CenterPoint Theatre has been a staple of the Centerville and Davis County communities at the Davis Center for the Performing Arts, since January 2011. The building is owned by Centerville City’s RDA (redevelopment area) and is leased to CenterPoint for a nominal amount.

Executive Director Danny Inkley recently shared with the Centerville City Council his board’s plans for the building’s second stage, formerly known as Leishman Hall. 

“We started with an understanding that we wanted to increase the number of seats in this facility so we could turn it into more of a significant thing, a revenue thing for us, and put more production value and that kind of thing into it, just to drive additional visits to the place,” he told the city council acting in the role of RDA directors Dec 3.

The theater aims to increase seating capacity in that part of the venue from its current 100 to 150 to160, Inkley said.

The theater’s academy, which has close to 1,000 students, puts on its productions there and they are often sold out, he said. There are nine such productions planned for 2025. 

“This increase in seating capacity actually was driven mostly by that idea, how can we get more people into those shows,” Inkley said. “Because the demand is so high and we turn away a lot of disappointed grandparents at the door, which we hate doing.”

Along with increased seating the second stage has been rebuilt as what’s known as a thrust stage where the audience surrounds the actors on three sides. Currently the new spaces are filled with folding chairs, but the improvements will include more permanent seating.  

“All we’ve done is carved out the sides that used to be stage space and built tiers,” Inkley said. “So now the audience goes down the sides and across the front.”

CenterPoint also plans to incorporate LED video walls throughout the space.

“It gives us the ability to change over more quickly, use the space more without having to build, rebuild, take away sets and that kind of thing,” Inkley said. Also, it will allow audiences to get “kind of an immersive view where we put video content everywhere” regardless of where they are seated, he said.

There would also be a floor to ceiling LED wall in the theater’s main lobby. 

“Our sponsors love this idea,” Inkley said. “We [can] put show content, sponsor content, pre- and post-show photo opportunities.”

In addition to academy productions on the second stage, CenterPoint plans to have performances of “Cats,” “Pride and Prejudice” and “Daddy Long Legs” there in 2025, he said.

None of the proposed changes would be structural and all except the electrical upgrades can be torn out if that is needed in the future, Inkley told the RDA directors. The total cost for these improvements is estimated at $425,000, with the only permanent change being a larger backstage door and the electrical improvements.

CenterPoint Theatre plans to raise funds independently for the proposed improvements and will not be asking the city or RDA for financial help, he said. Inkley is currently negotiating with what he called a “large financial institution here locally” on a 15- year agreement “to put their name on the main stage” that would net the theater “somewhere between $2 and $3 million,” he said.

Prior to finding a home at the Davis Center for the Performing Arts, CenterPoint Theatre, which was established in 1990 by Joan and Ralph Rodgers, Beverly and Blaine Olsen and Margo and David Beecher, was located in the Rodgers Memorial Theatre, formerly known as the Pages Lane Theatre because of its location at 292 East Pages Lane.

Danny Inkley could not be reached for further comment for this story. λ