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The BLB rolls a strike as a theater incubator
by Chris Roberts, Minnesota Public Radio
March 7, 2003

The Bryant Lake Bowl offers food, drink, music and theater, mixed with the opportunity to bowl a few frames. (Image courtesy of the Bryant Lake Bowl)

When the Bryant Lake Bowl opened about 10 years ago, it seemed an unlikely, even slightly ridiculous combination. A restaurant, bowling alley and theater? Now it's recognized as a critical, if not financial success.

Minneapolis, Minn. — All owner Kim Bartmann wanted was a fun, unpretentious place with an excellent selection of beer. It was Bartmann's friend, theater practitioner Danny Schmidts, who wanted to convert the adjoining video game and pool room into a cozy, storefront theater.

"One night we threw a party on the lanes," Bartmann says. "Danny and I went and stood in the video room and listened to the balls and the pins, and kinda decided that it really wasn't that loud and we could do a theater in there just fine."

Since that time the BLB has presented perhaps the most eclectic performing arts potpourri in the Twin Cities, outside of the Minnesota Fringe Festival. And it's been a venue for that event, too.

	Eclectic performances and a little bowling

It's done that while continually drawing people who don't consider themselves regular theatergoers. Kim Bartmann believes it's because of the neighborhood feel of the place, and the fact that you can hang around after the show, maybe have a drink or bowl a few frames, and talk about what you just saw with somebody you don't know.

"It does help to create this community around those artists' work that doesn't exist in a lot of places," Bartmann says.

For the small theater groups that perform here, the BLB is a godsend. It's a place where many people cut their dramatic teeth. Artistic Director Ben Kernan directed his first piece at the BLB, a work by Ionesco. Kernan says the theater provided the infrastructure that would otherwise have been beyond the reach of his small cadre of performers.

"We managed to produce a show on a really small budget," Kernan says. "We got an audience that we probably wouldn't get anywhere else, because of some the promotional efforts this place was doing. We had a stage, we had lights, we had sound, we had a tech person -- all the things we couldn't muster as a group of three just out of college."

It does help to create this community around those artists' work that doesn't exist in a lot of places. - Kim Bartmann, owner of the Bryant Lake Bowl

Another thing they didn't need to find was a deposit for the space. BLB doesn't require money down when artists book a show. The take at the door is split 50-50.

"We share in the risk with them at the box office. So, nobody's going to lose their shirt by doing a show here, and it could be extremely successful," Kernan says.

The list of Minnesota artists who've used the BLB to launch careers, or even redefine their artistic approach, is long and getting longer. There's the comedy team of Martini and Olive, the Minneapolis Musical Theater, comedienne and storyteller Colleen Kruse, the guerrilla dance duo Hijack and the Ministry of Cultural Warfare.

"We probably wouldn't exist without Bryant Lake Bowl."

Ministry of Cultural Warfare Artistic Director Matthew Foster says if the Twin Cities' theater ecosystem is diverse, it's due largely to the BLB.

"There's a lot of substance to Minneapolis theater," Foster says. "And the Bryant Lake Bowl sort of adds the cherry on top of the sundae."

The BLB also holds a special place in the hearts of singer/songwriters who appreciate its cabaret-style intimacy.

What I like about this place is that it feels like I'm famous every time I play here. - Heather Murphy, singer/songwriter

Heather Murphy recently kicked off "Girls with Guitars," a female songwriter showcase, which will later feature alt-country song stylist Marlee MacLeod.

"What I like about this place is that it feels like I'm famous every time I play here. I've played here a bunch when there's been like eight, 10 people. But it still feels like I'm the most important person ever because the sound is excellent, and it's just well set up," Murphy says.

"I can't tell that there's only eight people, and usually they're really into it and they sound like 16 or 24 people. It's a nice place to play because the focus is on the music and nothing else," Murphy says.

Despite the artists' love for the BLB, and the unending stream of new faces pouring into the theater every night, it hasn't been a money-making venture. It's probably more accurate to say the theater doesn't share the risk with the performers -- it absorbs it.

Owner Kim Bartmann says over the last 10 years, the bowling alley/restaurant has subsidized the theater to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars a year.

"Eighty (thousand dollars) being the worst ever end of the curve, and 20 (thousand dollars) being the best ever end of the curve," Bartmann says.

Strangely enough, that's not the main reason Bartmann has decided to pursue non-profit status for the theater. She and others want the theater to expand its activities, programmatically and educationally, and she says the best way to do that is to become a non-profit.

With that status, Bartmann says it will also be easier to achieve another goal, which is to develop a second, larger performing space. She says such a space would better suit the BLB's more popular acts.

"Some of the people who do grow to be very successful in this space could maybe step up into a larger space, and be seen by a larger audience," Bartmann says.

If and when the BLB becomes a non-profit, Bartmann doesn't, in this economic climate, expect a lot of immediate help from funders. Bartmann sees herself less an owner and more a steward of the theater, looking toward its future.

"And that's one thing that non-profit status will really help do, is ensure its future," she says.

Bartmann says she'll finish all the paperwork in a month or so, and will get word on her application for non-profit status, sometime within the next six months.

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