Party in historic limestone mill to celebrate merger of theater, film groups

Bloomington's performing arts will enter a new era this year. Everyone 21 and older is invited to purchase tickets for an April 23 lead-up celebration, Big Bang. Part of the excitement lies in experiencing the venue, the historic Woolery Mill.

The festivities, where management will reveal the new theater company's name and what's to be performed during its first season, offer attendees not only dancing to a DJ, dining and entertainment, but an opportunity to enjoy some Monroe County history.

One World at the Woolery Mill is the event site, and the location, a building on the National Register of Historic Places list, multiplies the evening's charm.

The party is to honor and raise funds for an emerging collaboration among Cardinal Stage, Bloomington Playwrights Project and Pigasus Institute. The merged company's name as well as its first theatrical season will be announced. The organization will focus on new work, theater and film education, and theater for young people. 

Previous:Bloomington theater groups BPP, Cardinal Stage, Pigasus Institute form new company

"We're going to be reaching and cultivating younger audiences," said Gabe Gloden, Cardinal's current managing director.

Gloden wants every artist and arts organization in Bloomington to benefit from the merger. The new group plans technical enhancements to the John Waldron Arts Center, beautification of its visual-arts spaces and greater availability of performance spaces.  

"Our goal is to make sure that existing and new artists and arts organizations continue to thrive in Bloomington," he said. More information about that will be announced at the Big Bang.

One of the theater company's goals is turning manuscripts into stage performances and then into screen productions. It's what Chad Rabinovitz, producing artistic director at Bloomington Playwrights Project, calls a "page-to-stage-to-screen pipeline.”

"While it's true that scripts become plays and subsequently are adapted into films all the time, this typically doesn't happen under one roof," Gloden said. Authors and playwrights who have their original visions scarred during stage-to-screen activities are ubiquitous. Gloden is hopeful that the new company can avoid this, since the original theatrical team won't be replaced by a new film team under different producers.

The company will identify projects as they are beginning to form and guide them through production, making sure authors' intents remain intact.

More:Theater: 'H.M.S. Pinafore' coming to IU's Musical Arts Center

Location has its own story

Adding to the party's lure is the Woolery Mill itself. It was one of the largest independent mills fabricating Indiana limestone, stone that is part of iconic buildings throughout the United States.

It was built in 1930 by Henry Woolery (1859-1933) and closed for business in 1996. The company was the A.H. Woolery & Son Stone Co. 

Will Bybee, a local resident and Henry's great-grandson, grew up working at the Woolery Mill with his brothers. (Will's father, Wilbur Bybee, started a different company, Bybee Stone, in 1978.)

"The most important thing about the Woolery Mill," Will said in a text, is all the beautiful limestone work they did all over the (United States). It was a huge amount of work, in every major city east of the Mississippi but especially all along the Eastern seaboard."

Will's grandmother, Ruth Woolery Bybee, is one example of the intrepid south-central Indiana stone mill family. Henry Woolery's daughter, Ruth married into the Bybee family. A botanist, she traveled the country with her husband, a geologist. More than 80 years ago, as she was pregnant with her fifth child, she boarded a train out of Texas, determined to have her daughter, Martha Ellen, born in Indiana. Many of Ruth's Texan grandchildren remain involved in Bybee Stone Co. today because of the love for Indiana limestone Ruth instilled in them. Ruth's brother, Ralph Woolery, ran the Woolery business after Henry died.

One World developed its business on the east side of the 76,000-square-foot Woolery building. The building's tall windows provide light, and the ceiling shows the original steel. Metal side doors remind visitors of the building's past. Because it's on the national register, all construction was required to follow historic preservation rules. Inside, the rooms sparkle with newness and LED lighting; outside it looks much as it once did. Because the mill processed stone, limestone embellishments garnish the site.

If you go

WHAT: Dinner, dancing, festivities and announcements at the Big Bang party to celebrate the merger of. Cardinal Stage, Bloomington Playwrights Project and Pigasus Institute.

WHEN:  6 p.m. April 23.

MORE: Creative black tie welcome. Proof of vaccination or recent negative test is required. See cardinalstage.org.