Last night, I went up to Lead to audition for Fiddler on the Roof. The Historic Lead Deadwood Arts Council is putting on the production, directed by a woman from Pierre who is remarkably talented at coaxing talent out of small communities. Auditions were held (and the production will be) at the Homestake Opera House.

Until a couple years ago, I didn’t even know Lead had an Opera House. I thought of Opera Houses as being big city commodities; I thought of Lead as being a grubby mining community whose entertainment venues were much more likely to include bars and dance halls.

Then I realized I was blaming Lead for what I know of Deadwood’s habits during its early mining camp days. With establishments such as the Gem Theater providing the most notorious sorts of entertainment, who would expect something as high-brow as an Opera House to pop up?

In fact, the Opera House did not appear until 1914, more than a decade after the Gem (and most of the rest of Deadwood’s original buildings) had been reduced to ashes, and after both towns had begun to settle in as respectable communities. The construction of the Opera House was the idea of Phoebe Apperson Hearst, whose late husband, George Hearst, had grown very wealthy through mining ventures, including the Homestake Mine. The Opera House, along with an attached recreation center, was to be a gift from Homestake Mining Company to the people of Lead.

Through its life, the Opera House put on operas, vaudeville shows, movies, and even boxing matches. In 1984, it was badly damaged by a fire. Work is still progressing as the community attempts to restore it to its original grandeur. They’ve made a remarkable amount of progress, and even with certain things (such as the box seats inside the theater proper) still in skeletal form, you can easily tell that when the work is finished, the building will be beautiful.

And it sounds like Fiddler will be the first show to happen inside the theater since the fire, nearly a quarter-century ago. I can’t wait to see how it goes. You’re all invited!

In the meanwhile, stop back tomorrow and I’ll put up some info taken from production posters throughout the Opera House’s history. There’s some great stuff in there.