From its opening act, The Doctor’s Warm Reception, on February 22, 1901, to the local politics and school performances that defined its early life, Stoughton Opera House has cemented its legacy. After closing in the 1950s, the building sat dormant for 30 years before the city considered tearing it down. Public outcry followed, leading to an engineering study that found the structure to be sound. With funding from both the city to renovate the first floor and basement and a special interest group committed to restoring the theater upstairs, a painstaking 18-year restoration began in 1983.
The Opera House reopened in 2001, with Stoughton’s city hall occupying the first floor and performances returning upstairs on occasion. This was the shape of things in January 2007, when Bill Brehm took over as Opera House director and recognized that the theater’s story was far from over.
He recalls the struggle to determine exactly what to do with this restored theater. “When I started, we were doing maybe a dozen shows in a calendar year,” says Bill. “I think for the first five or six years, they were still thinking that it was a theater specifically for just people who live in Stoughton to come and see a show. … Myself and Christina Dollhausen, who’s actually now back doing fund development work for the Stoughton Opera House Friends Association (SOHFA), we had this crazy idea of what if we put on shows that people from outside of town would come to see.
“The first booking that we really, really were excited about was Arlo Guthrie. The mayor at the time was really supportive. The guarantee for him was well above what they were dealing with at the time, and the tickets were going to be $40. There were people who were very skeptical of the Opera House and of me and Christina. Of course, it sold out really quick.”
Over those first years, Bill proved the skeptics wrong, and today, the Opera House puts on six times as many acts, averaging up to 80 a year. Contemporary acts have included the likes of Roseanne Cash, Iris DeMent, Billy Strings, Brandi Carlile, and Greg Brown as well as favorite returning acts, such as Los Lobos and BoDeans. If you ever tour the facility, you’ll ascend the stairs connecting the first-floor green room to the main stage. There, you’ll see hundreds upon hundreds of signatures from a range of performers who’ve played the Opera House, including Gillian Welch, who preferred to paint her name rather than use a marker.
2014 brought another successful chapter when SOHFA put on the first Catfish River Music Festival at the Rotary Park gazebo outside the Opera House. That first year saw another list of great folk-music headliners, but was again met with skepticism as some argued that the festival’s success came from the weekend being shared with the Stoughton Fair. That sentiment soon faded as people came to understand that the crowds at the festival weren’t the same ones at the fair. Turns out the people coming to a folk music festival aren’t the same ones checking out a carnival and demolition derby, though either event certainly draws some visitors from one site to the other.
With the Opera House further evolving into a destination for people from all over the country, the community of Stoughton has experienced a boost to its local economy. “We did a development study on the Opera House,” says Bill. “We figure we pull about 25,000 people into town each year. I think the economic impact of it was something like $3.2 million spent in Stoughton other than at the Opera House by people coming to a show, whether they live in town and are going out for the night or they’re coming into town and staying overnight.”
One of Bill’s biggest supporters in the growth of the Opera House has been Mayor Tim Swadley, who in 2019 provided an opportunity to add one of the Opera House’s newest attractions: the Ghost Light Lounge. “I want to give Tim credit,” says Bill. “It was his idea that if the city hall moved to the McFarland State Bank building then the Opera House could have actual space to grow. Not everybody was into that idea, but it’s entirely because he realized that we had no way to grow. That was a big turning point.”
The Ghost Light Lounge is an even more intimate experience than the main stage’s 475-seat capacity, with a simple raised stage in the main level of the building where the mayor’s desk used to be. Here, people can enjoy a drink as they listen to smaller, often local acts. The whole vibe serves as a precursor to the experience upstairs, offering something charming and distinct. The patina of that space comes through in wood accents and century-old architecture, with design decisions serving to further distinguish the stage. You’re also steps away from the piano bar, made out of pianos and separated from the stage area by a sitting room with comfortable leather furniture.
Bill encourages the main act to check out the Lounge if they have time beforehand. In addition to the excitement a performer experiences when looking out to the crowd to see a music icon in attendance, some have been invited to play tour dates, teach songwriter camps, and establish connections that wouldn’t have otherwise existed. “It can be a life-affirming or even a life-changing moment,” says Bill.
From the building to the staff to the acts themselves, everything is held together by the glue Bill calls the Love System™. It’s nothing too out there: treat people with kindness and respect, and somehow that will be returned. “I’ve seen it play out as something that’s real and exists,” says Bill. “We get these great artists that are calling us up wanting to come through because they’ve heard about the Opera House and how we treat people. We have patrons who come through, and they make donations and get memberships and write us thank you notes. It feels like a community. When it comes down to it, it’s just good business to treat people well.”
With Bill’s perspective and stewardship, how can I not expect the Stoughton Opera House, this wonderful beacon of meaningful connection, to have continued success well into the future? May we always be so fortunate.
