Finding the Right Mix at Woldson

Although Stephen Cummins is new to Gonzaga and Spokane, it’s not his first time here. The Myrtle Woldson Performing Arts Center director grew up in Lubbock, Texas, but his grandparents and uncles farmed in Craigmont, Idaho. When he was 10 and on a summer visit to see family, grandma and grandpa took him, his sister and his mom to Expo ‘74.

It was the beginning of shaping his interest in arts and entertainment.

“Expo was as much about music and entertainment as it was about the exhibits,” the new director recalls about his time at the World’s Fair.

He played in his high school band and performed in theater. He received his bachelor’s degree in theater at University of Texas, and a master’s in theater technology and management from the University of Illinois. While there, he worked three years as a student and six more following graduation at the Krannert Center for Performing Arts.

“It was the Lincoln Center on the Prairie,” Cummins describes of the performance arts center on the Champaign campus. “It was a great place to study the art of presenting.”

Next came a seven-year stint as director of the suburban Chicago MacAninch Art Center, followed by 10 years as executive director of university public engagement at California State University-Chico, which included management of the campus NPR public radio station, the Chico Performance performing arts series, the symphony and commencement.

“When I came here and saw this big, beautiful building and listened to the faculty and deans talk about the University’s mission and what service to the community meant here, it all resonated with me,” Cummins says. “It was my chance to get back to the ‘arts presenting’ mission that was more like the Krannert Center where I started.”

He was impressed with the variety of Spokane’s events venues like the Fox Theatre, INB, Spokane Arena, Northern Quest and the Civic Theater, among many other event sites.

“These places are great fun, but they all represent a different mindset and mission than what I think is the mission and service we can do here in this venue,” Cummins says.

He sees the Myrtle Woldson center presenting eclectic, diverse programming for audiences who have been underrepresented in Spokane venues. He wants to bring some things that might not be economically viable for the more commercial presenters in town.

“We want to explore all the performing arts, not just the commercial side of the house. We also have a parallel mission here to support students in their exploration and journey as performing artists in music, theater and dance,” says Cummins.

He is looking to partner with community interests and engage with communities like the Ukrainian community in Spokane, the Inland Northwest Indian tribes and Latin groups to present artists at the Myrtle Woldson Center that reflect the diversity of our community.

Getting a late start on programming having just been hired this summer, Cummins and his crew will be asking, “Are we here to be popular or educational? We’ll look to find the right mix of the two.”

This year’s schedule kicked off with two nights of Rare Earth’s Peter Rivera in concert with an orchestra of students and faculty from Gonzaga and Whitworth, Sept. 29-30.

Other scheduled events include:

• Four performances by the Gonzaga Symphony Orchestra, and multiple music, theater and dance productions by GU students
• Candlelight Christmas Concert, Dec. 9-10
• Chanticleer 45 (orchestra of voices), Jan. 16
• The Sound of (Black) Music (through an Afrofuturistic lens), Feb. 6
• Pacific Northwest Ballet, Feb. 16-17
• The Triplets of Belleville, March 2
• DakhaBrakha (punk-pop to traditional Ukrainian music), March 26
• Pamyua (Inuit vocals, instrumentation and dance), April 12
• Las Cafeieras (Afro-Spanish rhythms), May 8