Michelle Solis Russell, pictured in July 2022 (photo by Jonathan Turner).
The building that houses the Village Theatre (2113 East 11th Street, Village of East Davenport) has a long and colorful history. Recently sold, it faces an uncertain future, and likely will not be called a theatre in its next act.
Michelle Solis Russell is the new owner of the 133-year-old building. Partner of Russell Construction (founded by her husband Jim), Michelle oversees Russell’s facility-management division, which manages more than $55 million in properties. Apart from the company, Michelle is president and CEO of an owner services consulting firm (Solis Russell Owner Services), strategically partnering with Russell on projects specializing in owner representation.
She and Jim Russell (Russell Group’s CEO) have owned a home in nearby McClellan Heights since 2018, and in 2021, launched the annual Heights of the Era summer jazz festival in Lindsay Park (though its organizers took a break from the event this past summer).
"We love the neighborhood," Michelle said Friday at the Village Theatre, which was headed by Chris Jansen, artistic director of New Ground Theatre, since 2009. "We have wanted to invest our energy into the Village itself, trying to do what we can to help it and activate it, make it more of a destination."
Russell loves the area's history and especially the building history – dating from 1891 as a Turner Hall. The logo in the middle of the original basketball-court flooring represents the East Davenport Turners, and such halls emphasized the German-American tradition of physical fitness and education.
"We've always been interested in getting involved in the Village," she said, noting their favorite hangouts include BREW, Village Deli, Lagomarcino's, and Rudy’s.
The Russells had not attended Village Theatre events, she said. Michelle met with Kim Wessel, owner of Calla and head of the Village of East Davenport Business Association, in November. She didn't know the building was for sale.
"I was wondering where I could do something down here," Michelle said. After that meeting, she found the theatre was available.
"This is cool," she recalled, noting that Jansen had listed it the morning they met in mid-November. "I think we made an offer that night."
"I really felt it was meant to be," Russell said, though she added that it won't continue as a building dedicated to theatre.
Future Up in the Air
"I think we want to take it back to the roots," she said of opening the venue to a variety of uses. "Our vision is unclear. However, we want it to be a center – the heartbeat of the Village. We want to do what we can to further activate the Village. I was thinking like a social club. I am very historically fluent; I can see it having, like, dry goods for sale, all the way to [hosting] community breakfasts. Will it be called a theatre? Probably not."
Russell hopes to host a mix of events including live music and renting it for private receptions. She plans to remove the bar, however, and offer catering services, possibly through MyButler (which has been used for The Heights of the Era). She's not sure the extent, cost, or timetable for needed renovations. Ideally, she'd like to reopen it for a Valentine's themed event in February.
Michelle plans to take advantage of her company's designers and builders to revamp the space. "What I love about it is, there's no walls that were put up that have to be taken down,” she said. “It's a light space.”
She does want to partner with the city and the Channel Cat, to create a more direct path from the water taxi drop-off in the Village to her building.
Regarding her consulting firm, one of her first projects was working in 2014 with the city of Moline on the Q multi-modal project, including the Element Hotel and planned Amtrak station at 316 12th Street in Moline. They coordinate development projects, right from the outset, representing the developer and assembling the necessary pieces of the puzzle. Her company is based in Chicago, and completed the Rosenwald block in the Windy City's Bronzeville neighborhood.
"That was probably my proudest moment," Russell said of working on redeveloping a building in 2016 (which is the National Register of Historic Places), covering an entire city block between 46th and 47th, Wabash, and Michigan into Rosenwald Courts, with 239 units of senior and family housing with a two-acre professionally landscaped interior courtyard.
Russell is also happy to see the city has installed a temporary rink on the basketball court at Lindsay Park, next to the Village Theatre. The ring is free for the public, but visitors will have to bring their own ice skates.
"I like being flexible, offering not just one thing but many things," Michelle said. “I feel like we have a duty to make things happen," she said, adding that booked horse-and-carriage rides are scheduled for Saturday, December 28 from noon to 6 p.m.
Why Sell Now?
Founded by Chris Jansen, New Ground Theatre (which had a longtime home in Village Theatre) originated in 2001, and produced shows at Rivermont Collegiate for a couple of years before moving to Davenport Junior Theatre.
Jansen, New Ground's artistic director, found the Village Theatre (then known as the old Turner Hall) in 2007. The company hosted a year of play readings at the former River Music Experience (now Common Chord) for a year while they got the building ready to be a theatre.
New Ground rented the building at first, then began buying it on contract in 2009 (paying rent to own), and in 2019, Jansen secured a mortgage and bought it outright.
“Unfortunately, the plays and venue rentals did not make enough reliable revenue to pay anyone a regular salary,” Jansen said recently. “Volunteers were compensated from tips, and actors, directors, and designers were paid stipends.”
New Ground typically produced four plays a season (until the COVID pandemic), with extras including youth productions and camps during the summer.
Around 2018, Jansen started thinking of retiring as artistic director. “I had done all the plays I was burning to direct and produce,” she said, “and it started getting harder to find scripts that I felt were up to New Ground's standard.
Jansen added, “The rental events, which were supporting our theatre habit, required me to spend more and more weekends bartending until early morning. Board members and my son helped out, but I did not want to do it anymore.”
To her surprise, Prenzie Players veteran Matt Moody offered to run the rentals and the venue, even though he understood it would not be a paid position. Soon afterward, COVID hit, Jansen said. The board decided that the Village would continue to hold rental events, but less often, and with masking and distancing rules in place. New Ground did not produce plays during the next few years.
With Moody running the events, “It was all too easy to kick the retirement can down the road,” Jansen said. “I was always thinking of who might be a good next artistic director, and it was my hope to have the theatre go on after I retired. But I just couldn't find a qualified person who had the availability to take it on. I started looking for scripts again, but was not able to find one I really liked until about a year ago. I began assembling the director, designer, and cast.”
Tragically, however, Moody unexpectedly passed away, at 56, on June 30, 2024.
“The board realized we had not done as much oversight as we should have, and we were left trying to figure out what exactly Matt had been doing,” Jansen said.
Over the past few years, the Village Theatre hosted a variety of live-music, burlesque, and drag shows, as well as Prenzie Players and New Athens Players productions. Yet as Jansen said, “Some of the events that had been offered were not really in line with the family-friendly atmosphere of the Village of East Davenport, so we were not inclined to offer them again.”
Since Moody's passing, the venue hosted a handful events over the summer and fall, including the monthly Eclectic Market (which later moved to Great River Brewery in downtown Davenport), and then Jordan Smith (New Ground's board president) and Jansen had a frank talk.
“We were both five years older than when we had been running events, and he has since had a daughter and gotten a new job,” she said recently. “We sadly agreed that we were both unwilling and unable to work as hard as we would have to in order to run the rental events and a full slate of plays. We discussed it with our board, and the decision was made to sell the building.
“We were told it would probably take three months to sell the building, but to our surprise, it sold in three days,” Jansen said of the mid-November transaction. “The new owners are in a wonderful position to take excellent care of the building, and we were thrilled with the way it all turned out. We have a little whiplash due to the speed with which everything happened, but we are feeling very happy and grateful.”
“I feel we were successful in bringing quality new plays to the Quad Cities, including several Pulitzer Prize winners,” she added. “We also encouraged local playwrights, and I am happy to see this being continued with other theatre groups. We were quite lucky to have Matt, who worked very hard and did an amazing job running the venue.
“It's sad to say goodbye to the Village Theatre, but the time is right, and I have confidence that the Quad Cities will still be excellently served with our other theatres in the area.”
Support for Matt
On June 30, the night Moody died, Village Theatre’s Facebook page posted: “In this world there are few men more beloved than the Village Theatre's very own Zaddy, GM, and all around badass, Matt Moody. Matt rolled into the Village Theatre in 2014, full of ideas, energy and a passion for the arts.
“Matt did it all – from handyman, producer/actor, sound man, bartender, bathroom cleaner, yard mower, booker, promotions. There is literally not one facet that Matt did not have his able finger on,” the post stated. “More than all this, however, he was a kind man. He was wickedly smart, otherworldly, and his ear was often lent to those of us who sought out his advice. He was a father figure to so many. His words of wisdom and encouragement has been so appreciated in this world. He gave us a sense of safety, that he loved and supported us, and it is no surprise that the Village Theatre is now noted as a safe space for our LGBTQ brothers and sisters. The Village Theatre joins with you all in this grief and we send our love and light to his beautiful family.”
Moody’s widow, Mandy, posted July 1 on Facebook: “My husband poured his heart and soul into that theatre!!! I sacrificed my time with Matt and our finances for so many years because it was so important to him. Matt made the Village Theatre a wonderful place for so many people. That building is not what he built.”
On July 2, New Ground's Facebook page posted of Moody: “It is impossible to describe how important he was to New Ground, the Village Theatre, and the arts community. For years, he was the public face of the Village Theatre, as well as the guy behind the scenes keeping the place running (sometimes literally).
“The Board of Directors is sorting through how best to honor Matt's memory while also keeping the theatre running, which we think would be Matt's primary concern. We know that some people were concerned when New Ground didn’t hold a vigil inside the theatre Sunday night. But please understand this wasn’t a refusal to honor Matt. It is lovely that people gathered at the theatre Sunday to remember him. But our concern was that literally within minutes of the announcement of Matt's passing, plans were in the works by people who are not directly affiliated with New Ground.”
A July 12 Facebook post from Rain Mist stated: “Every inch of what we loved about the Village Theatre was a result of the life, heart, and endless work of Matthew Moody. He created a vibrant village of artists. And that community lives on, but not in the shell New Ground owns.”
Craig Gaul posted: “Matt was the ONLY reason this theatre became what it is. No one else even came close to the amount of work and dedication it took to get this venue from a broken down, barely even open theatre to the lively space it was."
Moody worked at HNI for nearly 30 years, but his true passion, according to his obituary, was volunteering as a manager/operator at the Village Theatre. “He was an actor, writer, director, officiant, handyman, comedian, and so much more. He wore many hats taking care of his people.
“Matt was a huge supporter of all the arts in Muscatine and the Quad Cities. He was very generous and helped many people when they needed it. He always made people feel heard and safe. Matt had an amazing sense of humor and a booming laugh. To know Matt is to have loved him.”
