A nonprofit theater company has launched a $3 million campaign to convert a former discount movie theater in midtown Fort Collins into a performing-arts center.
Debut Theatre Co., a 34-year-old troupe-structured 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, wants to convert the 18,000-square-foot former AMC Cinema Saver 6, which closed in early 2021 at 2525 Worthington Circle, into the Debut Arts Centre, a permanent, state-of-the-art home dedicated to youth performing arts.
Founded in 1991 by siblings Lee Osterhout-Kaplan and Gregg Osterhout, the company has helped students learn through performing arts, but without a dedicated home, the troupe has rehearsed in borrowed spaces, stored costumes in private homes and built sets across multiple locations. It’s headquartered in a single-story, 4,200-square-foot structure some three miles to the northeast at 827 Riverside Ave. Students often don’t step onto an actual stage until days before opening night, at venues such as the Lincoln Center.
“Our mission has always been simple yet profound: to prepare young people for adulthood by applying the fundamental dynamics of creativity and problem-solving, responsibility, communication and teamwork,” Osterhout-Kaplan, the theater company’s artistic director, said in a prepared statement. “This campaign is about more than a building. It’s about creating a permanent home where generations of young people can find their voice, their confidence and their community.”
That will soon change. The movie theater’s owner, Les Kaplan, has provided the space rent-free in perpetuity, a gift valued at $250,000 annually, and plans to invest more than $1 million in structural upgrades.
Funds from the capital campaign will focus on creating the interior arts center, which will include a “black box” theater for productions with seating for 120, a 300-seat main theater with adaptable seating and flexible stage, classrooms and rehearsal studios for year-round learning, workshops and a costume shop for set and production design, a lobby and gathering space for families and audiences, an artist-in-residence studio and office space for the theater’s staff.
Beyond Debut’s own programming, the complex will serve as a regional hub for youth arts, offering affordable rehearsal and performance space to other nonprofits and schools and filling a void to address systemic gaps in access to and support of the arts.
The capital campaign will unfold in two acts:
Act One: Raising the Curtain ($1 million, 2025-26). Move-in-ready with offices, black box theater, classrooms and workshops.
Act Two: Taking Center Stage ($2 million+, through 2028). Main performance theater for 300 with versatile stage and flexible seating.
Kicking off the public campaign, Edward M. Warner and Jacalyn D. Erickson have pledged a $250,000 matching grant challenge through Dec. 31.
Donations can be made at debuttheatre.org. Recognition opportunities include naming rights for major gifts, inclusion on the facility’s Ovation Wall, and named chairs in the main theater for donors at the $1,000 level.
Debut’s progression-based model gives students hands-on experience in every aspect of production, from acting and stage management to design and publicity, cultivating life skills and a love of the arts.
Architect for the project is Fort Collins-based Ripley Design Inc. Additional work on the two-acre site will see the building of a vestibule to ensure that the structure is compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
This article was first published by BizWest, an independent news organization, and is published under a license agreement. © 2025 BizWest Media LLC.
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