Cut is curtains for arts group

In a dance studio on East Sprague Avenue, Donna Douglass tapped “5-6-7-8” before plinking the opening notes of “Yankee Doodle Dandy.”

“Gee, you’re making a big sound,” Douglass said enthusiastically to her small choir. “Boy, I tell you, that was great.”

For a decade, the 69-year-old Douglass has been leading an outpatient mental health treatment program that combines singing, dancing and music for about three dozen adults.

“When I first started, I didn’t think I could march or dance. I had terrible stage fright,” said Lou Sereday, a 58-year-old vocalist who has developed an affinity for the stage. “It’s really opened me up.”

But On Stage! – a theater and arts group funded primarily through Washington State University – learned this fall that it will have to end the program because of state funding cuts. WSU’s Washington Institute for Mental Illness Research and Training received about $200,000 less from the state’s Mental Health Division this year, according to state officials.

With a budget of about $140,000 a year, On Stage! is free to mental health clients. In addition to the theater group, it also provides piano lessons and an exercise program that includes a stretch-and-tone class.

“It helped a lot,” said Charles McNew, who made weekly visits to the stretching class. “I felt lighter and stronger.”

The theater group, which has performed around Spokane, was one of the most popular activities – both for participants and community supporters.

“I just fell in love with the group and fell in love with the people,” said Rick Hornor, chair of the theater department at Whitworth College and a longtime emcee for the group.

Hornor, whose students often volunteer with the group, said the “clients gain a sense of self-confidence and self-esteem” through the performances.

The group moved into a 2,200-square-foot facility on Sprague Avenue earlier this year. It includes a dance floor, an arts room and piano practice room. The group received a month-to-month lease from the building’s owner.

“It just sounded like an awesome program,” said Steve Cada, general manager of Samann Investments, which also renovated the building.

With news of the closure, the group is preparing for its final show: a Christmas performance that will travel to several mental health centers.

“This is our last hurrah,” said Douglass, the group’s founding director and a music therapist. “It caught us by surprise. But every year, I’ve thought it’s a miracle that we’re still here.”

For Sereday, a five-year veteran, the program’s end will be bittersweet.

“We’re family,” she said. “It’s very upsetting to me. It’s pretty much the only outing I have. I don’t know what will take the place of it.”

At a practice session this week, the group tempered its disappointment with preparations for the final performances.

First-year cast member Vickie Russell never has been in a performance but has been practicing diligently.

“I think,” she said, “I would like to be onstage at least once in my life.”