Last spring, The Vancouver Voice ran a feature on the closing of the Main Street Theatre, the performance house for the Arts Equity theater group. Assigned to the story, I contacted and met Llewellyn Rhoe, co-founder of Arts Equity. He spoke in the wryly passive manner of someone who was getting adjusted to defeating news and who was harboring battered hope for what had been his contribution to Vancouver culture.

Now, on a sunny winter Saturday morning, the renewed energy in Rhoe is unmistakable. His soft-spoken demeanor contains his beaming excitement, cautious optimism and the welcome stress of a busy schedule. When we stopped in to Mint Tea on Main St. to chat, the employees welcomed him and expressed their excitement at the good news: Arts Equity is returning to Vancouver.

“There’s an awful lot I think that’s happening here,” said Rhoe. “There are a lot of people in the art community doing work and we just want to get back to our share of it. And … to be honest, we need to go back to work.”

Arts Equity will have their work cut out for them in the coming months. Their lease agreement includes months of free rent in exchange for the renovation of the building. For this, they’re rallying for financial and labor backing from donators and from volunteers.

They’ve set a $30,000 goal for renovation, including updated wiring for stage lights, plumbing and changes to satisfy handicap requirements.

“We’ve been raising money, just small donations, over the past year,” said Rhoe, “because without a box office, without our bar concessions, the cash flow... a lot of us have been working for free.” Their website, artsequity.org, is taking donations via Paypal.

Arts Equity will run on a production/construction parallel schedule, which will allow them to produce plays while making renovations when financially feasible. They hope to have the first production underway by April or May.

“Where we’re at right now, what we’ve been able to negotiate, we can move forward in doing this,” said Rhoe. “There’s a lot of sweat equity.”

Following the closure of the Main Street Theatre, Arts Equity followed through on a plan to perform at various rented locations in Portland. They performed one show before calling it a day.

“The performance that we did of 21A with Joey LeBard was really solid for a one-person show,” said Rhoe. “Our audiences were small. Our Vancouver audience definitely didn’t cross the river, and that surprised us.” Rhoe said Arts Equity also suffered from local competition and lack of press.

Gearing up for the return to Vancouver, Arts Equity is taking the lessons it learned in Portland into consideration and is looking at methods of survival and adaptation. This will include lowered ticket prices and Saturday shows aimed at children, a first for Arts Equity.

Rhoe said Arts Equity’s return will be a community effort: they’ve already assembled some volunteers for the physical work needed for the clean-up and renovation, and are seeking donations of useful parts and supplies. Once running, the theater plans to be an outlet for artistic collaborators needed for theater, such as visual artists and musicians.

Last year, as the Main Street Theatre was closing, Rhoe had said, “It’s hard to think about being creative when you’re looking for an artistic home.”

“Nothing has changed from that,” he said when we met recently. “More people who are looking for an artistic home and have something they want to do. And things are coming together, and we’re happy about that.”

Adam Stewart is a contributor to The Voice.