A high-class recording studio is the icing on the cake at a renovated theater where young folks can express themselves and learn.
By BROOKE MINTON
Published October 27, 2004
ST. PETERSBURG - Teens will soon be making and recording their own music at the newly renovated Royal Theater on 22nd Street S, the strip known as the Deuces in its heyday.
The $225,000 recording studio in the historic Midtown theater, 1011 22nd St. S, will be part of a new arts program run in the theater building by the Boys and Girls Clubs of the Suncoast. It opens Monday. Several hundred guests packed the Royal for a grand opening gala Friday evening, which featured performances by Boys and Girls Clubs members. A community open house took place Saturday.
Open houses will continue from 2 to 7 p.m. daily through Friday, and a meeting for interested parents is scheduled at 6 p.m. Thursday.
The charges to participate will be "very affordable," said Herbert Murphy, the Royal's director. Fees will be determined on a sliding scale based on parental income.
"We know there are diamonds in the rough," said Tia Murphy, program director of the Royal's Boys and Girls Clubs. "With this studio, these kids will be able to become what they want to be and learn how to run the studio at the same time."
In addition to the recording studio, there are studios for dance, drama and music, an art gallery, a classroom and computer center, a 12-foot movie screen and a stage for live performances.
"Recording studios in Boys and Girls Clubs around the nation are becoming more of a growing trend," said Carl Lavender Jr., executive director of the Boys and Girls Clubs of the Suncoast. "We are overjoyed that we could find a way to include one in the Royal."
Financing for the recording studio came from a $225,000 donation by local businessman Bill Edwards, head of Mortgage Investors Corp. and owner of a burgeoning national independent record label. Edwards, who is negotiating with the city for control of the Mahaffey Theater and a new outdoor concert venue, also donated a sophisticated sound system for the theater.
The recording studio will be run by a council made up of teens who are members of the Boys and Girls Clubs arts program. To qualify for the program, the teens must take a leadership class and regularly volunteer to feed the homeless and visit nursing home residents, Murphy said.
The Royal was selected to house the arts program because of its status as the first movie theater for African-Americans during the Jim Crow era and because of the arts tradition in Midtown. The nearby Manhattan Casino, also to be renovated, hosted many of the greats in jazz, blues and other musical genres during its heyday.
"This area is so rich with history that it became the perfect location for a new club," Lavender said.
The recording studio is designed to attract more teens to the club, Lavender said. He thinks it will be popular, in part because of the recent popularity of the American Idol television show that has catapulted many young singers to stardom. But while singers have fun and work toward their dreams, the teens who operate the recording studio also will be learning.
"We want to extend learning beyond the school day," Lavender said. "If you are going to enhance learning, it might as well be at a Boys and Girls Club."
The recording studio, which has equipment equivalent to that in any commercial studio, will have the capacity to produce professional-quality CDs. It will be rented out to the public during certain hours, Lavender said.
Individuals and groups, even full church choirs, will be able to come in and record their music. Each individual or group will receive 10 CDs; if the recordings are sold, a percentage of the profits will go back to the theater and its programs.
The recording studio will be used with other arts activities at the Royal. Live concerts and music recitals that will take place on the Royal's stage can be recorded on CDs. Students giving the recitals are in the club's instrumental music program, which received $10,000 from the Pinellas County Community Foundation to buy instruments.
"The possibilities for this club are endless," Murphy said.
The recording studio is one of several distinct areas in the Royal, each designated for a different activity. The others are a music parlor, which houses the musical instruments; a dance studio, built with money donated by actor Angela Bassett, who grew up in Midtown; an art gallery for paintings and other visual arts; dressing rooms for performers; and a concession area that will be run by teens.
A classroom is partitioned for afterschool tutoring on one side and computers on the other. Programs will be offered in graphic arts and Web design.
The Royal Theater, which housed a Boys and Girls Club until two years ago, when the building was shut down for renovations, has received a historic preservation designation from the city.
The converted Quonset hut left over from World War II also received an Outstanding Renovation Award for historical preservation from the state.
Lavender recalled how the building had deteriorated since the mid 1960s, when, because of desegregation laws, many people moved out of Midtown.
"For 30 years, the Royal was in a state of disrepair. It was like Sleeping Beauty," he said. "We have awakened the Royal Theater after 30 years of slumber."
Brooke Minton is a reporter for the Neighborhood News Bureau, a program of the Department of Journalism and Media Studies at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg. Times staff writer Mary Jane Park contributed to this report.
LEARN MORE
Call 327-6556 for information about the Royal and its programs.
