Charles Leslie moves into his own at the Community Concert Hall

DURANGO, Colo. – Charles Leslie is having a good time.

He was told by Gary Penington, his predecessor at the Community Concert Hall, that he now has “one of the best jobs in Colorado,” and after nearly six months as director of the 600-seat performing arts venue, he knows Penington was correct.

“The great discovery is how many people I talk to who love the Concert Hall, who truly care about it and want to support it and come to shows,” said Leslie, whose most recent appointment had been at the University of Texas, Austin, overseeing the school’s multi-theater complex. “There’s a real strong commitment emotionally to this place, a real sense of ownership.”

Indeed, the Community Concert Hall, though located on the Fort Lewis campus, with support for the physical plant supplied by the college, was built by and for the community at large. During its dozen years of life, its stage has held everything from ballet to bluegrass, classical to country, and fulfilled the founders’ vision to offer regional audiences the opportunity to see and experience a wide variety of live performances.

“I’d like the Concert Hall to be a place that when people are looking for something familiar, we can offer that,” said Leslie. “But that we can also offer something adventurous. We have a mission to bring artists to town that otherwise couldn’t come to Durango… This season we have really great artists from all over the world, including the United States.”

The line-up for Winter/Spring 2009 is eclect

The line-up for Winter/Spring 2009 is eclectic and ambitious. While some shows had been arranged prior to Leslie’s arrival, the perhaps more “unknowns” were discovered and booked by Leslie. He’s also pleased to be able to stage some “bigger” names during the season.

“This is the first opportunity for me to put my fingers on some things,” said Leslie, who grew up surrounded by classical music, but as an adolescent, being a “roadie” and traveling with a rock band to engineer sound was his ultimate dream. “You won’t really get a full sense of my booking until the fall.”

While upstate New York was home during his youth, Leslie spent his high school years in the Dallas area, and went on to earn his Bachelor of Arts in Speech and Theater from Lyon College.

 “When people ask, ‘what are you and where do you come from,’ I usually say that I’m a theater person because that’s really where my heart and soul is,” said Leslie, who performed throughout college. “But I realized that acting wasn’t mine. I do, however, love technical theater, working backstage.”

As an undergrad he worked for a sound company handling sound and lighting for shows that would come through the town. He continued his education, this time at the University of Texas at Austin, pursuing a Masters of Fine Arts, Theatre, Production Management, Design and Technology. He went on to work at UT in Austin in theater design and technology, serving as a tech director and production manager for the campus theaters.

Though he hadn’t imagined himself a teacher, he became one, first at UT, but then moving to the University of Evansville in Indiana, a school known for generating top quality performers. Summers off meant stints with summer theater around the country, including the Utah Shakespeare Festival. The latter opened a door for a teaching position in the drama school at the University of Washington, Seattle, though he did eventually return to his teaching position at the University of Evansville

Understanding that “theater” could be a “business,” Leslie decided to move into the “for-profit” world to garner experience and broaden his knowledge. He took a position with Ogden Entertainment where, among his responsibilities overseeing management of a variety of performance venues, he coordinated the opening of the $20 million Vandeveer Victory Performing Arts Center.

“Then I moved to Austin,” he said, referencing his return to his alma mater to over see production at the university’s theater complex. “We had six theaters, about 500 shows a year. About 50-60 staff and we were a very, very busy organization.”

Leslie moved up through the ranks over his nine-year tenure on campus and was serving as interim director, pending a formal director search, when he reviewed his priorities.

“I was finding in an organization that large that I wasn’t really doing the work that I’d been hired to do,” he said, noting he no longer was working with the performers or managing the shows. “I asked myself, do I want to go through this or see what else is out there.”

Leslie was familiar with Durango, having vacationed in the area at different points in his life. In many ways the town resembles the Austin of decades past, and Leslie and his family welcome a return to a more bucolic environment. Plus the opportunity to once again “do the work” is exciting to Leslie.

“The Concert Hall is a great venue,” he said. “It’s the relationship of the audience to the acts on stage that is really unusual, and not something you find in a lot of performance venues. It’s a nice, intimate setting, but you can still fill the hall and feel like you’re in a big crowd.”

The local audiences’ propensity for “dancing” is, however, new to Leslie, and he loves it. Most venues either don’t allow dancing, or are expansive enough that fellow concertgoers don’t care.

“How do we make sure we incorporate that, because I think we should. We should make great opportunities for people to engage the band in a way the bands lean to,” said Leslie, noting several up-coming shows, including “One Night of Queen” will welcome dancers. “Even though the dance floor is small, the audience gets to see the dancers. They become part of the show as much as the band is.”

While not every artist in the Winter/Spring line-up may inspire dancing, Leslie sees the season offering something for everyone, with shows that locals may never have opportunity to enjoy in Durango again.

 

“Ladysmith Black Mambazo has been on the Concert Hall’s booking ‘wishlist’ for years,” said Leslie, of the band that burst on to the world stage after appearing on Paul Simon’s Graceland. “Although I love the entire season, I’m really looking forward to Julie Fowlis. To hear this amazing vocalist perform in Gaelic is to travel to historic Scotland. She’s mesmerizing.”

 

“Great Women,” according to Leslie, could be something of a theme during the season. In addition to Fowlis, the hall is welcoming Grammy Award winner Melissa Manchester, a recounting of one of the world’s most horrific times through the eyes of Anne Frank, and a rediscovery of the works of Woody Guthrie in singer/songwriter Jonatha Brooke.

 

“Jonatha Brooke is an extraordinary artist, singer and songwriter,” added Leslie. “If you saw her on ‘Letterman,’ you’re going to love her in the Concert Hall.”

Grupo Fantasma is another of Leslie’s “picks” for the season. The band, known as the funkiest, finest and hardest working Latin orchestra to come to the U.S. in the last decade, was discovered by Prince, and still does regularly open for him in Las Vegas and perform at his private parties. For this concert, the dance floor will be open.

While Leslie is gratified at the number of regional fans of the Concert Hall, he has discovered during his brief tenure that some still know nothing about the facility.

“There are people who have lives here their whole lives who don’t know anything about it,” said Leslie, now exploring options to expand awareness. “We’ve had great support from the media. I can call them up and essentially it’s, ‘Let’s make it work.’ So it’s difficult to say how to reach people and let them know what a great opportunity we have here. For a small community to have a performing arts venue like the Concert Hall, with such great shows, it’s a gift.”

To learn more about the Winter/Spring 2009 line-up at the Community Concert Hall, visit www.durangoconcerts.com.