Mountain Laurel’s rebirth attracts 10,000

By CHARLIE BUTERBAUGH

BUSHKILL, PA — “The Mountain Laurel Center is open,” said Richard T. Bryant Friday night at the start of the Labor Day Weekend Festival, three days of concerts that represented the re-founding of the Mountain Laurel Center for the Performing Arts.

As the center’s new CEO, Bryant has taken on the double-task of dealing with the center’s unfortunate past and founding a new arts institution.

“I’ll stay as long as it takes,” Bryant said in a phone interview.

The $35 million center, built in 2002 and 2003 on the 675-acre Unity House property in Pike County’s Lehman Township, sat dormant for a year following the Pittsburgh Symphony’s performance in August 2003. Bryant, who specializes in helping performing arts centers through start-up periods, said Mountain Laurel’s false start was the result of “under capitalization.”

Though many civic-minded people had come together, the former corporation sank into dire straits because it borrowed too much money, Bryant said. It should have raised funds to match its $17 million loan instead.

Under Bryant’s management, the center raised $250,000 in the 30 days before the Labor Day concerts, and 10,000 people visited Mountain Laurel throughout the weekend.

Bryant emphasized the importance of the center’s success to the community.

“The center must work first for the people who live and work in this region. Only then can it become the gem of tourism that we all want,” he said.

He said Mountain Laurel is “moving very prudently” at this point, but added that the center plans to announce upcoming events some time during the next six weeks. He has committed to a full season of concerts next year “between the spring thaw and the winter freeze.”

For more information visit mountainlaurelcenter.org.