By David Burke

For someone who’s been in the imagination business for decades, Kathryn Page Hauptman just didn’t see it.

Accompanied by a realtor, the founder and artistic director of Forum Theatre Company walked into the former printing company pressroom at 141 S. Ellis St. and initially saw a questionable 14,000-square-foot space.

“This is so dirty, so smelly, there’s nothing here,” Page Hauptman recalled. 

But Aaron Profit, the company’s associate producer since its second year, convinced her to think big.

“It had great bones, and it was an open room,” he recalled. “We have the vision to do whatever we want — we didn’t have to go around things.”

Page Hauptman quickly changed her mind about the property, which is located in The Hyde, the neighborhood southeast of downtown Wichita. “When we laid everything out and talked about it, it just seemed perfect. The ceiling height was good. There are very few buildings that remain that have big, open spaces. It seemed like the perfect thing.”

And so, the Forum Theatre now has a home of its own.

Since its 2011 founding, the nomadic theater has been at the former Hillside Christian Church, the former Scottish Rite Center, and, for the past 10 years, the former Wilke Center at First United Methodist Church. The church sold a portion of its building that included the Wilke Center, forcing Page Hauptman and Forum to make a change.

“It wasn’t something I was looking for,” she said. “We had to do this. You get comfortable where you are, and that’s where we were.” She viewed the change as an opportunity to grow.

About five months later than originally planned, the Forum reopens September 10 with a four-week run of “Million Dollar Quartet.”

Beginnings

The Forum’s development plans began informally, first with company members and later with architects and contractors.

“I walked in, there was this great big, empty room, and I’m wondering, ‘What do you do with this?’” said board president Liz Hicks, who credited Ted Dvorak, one of nearly 30 company members, for his vision. “Give him lots of credit for the design, because he started drawing pictures and I thought, ‘That’s what you do with that space.’”

Hicks, a board member for the past 10 years, said the new space will finally give some permanency to Forum. “We bopped around from place to place, trying to find a good fit,” she said. “It was difficult, because wherever we went we had to deal with their rules.”

She called the decision by their last landlord “just the kick in the rear that we needed,” noting that some of the theater’s goals were restricted “because we were on somebody else’s property.” 

There’s still a lot of imagination that has to take place, as Page Hauptman explained during a tour of the building. A wall divides the planned theater space and its large, multipurpose lobby.

From now until 2028, several phases will take place. The theater will open with 190 seats, 67 more than in the old space at First UMC. Eventually, more walls will provide a catwalk for lighting, a space for a stage manager and lighting board, a scene shop, a costume and prop storage area, and offices. A newly added door along Ellis Street will become the box office and actors’ entrance. Once inside, performers will eventually have a company dressing room and two lead actor dressing rooms.

“It’s going to be very nice, considering what dressing room spaces used to be like,” Page Hauptman said. “We’re very pleased with it.”

Come on in

But it’s in the lobby where Forum will tread on new ground. With newly laid sealant on the floor, Page Hauptman sees an area not only for the Forum’s patrons but also for community receptions and events; a catering kitchen is adjacent to the lobby. She’ll start pitching the new venue at bridal expos in January.

The space will hold as many as 200 people at tables, with a variety of configurations and conversation spaces available.

Several lobby elements will make great impressions on a budget, Page Hauptman said. Look up when you enter, and you’ll see “Chaos,” a $9,000 modern, eclectic chandelier that the Forum’s electrical contractor had left over from a project and offered. Matching, smaller chandeliers are on the way.

“Art creates order out of chaos, so it’s very fitting that this light and this whole collection is named ‘Chaos,’” Page Hauptman said.

What will become the bar is a donation from a couple who owned a condo in Old Town, a “monstrous” headboard carved out of old trees that was previously used in the bedroom of iconic entertainer Cher. The only cost was dragging it down from a loft apartment.

The new restrooms include décor that looks more sophisticated than the cost would suggest. “People have been very generous,” Page Hauptman said. “We were very budget conscious, and SPT (Architecture) was really good about finding things that looked expensive but were relatively inexpensive.”

The budget for all phases is $850,000, Page Hauptman said, with about $700,000 already raised. Brent Ballard of Ballard Plumbing, which owned the building, offered financing and is carrying the loan with minimum down payment for five years, “until we get established,” Page Hauptman said.

The season

Forum’s first season in its permanent home will kick off with “Million Dollar Quartet,” a dramatization of the one-time meeting of Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins. 

The show is new to Wichita stages, Page Hauptman said. “We just wanted to open with something that would get people in,” she said. “We didn’t want a huge artistic challenge or statement; I just wanted people to get in the doors and have fun.”

“Fences,” August Wilson’s Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning drama, starring Profit, will run October 22 to November 8.

For “Annie,” to run December 3-20, Page Hauptman is making the musical “compact, so the story is told very quickly, getting to the heart and the meat of the plot.” She and co-director/choreographer Courtney Wages auditioned girls in June for the roles of the orphans. “I want to challenge these girls. I want this to be as professional as any show you would see on Broadway,” she said. “We have people here to do that; we just have to set the expectations for them.” The young performers have been in workshop classes this summer and began twice-weekly intensive rehearsals in late June. Adult actors will join them in mid-November.

A musical version of “Jane Eyre,” set for February 20-28, is “so dear to my heart,” Page Hauptman said. She helped develop the musical in 1995 at the former Centre Theatre, working with composer Paul Gordon — who wrote hit songs including “The Next Time I Fall” by Peter Cetera and Amy Grant and “Friends and Lovers,” which became country and pop hits — and written by English stage director John Caird. The two have rewritten it to “condense it for a chamber piece,” Page Hauptman said, and pared down what was a 40-song score. Caird is currently directing the London production.

The season will close with “Little Shop of Horrors” April 15 to May 2. The Forum also will continue its “Words & Music” concert series during the season with tributes to Linda Ronstadt, Ray Charles, The Judds, and Prince.

Neighborhood Promise

Located just southeast of Douglas Avenue and Washington Streets in The Hyde neighborhood, Page Hauptman said she sees promise in the neighborhood, including new cafes and a commitment from Central Standard Brewing for collaboration. For her, the change of venue meant a burst of fresh air and energy.

“I was really on the fence about just closing the door, because we were at the end of our contract” with First United Methodist, she said. “None of us wanted to go from this place to that place. I felt that we could close the doors, call it a good run, and that was it. 

“Then we found this place, and it seemed like everything came together. The stars were aligned, we got some very generous gifts right at the very beginning that enabled us to get going,” she said. “We have a place that’s ours, that can define who we are.”

The Details

Forum Theatre presents “Million Dollar Quartet”
September 10-October 4, 2026, at Forum Theatre, 141 S. Ellis St. in Wichita.

Performances take place at 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays and at 2 p.m. Sundays.

Reserved tickets are $37-45.

Learn more and purchase tickets for this show; visit the Forum’s website for more information about the season, or contact Page Hauptman at kathy@forumwichita.com or 316-618-0444.

David Burke is a veteran of 35 years as an arts and entertainment writer, columnist, and editor for the Decatur (Illinois) Herald & Review, the Quad-CityTimes (Iowa/Illinois),  and the Wichita Eagle.

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