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An old Rifle icon turns town into a cultural center

Patrick Fort
/
Aspen Public Radio

Rifle isn’t exactly a place that you would think of as a cultural center, but through the work of a group of residents, that’s about to change. Nearly two years after the reopening of the Ute Theater, the town is coming back to life, and it’s becoming a cultural center.

 

When the Ute Theater opened about 70 years ago, it was an important part of the town.

“This was the center of town. Everybody knew the family," said Don Cheney, who runs the Ute Theater for the City of Rifle, about the family who owned the theater. He then pointed to photographs on the wall next to the theater entrance. "These are the different people that worked here over the years. They gave out $2 bills as change.”

If you walk around town you can still find people who have those $2 bills. It was the movie theater for a town that experienced the ups and downs of the oil and gas industries. When that industry hit a low point, so did the Ute Theater. It was run down. Then, about 10 years ago, some people came into town and wanted to turn it into a thrift store. That’s when Tanya Giard and a group of Rifle residents stepped up. They formed the New Ute Theater Society.

 

“This was going to be a place that my children were going to come to, and their children," Giard said. "I was happy to be a part of it. Down the road maybe you get that one performer who sells out the Pepsi Center and Red Rocks, but maybe would stop by.”

 

That was Giard’s hope for the Theater, but there was lots of work to be done. The theater was run down.

 

Through a huge capital campaign, and money from the city of Rifle, the New Ute Theater Society - or ‘NUTS’, for short - raised over $2 million to renovate the building. But the project wasn’t without its detractors. A watchdog group in Rifle was concerned that taxpayer money was being wasted. It took Cheney to convince them.

 

“I think maybe they realized that this wasn’t going to be the great big boondoggle they thought it was going to be," Cheney. "You can’t blame them for thinking that something the government gets involved in is going to get messed up.”

 

First the exterior had to be redone. Then ventilation systems had to be updated. After that, was the asbestos removal. Soon, the town had a venue it could be proud of.

 

Brett Lark is the president of Secret Identity Pictures. He runs youth theater productions. He films television pilots. Lark grew up in the Valley. He went to Aspen High School, went to college in Grand Junction and now lives in Glenwood Springs. As a kid, he didn't necessarily relate Rifle to the arts.

 

“If you told me we were going down to Rifle, I’d laugh and say ‘what are we going to do, tip cows or something like that?’” Lark said.

 

Now things have changed. The theater is becoming part of the community. According to Don Cheney, businesses are sprouting up.

 

Tanya Giard witnessed the impact the Theater had on the community as a woman performed at the venue.

 

"Everyone was singing along with her, and I’m just sitting in the back going ‘This is what we did this for. Not only to bring people cultural events, but to raise money for other people in the community.’ It’s just awesome,” said Giard.

 

Since the venue reopened almost two years ago, it’s become more than a center for the arts. It holds events and later this year will have its first wedding. Every weekend is booked through the fall.

 

Don Cheney lives in Glenwood Springs. If it weren’t for the roots he has in Glenwood, he would move the 30 miles down the highway. He knows people in town, and they know him. The building he says, is also becoming a close friend. One night he was at the Theater with his son.

 

“We were leaving the building one night and I said, ‘Goodnight.’ And he says, ‘who are you talking to?’ He just shook his head and said, ‘you’re weird, dad.’”

 

Kind of like at the end of the movie. The man looks back into the building, turns the lights off and closes the door.