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Resident Artists and Theater Companies: Michigan Classical Repertory Theatre Some of our friends and colleagues: Ypsilanti Downtown Development Authority Ypsilanti Convention and Visitors Bureau Ann Arbor Area
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Riverside Arts Center, Spring, 2007, Newsletter At this stage: Barry LaRue Members of RAC’s Foundation Board bring a variety of talents to their volunteerism at Ypsilanti’s Arts Center, but the level of expertise delivered by Barry LaRue is both unique and distinguished. Recently retired from four terms on Ypsilanti’s City Council, LaRue now divides his time between tending to the facilities at the RAC and his full-time job of 25 years at the University of Michigan. He is UM’s Senior Performance Hall Manager overseeing Lydia Mendelssohn Theater, Power Center, Rackham Auditorium, Hill Auditorium, and the new Arthur Miller Theatre which will open on North Campus next year. LaRue is the epitome of the stage manager in all those Hollywood versions of Broadway theatrical life––times five! But Barry LaRue is not a transplanted Ann Arborite; he is definitely an Ypsi Townie Kid. He attended EMU’s Roosevelt School until seventh grade then went to West Middle and Ypsilanti High. At EMU, he majored in theater and stage tech, and all that experience and training brought him back downtown to the burgeoning Riverside Arts Center. He has been overseeing the development of the former Masonic Temple, the black box stage, the gallery, and now the former Detroit Edison renovation. He joined the RAC Foundation Board eleven years ago and has given continuous attention to the physical facilities ever since. The son and grandson of community activists, LaRue lives with his wife, Kim Clarke, in a historic house on Oak Street that once belonged to George Cady, owner of a notorious tavern in Depot Town from 1870 through 1905. “We were amazed to find that house had only had three owners up to the 1970s,” he notes. Their Italianate cube mansion shows the love and care one might expect to find in the home of a former member of the city’s Historic District Commission. Now he applies the same knowledge and skill to the RAC. Kim is a writer at the University of Michigan. LaRue’s daughter, Adelle, 26, is a logistical support person for the American Insurance Association in Washington, D.C., and son Ned, 21, focuses his energies on graphic arts and music. Many of the recent additions to the arts at the RAC are the result of LaRue’s spotting renovations at UM’s theaters that would mix well with the amenities at Ypsilanti’s Arts Center; seating risers, theater seats, lighting fixtures, and old drapery are just a few of the odds and ends scavenged before they wound up in the landfill. As LaRue continues to prepare the DTE annex for additional programming of the Arts Center, he says he looks forward to “day-long activities going on here. I’d like to encourage every creative person in town to look this space over and suggest how they can best use it.” Ankle deep in plaster dust and paint preparation, he sees visions of a ticket office near the front door, an art studio for all ages, a dance studio on the second floor, and much more. This most recent project overlaps intricately with yet another enormous undertaking: a glass elevator that will connect the two buildings and provide easier access and control of the many programs. “Even more difficult than the physical labor has been the juggling of paperwork for the contractors, the grantors, and coordination of renovation projects,” he notes. DTE is nearing completion and will soon be up for inspection by the city’s Building Department. “We will be at a point shortly where we have full compliance in all the levels and rooms,” he smiles, “and then we’ll be putting our energy into arts programs to fit these glorious spaces.” LaRue loves what he does for the arts in Ypsilanti and his efforts smile down from the walls of several historic properties here.
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