
