By JONAH LOSSIAH
One Feather Reporter
CHEROKEE, N.C. – After several years of surviving, the Cherokee Historical Association (CHA) now wants to start thriving.
As leaders of CHA compile everything for their new 3–5-year strategic plan, they want to include several facets that are more long-term. This means looking intently at their current options and seeing what can be improved or added. John Tissue, executive director for CHA, said that they are going to be pushing for a lot more moving forward.
The Mountainside Theater, home of the outdoor drama “Unto These Hills”, is shown on the afternoon of Thursday, April 6. (JONAH LOSSIAH/One Feather photos)
A big part of that has been establishing what they want their identity to be in Cherokee.
“We’re trying to think beyond just the Village and the Drama. What CHA looks like in that kind of world. Not that either of those things would ever go away, but what things can we add to that to enhance the cultural district? Cherokee’s known for tourism, but the public face of what Cherokee is falls to the Museum, the Drama, the Village, and Qualla for the most part. That’s not everything. Fishing is in there, there’s a bunch of stuff. But the cultural partners bear the burden of presenting the face of the Tribe to the traveling public. We want to keep it fresh and relevant,” said Tissue.
In that vision are more entertainment options. Tissue said that it is his goal to get more consistent and varied shows to Cherokee.
“Ultimately, this is going to be in our strategic plan, even if it’s still a wish. We really, really, really want an indoor space. It doesn’t have to be a big space, but we want to be able to do stuff year-round.”
Tissue said that one of the aspects of CHA’s current roster is that there are large gaps in entertainment. They plan to have more spring shows in April, the Drama in the summer, and Fall shows running through October. But each of those pieces of entertainment are seasonal and can be affected by adverse weather. That’s why he’s hoping for an indoor space sooner rather than later.
“I think people are looking for stuff to do year-round. To change the seasonality of Cherokee, we need to keep providing those opportunities. I think it helps that the Casino is killing it. They have lots of new restaurants over there. We, now, are able to serve alcohol. That can help entice people to stay for dinner and do a show. There’s lots of opportunities and an indoor space would be pretty amazing.”
An indoor venue could benefit from the enhanced concessions offerings that CHA has been dabbling with. The Mountainside Theatre took advantage of the Tribe loosening the alcohol restrictions of the Boundary and began serving beer and wine at shows last year.
“It was interesting. We had better sales, of course. We did see a small dent in the retail sales at the drama. Because I think people were buying beer and wine instead of a souvenir, but overall it was plus-plus. You worry when you open that kind of thing up that you’re not used. Ok, what is alcohol going to do with the public? Are we going to have issues? We had no issues. You know, knock on wood. These things happen … but it was really kind of a non-issue,” said Tissue.
CHA is not done with the Mountainside, though. Tissue said that with the other plans to improve the stage and backstage, they are also looking at opportunities to improve seating efficiency.
“We have a lot of capacity. We don’t sell out anymore. In the general admission section, just behind the mezzanine…the first three rows, maybe four just based on what the engineers end up telling us, we want to put in like lawn seatings. Like box seats. Not necessarily the covered box when you’re at a ballgame or something. But four box seats, or as many as we can get with the Foundation’s grant, and then we’ll expand it to four when we get there. I think we can upsell those as super premium seats. We’ve found with our VIP seating; we really haven’t hit our price cap yet. We raise the price every year or so, and we really haven’t seen demand fall for that. So, I think if we can come up with a 12-seat box that can sell 80-100 dollars a ticket, it would be pretty cool. We’d also make those available to corporate sponsors.”
“The Nundiyeli trail has been abandoned because when we’re tight on budgets,” said John Tissue, Cherokee Historical Association executive director. “I have to put money where the public is and where we can earn more money. The Nundiyeli trail has not been a revenue source, and it won’t be. But this is a wonderful opportunity to put a new trail in. People could then walk all the way through the cultural district.”
Another step in improving the cultural district in Cherokee is to collaborate with the other members, like the Museum and the Coop. Tissue said they have started talking with those entities, as well as EBCI Communication and Project Management, to look at some major upgrades to the look of the area. He thought that the trail system was a perfect candidate that would uplift each part of the district.
“The garden trails, which can be beautiful, has suffered over the last few years because of labor and all kinds of things. It just needs a lot of work. It seemed like a great partnership,” said Tissue.
“The Nundiyeli trail has been abandoned because when we’re tight on budgets. I have to put money where the public is and where we can earn more money. The Nundiyeli trail has not been a revenue source, and it won’t be. But this is a wonderful opportunity to put a new trail in. People could then walk all the way through the cultural district.”
Tissue said that the stakeholders have gotten together and are currently working with planners to get a project formed. He said that this would not be a major investment from CHA, and more so from the Tribe. He said that a five-million-dollar budget has been set for this revitalization project.
Chelsey Moore, CHA development director, said that another thing CHA is trying to push is Qualla Creations.
“Qualla Creations, unfortunately, faltered a bit during the pandemic and the last couple of years. Just having the capacity to put effort into it and things like that. Staffing. Stuff you’ve heard a million times,” said Moore. “But with our new operations director, Lance Culpepper, he’s really taken charge and taken hold of Qualla Creations. There are some new vendors in there. We really want to partner with our community and get local vendors and local merchandise in there. I know when it first opened, I wasn’t here but I’ve heard there was strong community involvement.”
Moore also said they will be making Qualla Creations into a ticket hub for all of CHA’s entertainment offerings. That way CHA can promote the Drama and future shows from more locations. Tissue said they want to affirm the identity of Qualla Creations.
“The idea behind Qualla Creations was to have not necessarily craft items, but Cherokee-made items. And Cherokee-designed products. Buffalotown is a great example. Newer design, fresh look on stuff, but supporting local folks. We’ve had some of Bear Allison’s prints in there. We don’t want it to be a traditional craft shop, and we’re not going to sell just Cherokee-made things. It’s a store and we’re trying to hit the general public. It won’t be a place for your regular kind of souvenirs. But it will be a place to find things that are more interesting or a different take on Cherokee art. We’d rather say Cherokee art than maybe Cherokee craft,” said Tissue.
Tissue said that to assist with each of the new ventures, they have established a new committee – the Cultural Advisory Committee.
“We wanted to have a place when we were making decisions about things at the Village, Drama, and programming, to kind of vet these ideas. We usually have a pretty good sense of what is historically accurate and what is not, but we really wanted some input. If we change this, how does this affect x, y, z within house? So, this cultural advisory committee helps us with making some cultural decisions. But it also helps us with operational decisions.”
This Committee currently meets at least quarterly and is formed from the following members:
- Amanda McCoy
- Marcus Bradley
- Taylor Wachacha
- Rachel Blythe
- Dustin Wolfe
- Karen George
- Erma McMillan
- Marian Hunley-Graham
- Laura Blythe
Tissue and Moore said that they are excited for all the developments that are coming in the next few years. They said that the excitement is growing even more considering that they are starting to plan the 75th anniversary of the Drama in 2025.
“We’ve got an exciting year for them. We want people to come out and see and talk us up in the community when they’re seeing tourists around town. We want to present the story that they’re proud of,” said Tissue.
