Shepherd Center for the Performing Arts President Bryon Knight said the new center in Fairhaven isn’t looking to compete with other area venues. He said he wants to complement and coordinate with them by providing educational opportunities not found anywhere else in the region.
Specializing in the art forms of music, dance, theater and cinema, the SCPA will be the fifth performing arts center in the South Coast, the first in Fairhaven. But the mission of the establishment goes beyond entertainment, as it also seeks to educate in these four fields, combining with area venues and artists to host clinics and master classes that will benefit local citizens, giving them the skills to earn income by contributing to these areas of the arts.
According to Knight, “Not everybody is a singer/songwriter, actor or dancer, but there’s plenty of opportunities to get involved in the arts, such as being a set designer or running the lights.”
The nonprofit SCPA is leasing space from the First Congregational Church on Center Street, with its entrance on the William Street side. Since it began renting the room in November, the group has hosted open mic nights and music circles in addition to a Holiday Concert in the church itself. The SCPA’s first performance was local musician Dori Rubbicco, performing Sunday, Jan. 21.
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“The arts are such an important part of life, and being able to provide a good space for someone who’s going to provide that just seems like a perfect match for us,” said Rev. Bette McClure of the First Congregational Church.
Built in the 1950s, the hall was used for church activities and events such as Sunday School, dinners, birthday parties, concerts and funeral receptions.
“We were looking for a long-term renter who was consistent with our mission and our values,” McClure said. “We didn’t want to rent it to a commercial enterprise. We’re very positive going into the future that it will be a great addition for them, for us, and the community.”
An important facet of the SCPA is “The Shep,” a magazine that will be published every six months containing stories related to the hall, the arts and its events.
As the proprietor of Fairhaven Frets, a shop on Sconticut Neck specializing in the repair of stringed instruments, the 62-year-old Knight moved to the area from Arkansas five years ago with his wife of 38 years, Frances, and their children Jian and Clara Grace. Knight hosted open mics and music circles at the shop for years before transferring them to the SCPA in November.
Knight said he originally got the idea for the SCPA from fellow Fairhaven resident Dave Medeiros, who also plays guitar. And although Knight is president of the organization, he is quick to point out that he is not steering the ship by himself. He is one of seven members on the SCPA’s board of directors. He also lauds the input and support of the local community that contributes its resources, time and energies to the establishment. Since February 2023, Fairhaven Frets has brought in more than $12,000 in personal donations to help launch and support the SCPA.
Knight sat down with the New Bedford Light to talk about the new facility, the support he’s received from the community, working with other area arts venues, and what he’d like the establishment to contribute to the region.
New Bedford Light: Where is the funding coming from for the Shepherd Center for the Performing Arts?
Bryon Knight: Right now the funding comes from donations from individuals. Our goal is to have [advertising from] “The Shep” magazine — right now it’s a 12-page little magazine — fund our entire operating budget. Our rent, heat, insurance and all that stuff.
Most of our income is grassroots. A lot of people have stepped forward to help us finance the performing arts center. We’ve had several donors. A Rhode Island musician donated $5,000, and a doctor from New Bedford gave us $2,000. A couple gave us $1,000 for the lighting system, and we had another fellow in Fairhaven write a $1,000 check for the PA system. I want people to know that all the equipment we have has been donated. I’ve given some of my own speakers and amplifiers.
NBL: How is the community responding to this idea? How much support have you received from the community?
BK: Every time I mention to someone about a performing arts center in Fairhaven, within five minutes of the conversation they’re going to say “How can I help?” It’s been that positive without exception. The most negative thing I’ve ever gotten was “That’s great!” They may not have offered to help but they want to know when we’re having events. It’s been universally positive.
NBL: In what ways are you looking to educate people?
BK: Well, we’re not the Spire Center, we’re not the Narrows, we’re not the Vault, and we’re not the Zeiterion for sure. We’re not a place that will bring in national touring acts, that kind of thing. We’re also more than just music, we’re music, dance, theater and cinema.
But in that same vein, if a musical artist comes to the Narrows we’ll have that artist or one of the band members come over and do a clinic for the musicians here. If a dance troupe comes into the Zeiterion, we’ll have a dancer come over and do a workshop with kids that are taking dance lessons in the area.
Along the same line, we’ll have the choreographer or director come over and do a master class for the teachers of those same schools. We’re going to do classes in stagecraft.
But another kind of kickstarting way is if Fairhaven High or New Bedford High or Old Rochester, whenever they do their own theatrical productions they’ll do it for two weeks then they stop it because they have to go back to school and start working on something else. Since they’ve already learned all those lines and they already have the set built, they can bring it over here to produce it for another two weeks here to a whole different group — the general public instead of just the parents. Then they can raise money for their group.
So with cinema and that sort of thing we want to educate people on how theatrical pieces are made.
When the movie “Finestkind” came in a couple of summers ago [to film], they come in and they look around, they contact the film offices in Boston and Rhode Island, and say “We’re looking for people who have experience working on films and film sets.” And they say, “Oh, we have this list of people.” But you know what? If we teach people how to be a first electric, second electric, third electric or a grip, a dolly grip, a Best Boy, a lighting technician, someone to help in props … [If] we teach folks how that’s done in the industry then we make sure the film offices know in Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts, and say “Put our name on there as a source for all those different things.”
They call us and we’ll say that we have someone who’s a seamstress, someone who knows about making costumes and dressing people. “Oh that’s great, we’ll hire them.” That’s money that gets paid from the film company to someone in our community. So it brings money into the community. If somebody’s a carpenter in the area, let’s say the movie comes in and shoots in the wintertime, he’s not doing a whole lot of work in the wintertime, but he knows how to work on sets. There’s a technique to that, we’ll bring people in to teach that, and so he can hire on for two weeks and make decent money. Again, it’s money into our community.
NBL: What is your long-term vision?
BK: The long-term vision is to have a stand-alone facility that can be a source of pride, if nothing else, for the community. To serve the community and educate in the performing arts. We’re not looking to be another touring act kind of venue, but if we can generate a sense of community with the four legs of our stool — music, dance, theater and cinema — and get people working together … It’s about coming together as a community and being another place where we can bond together.
NBL: What is “The Shep” magazine?
BK: ”The Shep” magazine is a little 12-page magazine. We just put out our first issue in late November. It’ll be coming out every six months, and we’re already starting to write articles for the next issue. It’s going to track how well we’re doing, let people know what we’re up to, what we have coming up, and some of the biographies of the artists who will perform here. If we have a comedian coming in we’ll have an interview with him. It’s got to be evergreen for six months. The money raised will go to programs that the community can take part in.
The next issue in May will grow by a few pages because we have more content to go into it. It’s distributed at the site, at Fairhaven Frets, and every single advertiser whose advertising in it in their place of business as well. We have it being distributed to local realtors so that people looking for houses, new people coming into the community will get to know about us.
NBL: How has the church embraced the idea of this establishment?
BK: My feedback from the church has been positive. The Rev. Bette McClure says she’s thrilled to have us. Right now we have a six-month deal and it’s going to go month-to-month after that, we’re going to do a long-term lease. She asked us at the closing, the signing of the lease, “Hey, would you guys do a program in our facility, in the church?” She knew that we were not going to be up and going in our space that first month so she was giving us an opportunity to raise funds to help us get kicked off. So that’s how kind and generous the church has been. Of course, we split the funds with them because that’s the right thing to do.
NBL: How much upkeep and repair work was necessary to get the facility ready for business?
BK: Upkeep and repair was nominal. We are having to revisit the power supply to the stage. It was built in 1953 and it hasn’t been upgraded since then so we’re having to bring in a little more power here so we can run modern equipment on the stage. Other than that, not much.
It’s got great heat, it’s got radiators that take just about 20 minutes to get it cooking. We kick it on a little early when we’re having an event so everyone’s nice and comfortable, and it’s great. We have yet to see a summer and we don’t have air conditioning so we’ll be opening the windows at that point in time, so we’ll see how that goes. We may have to put in some air conditioning, some window units. We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.
NBL: Why was it important to have this establishment in Fairhaven?
BK: Fairhaven doesn’t have a performing arts center. New Bedford has four — five if you count the Zeiterion. Gallery X is a fine arts gallery, but they have performances there because they have a stage. It’s an old church. We want to partner with them. Fairhaven didn’t have anything like that.
Yes, we’re only across the river, but there’s a division there that I would like to see us get rid of. I want us all to come together — Dartmouth, New Bedford, Fairhaven, Mattapoisett, Marion, Acushnet, Rochester, Wareham, Freetown. Get us all together. It’s a good central location. … We want to do something that’s going to support the other performing arts centers.
If we do a class on stagecraft, whenever Your Theatre over in New Bedford has an event, if they need somebody to work backstage, somebody to help out, we have people who are trained to do that. They won’t have to train them themselves, they can call us. Same thing with the Zeiterion.
NBL: You’ve said that you don’t want to compete, you want to complement.
BK: Absolutely. This is not a competition. Look at the Zeiterion. They’re the big gorilla in the region. We’re not going to compete with them. We can’t bring in the acts they bring in. I love The Z, I go there all the time, I’m a member. I’m a member of the Spire Center. I think we can complement. If an artist comes to the Narrows and they come over here that afternoon or the day before and do a clinic, everybody in that clinic is going to want to buy a ticket to go see that guy. He’s not doing a concert here. There’s lots of artists who would love to do this. I did similar things with my store in Arkansas — it raised money for the performer and helped cover the rent of the room. It was a way to give back to my customers.
NBL: Where did the name Shepherd Center come from?
BK: The name was taken from our first choice of venue that didn’t work out, but it was kind of providence that we are shepherding people to get into the performing arts, not just as performers but as supporters. We’re shepherding people to do that. That’s where the education comes in. It may have a little bit of a religious connotation, but we’re a secular group, we embrace everybody.
NBL: How did you discover the location?
BK: The location came to us through Melissa Gagne, a friend who sold us our house five years ago when we moved up here. She was contacted by the church to list this facility for rent. She said, “Wait a minute, I know somebody who’s looking for a space.” She called me and connected us up. She was completely adamant that she didn’t want any part of it, she was just introducing us. And it came together. So many things have just fallen into place. It’s meant to happen.
NBL: You’ve lived here for five years. How much talent is in this region?
BK: I own a guitar shop, I see most of the musicians who play guitar or stringed instruments. There is so much wonderful talent in this area, there’s more than what any five venues could offer up. So many musicians that haven’t had their time on stage yet … we want to be a place where they can get their feet wet a little bit. We have two open mics a month for anybody who wants to come in and play. We have an 8-year-old kid who comes in and starts blowing in and out on the harmonica, and he’s done that a couple of times. The last time he came in he was playing exceptionally better. He was playing a melody accompanied by his father on guitar. He was really good. I love to see that he’s a budding musician. He’s learning the piano, he’s starting to take lessons.
I have a friend who’s a guitar tech in the area who came to one of our music circles that I invited him to. He’s a great guy and a good guitar tech as well. The first time he came in and just listened. Eventually he went out and got his guitar and asked if we’d mind if he played. And he played wonderfully. I said, “Oh my gosh, you play great!” He said, “Well, it’s really a big deal for me to be here because I have crippling stage fright. I get in front of people and I get short of breath, I get sick to my stomach. I break out in a sweat. It’s really detrimental to me to do that.”
NBL: What background do you have that will assist in getting the center functioning?
BK: I will say that right now I run this place, only in that there’s nobody else that has kind of stepped forward and we can’t afford to hire a director. But it’s not just me, it’s a board of directors of seven people and we all run it together. My background is I took dance very early in my life so I performed a little bit in grade school and junior high. I also have been a musician for 52 years. I started working on instruments 50 years ago.
As far as theater is concerned, in college I did a lot of stagecraft. I’m not a performer per se. I’ve done a little bit of performing, but I’m the kind of guy that can open the curtain and set the lights and run the sound. I do all of that stuff.
I spent 25 years in television and film. I worked with ESPN And FOX Sports for about four or five years. I worked as a production assistant in broadcast TV. I worked on three movies — “Biloxi Blues,” a Billy Bob Thornton production, and I worked on a TV production, “Designing Women.” I shot all the images of the house where they lived. I did some other work as a grip and that kind of stuff.
I have experience in film, TV, theater, cinema and dance, and I’ve been playing music all my life. I got to play three gigs with B.B. King, I got to play six months with the Drifters. I got to play with Jerry Wallace — my father was on the Louisiana Hayride with Merle Kilgore, Johnny Horton, Johnny Cash and Elvis. That’s how I got into music.
NBL: What are the biggest challenges facing the SCPA?
BK: The biggest challenge for me is that I know something about business but I know little to nothing about nonprofits. But I picked somebody to be on the Board who knows all about nonprofits — the former CFO of the Whaling Museum, Jason Costa. … He keeps us on the straight and narrow. If we get out of line he kicks us back into play.
Interacting with a board of directors, I’ve never had to do that. Corporate structure stuff, I’ve never had to work in that realm before. I’m used to being a solo proprietor and so I’m used to doing everything myself. I don’t think about delegating. It’s not that I have a problem with it, I just don’t think about it. If something needs to be done, I’ll do it. So those are my personal issues, my challenges, but I’m overcoming them with the help of the Board and the help of my friends.
We have people asking to volunteer all the time. I had a girl come into my shop and I made mention that we were looking for somebody to head up our website. One of our board members had a company design a website for us, but they’re not going to maintain it. We have to maintain it. I know about the basics of web design but it was designed way beyond my skill set. So one of my board members said, “Hey, you ought to get a kid to come in who has experience and see if they’ll volunteer?”
It turns out I mentioned it to one of my customers who mentioned it to a friend of hers and we got Kate Collis. Kate Collis is our designer now. She’s based right here in Fairhaven, and she’s 20-something years old, and she’s an outstanding and creative young lady. When you look at our website she’s redesigned it and made it a lot better.
If anybody has any suggestions please let us know — we’re open to suggestions on everything. This is a community-driven performing arts center.
Sean McCarthy is a freelance writer and frequent contributor to The New Bedford Light.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
