Playhouse Board Takes Case to Lawmakers
Air Date:02/19/2010
The Arts Community in South Dakota is rallying behind a bill before state lawmakers that is designed to save the Black Hills Playhouse. The Playhouse in Custer State Park has been the center ofcontroversy since the state refused to renew the lease last April. A hoghouse amendment to Senate Bill 102 extends the Playhouse lease until 2019.
Jerry Wheeler is the President of the Black Hills Playhouse Board. He says the theater has been a viable part of Custer state park for nearly 65 years. The State is refusing to renew the lease. But Wheeler says the historic Theater should remain where it is.
"We want every person who believes as we do to call the senators to make them aware of this - we hope the legislature will get to the bottom of it and decide we should be allow to continue there," says Wheeler.
A lawsuit over the lease renewal is also pending. State officials are not commenting on the case. In January State inspectors found the Playhouse campus unsafe. The Save the Black Hills Playhouse Facebook Page now has nearly 35-hundred members.
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