Brian P. Allen, artistic director of the Good Theater, and Tracy Washburn at the Stevens Square Theater in Portland on Thursday. The theater company had faced an uncertain future after concluding its 21st season this spring at The Hill Arts. On Thursday, it announced a partnership with Stevens Square at Baxter Woods to become the theater-in-residence at the Stevens Square Theater, located at the site of the former Catherine McAuley High School campus. Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer

Good Theater has good news for theater fans.

The professional theater company left its longtime home at The Hill Arts in Portland earlier this year because of a major renovation and programming expansion at the venue. When the curtain closed on the last show of “A Man of No Importance” in March, its future was uncertain.

But Good Theater announced Thursday that it will move across town to Stevens Square Community Center in 2025. The company and the center’s developer will partner on a major renovation of the auditorium that they expect to be attractive to other arts organizations as well. Good Theater has hired an executive director and launched a $500,000 fundraising campaign to pay for future operating costs and its share of the renovation.

“It really cements Good Theater as part of Portland’s cultural hub,” said co-founder and artistic director Brian Allen.

Stevens Square at Baxter Woods is a 55-plus community of apartments and condos built by the Developers Collaborative off Stevens Avenue in Portland. The community center is on the campus in the former home of the Maine Girls’ Academy, formerly called Catherine McCauley High School, which closed in 2018. The Developers Collaborative has since turned the building into offices, a fitness center and a day care. The gymnasium now hosts pickleball and the winter farmers market. The 480-seat auditorium sometimes is used for performances and book signings, but it has not been substantially updated and is underused.

So when Amanda Bartlett, chief operating officer of the Developers Collaborative, read in the Portland Press Herald that Good Theater was searching for a new home, she and founder Kevin Bunker invited the group to visit the Stevens Square Community Center. Bartlett said she and Bunker also attended Good Theater’s final production at The Hill Arts on March 24, when they expected a light crowd because a storm had knocked out power and taken down trees that day.

“The whole place was packed,” Bartlett said. “Not an empty seat in the house. It was a cozy space just filled with these loyal patrons. It underscored what I think we already knew. It was a great match for what we’re trying to complete here.”

‘A DREAM JOB’

Gusta Johnson recently joined Good Theater as its executive director. She has two decades of experience in theater and business and has acted in two plays by Good Theater. This role, she said, is “a dream job.”

“Good Theater is incredibly important to the artistic economy of Portland and of Maine,” she said. “It employs so many Maine-based theater artists, regularly, consistently, every year. When the community heard that Good Theater might lose its home, might not continue, it created a real vacuum in the artistic economy, and it was devastating as an artist because Good Theater has been a home for so many Maine theater artists, so to be part of this expansion, this growth, is a huge honor for me.”

Gusta Johnson, the new executive director of the Good Theater, talks about the theater company’s partnership with Stevens Square at Baxter Woods. Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer

Allen and Steve Underwood founded Good Theater in 2001. In 2002, the company started performing in the 100-seat Parish Hall Theater at what was then called St. Lawrence Arts, now The Hill Arts. They usually put on four to seven productions a season – roughly from October to April – with each running at least three weeks. The company has 1,000 subscribers, and its total audience ranges from 10,000 to 12,000 people each year. Allen said the company usually employs about 40 local actors a year, paying $20 to $25 an hour, including rehearsal time.

The Hill Arts is on the site of the former St. Lawrence Church on Munjoy Hill, built in 1897 and torn down in 2008. Deirdre Nice, now the executive and artistic director of The Hill Arts, bought the property in 1993. A nonprofit group formed a few years later to take ownership of the property and create an arts venue in what used to be the parish house. This long-planned expansion will include a 400-seat theater on the vacant lot where the church used to be.

Allen said he had known about the project since 2002, but so much time had elapsed that he started to think that maybe it wouldn’t happen. Last year, St. Lawrence Arts Center rebranded as The Hill Arts and rebooted the expansion plans. The nonprofit decided not to host a theater company for a whole season in the larger theater because it would limit the dates on its calendar that it could offer the wide variety of entertainment planned. Allen started to look at options for continuing Good Theater’s operation and reached out to other venues.

The tour at Stevens Square Community Center was unexpected.

“We went in thinking it was not going to be a match,” Allen said. “We left thinking, ‘This is a perfect match.’ ”

Brian P. Allen, artistic director of the Good Theater, gives a tour of the space at the Stevens Square Community Theater in Portland on Thursday. The theater company had faced an uncertain future after concluding its 21st season this spring at The Hill Arts. Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer

Julia Kirby, development director at The Hills Arts, knows that performing arts space is in demand in Portland and was happy to hear about this development at the Stevens Square Community Center.

“The Hill Arts is excited for Good Theater’s new venture and excited for all the theater companies that will benefit from a great new space,” she said.

SOME RENOVATION NEEDED

Allen said he is excited about on-site parking, office space and a bigger stage. The auditorium needs some renovation to improve the acoustics, add a box office and make other improvements. The theater company and the developers will share the estimated $750,000 cost. Allen said Good Theater will cover $250,000 of the work and has already received commitments for $80,000. (For more information about the fundraising campaign, visit goodtheater.com.)

The company will not produce any shows this fall and will instead focus on the renovation and fundraising. Good Theater plans to host a gala in the spring and open its first season at Stevens Square in the fall of 2025.

A rendering of the renovated auditorium at Stevens Square Community Center. Image courtesy of Stone Mountain Services

The final design will include a curtain system that will allow configurations of 100 to 450 seats depending on the need. Good Theater will use the space some 22 weeks of the year and rent it to other organizations for the remaining 30 weeks. Johnson and Allen have already spoken to interested groups about the space.

“I think that once the word is out that we’re renting the space, we’re going to be fighting off people who want to use it because it’s going to have so much to offer,” Allen said.

Bartlett said Good Theater will be a boon for people who live near or visit Stevens Square.

“It just further enriches the community that we already have and the amenities that we already have available to the campus and the neighborhood,” she said.