On June 30, Roger Gietzen left the executive director’s chair at Mount Vernon’s Lincoln Theatre, and Damond Morris sat down — not literally, of course.
But after a 25-year career at the Lincoln, Gietzen, who became executive director in 2014, will now spend his time with family and friends; projects, projects and more projects around the house; and, he said, maybe some volunteering at the Lincoln between those projects. He plans to be a part of the historic theater’s centennial in 2026.
Gietzen, 68, was born and raised in Seattle and moved to Skagit Valley in 1993 to open the Hungry Moon Cafe.
“As a longtime arts and history devotee,” he said, “I was immediately enamored with the Lincoln, and it factored in my decision to move here. I’m a former musician and met my wife, Chelan Robbins, in a band we formed here in the late ’90s, Quango.”
The couple decided raising their kids was more important than continuing performing, but Gietzen said now that he’s retired maybe that will be his next gig.
Morris was born in Bellingham and raised in Skagit County. He graduated from Skagit Valley College and Western Washington University, and received his doctorate from the department of theatre arts at the University of Oregon.
In 2001, he founded Shakespeare Northwest — then the Western Washington Shakespeare Festival — with many of the artists who continue to run the program today outside of La Conner at the Rexville Blackrock Amphitheater.
Morris became chair of the drama department at Skagit Valley College, specializing in fully integrated learning communities, where he directed and produced many successful productions. Skagit Valley College eliminated the drama department and his tenured position during pandemic budget cuts.
In the winter of 2021, Morris started as development director for the Lincoln Theatre.
“I discovered the position during the theater’s production of ‘A Christmas Carol,’ where I had the privilege of playing Marley’s Ghost,” he said. “The play had an exceptional cast and was the first performance back in Skagit County during the pandemic, in the lull between the delta and omicron waves.”
He’d worked with the Lincoln in the past. When he served as artistic director of Shakespeare Northwest, the ticketing operations moved out of his living room to ticketing through the Lincoln’s box office. At the time, Morris said, Gietzen was working the Lincoln Theatre box office.
Gietzen said that from a historical perspective, the Lincoln has played an important role in Skagit County during the past century. It has survived the Great Depression, Prohibition, a World War, the Cold War, the cultural revolution of the ’60s, Y2K, the Great Recession and a pandemic.
“The Lincoln has brought people from Skagit County and beyond together to share in the arts for nearly 100 years,” he said. “We are a major contributor to the resurgence of our historic downtown.”
The theater, he said, opened in 1926 as a vaudeville and silent movie house, where it thrived alongside two other theaters in downtown Mount Vernon until the ’70s when cineplexes opened in the suburbs and patrons stopped coming downtown.
The Lincoln Theatre Center Foundation (LTCF) was established in 1987 and operated the theater as an art house cinema to keep the building from falling into disrepair. Gietzen became involved first as a volunteer in 1997, and then as a staff member in 1999. The building was purchased (saved) by the City of Mount Vernon in 2001 with support by then-mayor Skye Richendrfer, with the LTCF still operating the nonprofit.
Morris adds that the stability and growth the Lincoln Theatre experiences today is due in no small part to the actions, leadership and foresight of Richendrfer, a champion of arts and live performance in Mount Vernon who died last November.
In a letter of support for the Lincoln in April 2022, Richendrfer wrote, “The Lincoln Theatre was then and remains today an important reason why Mount Vernon’s downtown core retains a genuine hustle-and-bustle feel. The atmosphere of the theater is electric, and audiences can’t help but be transformed to another place and time while attending events there.”
Local and state government support has been essential for the theater.
Morris said one of his highlights this year has been working with local legislators to ask for full funding for Building for the Arts to support upgrades to the Lincoln heating, ventilation and air conditioning system. The building’s heating system is a natural gas boiler with a large 4-foot fan pulling air from a hole in the building. While state of the art when the building was constructed in 1926, he said, there was no cooling system — except for the solution to place a large block of ice in the fan room.
They applied for a large grant to upgrade the system, which ArtsFund approved for Gov. Jay Inslee to place in Morris’ budget submitted to the Legislature. Only half of the 36 arts organizations made the governor’s budget, and working with Inspire Washington, organizations like the Lincoln — and Bellingham’s Pickford Film Center — hired a lobbyist, and across the state the 36 organizations began talking and informing local legislators to approve full funding.
“What I found in the process,” Morris said, “is that no matter what side of the aisle they were on, representatives and senators supported the Lincoln and arts funding in Skagit County and our region. With the push, full funding for Building for the Arts was passed in both chambers and Governor Inslee signed the bill.”
With a large part of the HVAC funded, they will now begin a public campaign to complete the funding of the project, Morris said.
Both Gietzen and Morris say the Lincoln is truly a community project.
“The support of both Theater Arts Guild and META Performing Arts (now Northwest Inclusive Theatric Education) has been crucial to our survival,” Gietzen said. “Those folks have been through some of the same struggles as we have over the years and continue to bring professional productions to Skagit County.”
“There is so much excitement and momentum around arts education at the Lincoln,” Morris added. “Support for the program is coming from parents and kids, local businesses and foundations, clubs and organizations, with tremendous support from the Lincoln board.”
Additionally, he said, they continue to grow their group of educators with The Lincoln Players Theatre School, who teach courses in musical theater, acting, auditioning, backstage theater craft and theater design. Future coursework will include dance and movement, puppetry, makeup and prosthetics, and lighting design.
Coming up, the Lincoln will be celebrating its 21st year of Brewfest on the Skagit Saturday, Aug. 12 at Edgewater Park.
Dozens of craft brewers will be on hand at the annual fundraiser, in collaboration with White Branches, a new tea room and performance venue in the Grainery Building next to the train station.
David and Ken’s Citizen Hurricane will perform their hilarious music, followed by the dance band, Aardvarticus Zeus, and the reggae-flavored Yogoman Burning Band. It’s likely you’ll see both Gietzen and Morris there, lending their support to the arts — and maybe taking to the dance floor.
The Lincoln Theatre is located at 121 S. First St., Mount Vernon. For details about its history and upcoming events, go to lincolntheatre.org.
