Make no mistake: This is — to quote then-Vice President Joe Biden — a “big f-ing deal.” What is likely the longest single sustained fund-raising effort in Livingston County history has turned a corner of huge significance. The Livingston Arts Council hired its first executive director in October, and it’s holding auditions for “The Pirates of Penzance,” the first in a four-production series for the Howell Opera House in 2026 that it’s calling “The Reawakening Season.” It’s the opera house’s first full season of entertainment in a century.
Auditions for a production of the original 1879 version of “The Pirates of Penzance” are set for 5-9 p.m. Monday through Wednesday at the Howell Opera House, 123 W. Grand River Ave. in downtown Howell.
That Dana Wnuk, the Livingston Arts Council’s first executive director, has been hired, and a full season of theatrical performances are scheduled is good news for those who have been crossing their fingers for this moment since the LAC bought the opera house building a quarter of a century ago. It’s been a long, tough slog for the LAC, one that has tested its creativity and mettle, as well as its faith in a venture many thought to be an impossibility.
Good for them. And great for us!
We are a lucky community, indeed. Historic theater expert Ed Francis, who did work with the Fox Theater in Detroit, said in 1991 that the Howell Opera House should be placed on an “endangered species” list because most other theaters of its era have burned down.
Fun facts
The building cost $11,000 to build in 1880, and it was named the Howell Opera House even though not a single diva sang an aria there; rather, its name was chosen because it sounded sophisticated. While no operas graced the second-floor stage before it was closed by the fire marshal, people came from miles around to watch jugglers and acrobats, hear speeches from the likes of presidential candidate William Jennings Bryant and industrialist Henry Ford 1, and see productions of Gilbert and Sullivan’s “Mikado,” Shakespeare’s “Hamlet, and the ever-popular “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.”
The artist who painted the curtain for the Detroit Opera House also created Howell’s; another curtain featuring ads from local merchants dropped between acts. And the opera house was once owned by the Stair brothers from Detroit, who sold it before buying the Detroit Free Press.
It wasn’t just entertainment at the opera house: Justice was also served in 1889 when the it served as a temporary home for the Livingston County Circuit Court as that other historic jewel in downtown Howell — the Livingston County Courthouse — was under construction.
The 0pera house also did double duty as a civic auditorium for events like high school graduations.
The Livingston Arts Council purchased the building in 2000. It was listed as a Michigan Historic Site in 2006. A slew of various fund-raising events and a lot of hard work led to the grand re-opening of the first floor in May 2007 as part of Howell History Days. In 2012, the arts council paid off the mortgage.
A variety of fund-raising activities through the years — from an annual Haunted Opera House to holiday auctions to concerts by a coalition of emerging rock, punk, metal, acoustic and other musicians known as Livingston Underground — coupled with some generous private donations and important grants have brought the Howell Opera House to this point.
It’s a great place to be.
Congratulations to the Livingston Arts Council.
