Audio New life for the old NorShor (story audio) Photos Duluth's NorShor Theatre Staircase mural Craig Samborski View full slideshow (5 images) Your Voice Join the conversation with other MPR listeners in the News Forum.

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New life for the old NorShor
by Stephanie Hemphill, Minnesota Public Radio
November 5, 2004

Duluth's NorShor Theatre is buzzing under new management. (MPR Photo/Stephanie Hemphill)

The NorShor Theatre in downtown Duluth is under new management -- again. The theatre has already gone through several incarnations. It started in 1910 as a theatre for plays and vaudeville acts. In the 40s it was remodeled into a movie theatre. When that closed, it became a funky bar, featuring local musicians. Now it has a new identity - and the guys in charge say - a new mission.

	Staircase mural

Duluth, Minn. — The old-fashioned marquee juts out over the sidewalk in front of the NorShor Theatre. Small light bulbs blink on and off in waves. The names of upcoming acts spread across the marquee. There's a jumble of different styles of letters - some dating back to the 1940s.

The glass entry doors are etched with graceful art deco designs. Inside, a wide staircase sweeps past a carved wooden mural full of sailors, lumbermen, and other characters from the region's history.

Craig Samborski emerges from the dark theatre with a cellphone earpiece hooked on his head. He's constantly getting phone calls from musicians and agents across the continent. He handles John Prine's concerts around the country. Samborski spent twenty years booking acts at the Duluth Entertainment and Convention Center. He quit last spring.

	Craig Samborski

"I was really getting the bug to own my own business and do my own thing, and I said to myself, 'I don't want to be 60 years old going "would-have, should-have, could-have."'

Now Samborski is turning his contacts in the music world into a new life at the NorShor Theatre. The nationally-known rock act the BoDeans played here in August.

Samborski says the BoDeans loved the atmosphere of the art deco building.

"They played here on a Sunday night," Samborski remembers. "I was talking to the band afterwards, and they thought it would be a slow night, and it turned out to be a really good night for them. In fact they did three encores that night - as opposed to one which they normally do - because they were having so much fun. And they loved the fact that this is a historic theatre," Samborski says.

Samborski says the BoDeans attracted a new crowd to the NorShor. The previous managers focused on local bands that played to young people hanging out in the mezzanine bar, and occasional creative ventures that never seemed to pay the bills.

	Cameo

"The BoDeans - quite a few people that showed up for that concert told me they'd never been here before," Samborski says. "Or it had been since 1970, when they came and saw a movie here."

Samborski is bringing in a real smorgasbord of acts - Little Feat - another group that appealed to forty- and fifty-somethings. And Bobby V is coming in December - to draw an even older audience.

But he also booked Jordan Knight, the former lead singer with New Kids on the Block. Kyle Cook from Matchbox 20 is coming, and Better than Ezra, a rock band that appeals to teens on up.

Samborski says they're all acts that can draw an audience about the right size for the 900 seats in the main theatre at the NorShor.

	The NorShor Bar

And if he's right, the old theatre might be able to do more than just survive. There might be money to invest in upgrades - like bathrooms on the main floor, and better wiring.

Brad Nelson is the publisher of the Ripsaw, a local alternative monthly magazine. He says Duluth's music scene is changing. The NorShor used to serve as an incubator for young talent, and now it's reaching out to older audiences. Meanwhile, young people are creating their own spaces.

"The old things are growing up and becoming established institutions," he says. "And the young things are coming in, and and there's still room for new ideas to come in underneath. That's really what you want, that's an ideal arts scene, it's a continuum, it's never a beginning and an end," Nelsons says.

The music is changing at the NorShor, but Craig Samborski doesn't plan to change the atmosphere. He says the theatre is almost like a museum, and he doesn't want to get rid of the old seats or modernize it too much. He says the walls almost echo with the sounds of legendary performers from years past.

And he's hoping lots of people will think it's a great place to hear music.

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