OKOBOJI, Iowa | According to Ruth Ann Burke, there's no place like home.
Especially when you're responsible for temporarily housing a host of special guest artists and a crew of students, every year, at the Okoboji Summer Theatre.
That's why Burke, the summer theater's executive director, is overseeing an estimated $1.2 million "There's No Place Like Home" project that will create housing for both professional actors and students participating in the annual slate of shows.
"Since our beginnings in the 1950s, Okoboji Summer Theatre has grown significantly," she said. "Our campus and facilities have been largely successful in keeping up with the changing times and a growing program."
Yet housing remained a sticking point for many of the theater's summertime participants.
In the past, students would be housed in dormitories situated on the theater's grounds or in donated cabins.
This makeshift solution lacked cohesion, Burke said, and was difficult for the theater's volunteer staff to maintain.
Initially, Burke and her board of directors considered building a residential hall. This plan was scuttled since the cost of making such a building energy efficient was prohibitive.
Instead, she said the theater refined its design and began the development of an artists' village, which will be comprised of small lake-style cottages for visiting performers and students, as well as updated kitchen and dining facilities.
"All in all, this was a more incremental and flexible solution to meet our housing needs," Burke said of the project that began in 2013. "We shared our vision with the OST community and their support has been encouraging."
The village will be constructed in five phases, with the long-range completion date set for 2018.
"So far, nine cottages have been funded and phase one will be completed by the start of our summer season," Burke said. "In addition, we have about one-third of the necessary funding for phase two."
Charting progress from her office at Columbia, Mo.'s Stephens College, Burke is ecstatic over all of the recent renovations.
"It certainly is an exciting time for everyone involved with the Okoboji Summer Theatre," she said. "In addition to our great shows, we will soon have a wonderful artists' village right on our property."
