Robert Alpaugh’s Sacred Stage: The Legacy of Tucson’s Temple of Music and Art

The heart of Tucson’s cultural scene beats strongly within the walls of the Temple of Music and Art. In our latest episode of Life Along the Streetcar, Tom Heath dives into this historical gem with Robert Alpaugh, a former Broadway performer turned arts advocate. Together, they explore the legacy of this iconic venue and the tireless efforts that saved it from fading into history.

A Historical Sanctuary: The Temple of Music and Art

Opened in 1927, the Temple of Music and Art was more than just a performance hall—it was a beacon of creativity, envisioned as a sacred space where the arts could flourish in Tucson. The building, designed with Spanish Colonial and Southwest influences, was the brainchild of the Saturday Morning Musical Club. This group of visionary women brought the spirit of music to life in Tucson, creating a temple for the arts.

As Robert Alpaugh shared during the interview, “We are offering you this temple with its spirit of music to be yours for all time to enjoy, to care for and to cause to grow.” These words, spoken at the Temple’s opening, still resonate today, underscoring the idea of theaters as spiritual sanctuaries where stories come alive and communities gather.

Saving a Sacred Space: Preservation and Revitalization

The Temple of Music and Art has faced its share of challenges over the decades. By the 1980s, the building had fallen into disrepair and was at risk of being repurposed into a mundane office space. But the Tucson community rallied to save this cultural treasure. As Robert recounts, “John Hudak, now publisher of Tucson Lifestyle, led a group who literally chained themselves to the building to prevent its destruction.”

This act of preservation wasn’t just about saving a building; it was about protecting a temple of artistic expression. Thanks to the efforts of passionate individuals and the support of the city, the Temple was revitalized and restored to its former glory, ensuring it remained a central pillar of Tucson’s cultural landscape.

A New Beginning: The Arizona Theater Company’s Transition

In the late 1980s, the Arizona Theater Company (ATC) was on the brink of closure. That’s when Robert Alpaugh stepped in, moving from New York to Tucson to lead the ATC during its transition into the newly revitalized Temple of Music and Art. “The temple was on the horizon… I had to make a decision very quickly… But I never looked back. I was thrilled,” Robert shared.

Under his guidance, the ATC found a new home in the Temple, breathing life into both the theater company and the historic venue. The opening of the Temple with Peter Shaffer’s Amadeus was a monumental moment, utilizing every inch of the space to create a spectacular production. This transition marked a new era for Tucson’s performing arts, solidifying the Temple’s role as a sacred stage for storytelling and artistic exploration.

Get Involved: Share Your Story or Connect with Robert Alpaugh

Are you inspired by the legacy of the Temple of Music and Art? Connect with Robert Alpaugh to learn more about his journey or to get involved in Tucson’s vibrant arts scene

Do you know a prominent Tucsonan who has made an impact on our community? Send Tom Heath a message to nominate them for a future episode of Life Along the Streetcar. Let’s continue to celebrate the people and places that make Tucson a city rich in culture and history.

Tom Heath
Good morning. It’s a beautiful Sunday in the Old Pueblo. And you’re listening to Katy. Tucson. Thank you for spending a part of your brunch hour with us on your downtown Tucson community. Sponsor all volunteer power to Rock and roll radio station. This week we’re going to speak with Robert Alpaugh. He has had a path that led him from a slash performer on Broadway to leading the Arizona Theater Company during its transition into the Temple of Music and Art during the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Tom Heath
So we’re going to get a historical look at both the ATC and the temple in this, a two part series which begins today. Today is August 11th, 2024. My name is Tom Heath, and you’re listening to Life Along the Streetcar. Each and every Sunday, our focus on social, cultural and economic impacts in Tucson’s urban core. We shed light on hidden gems everyone should know about, from a mountain to the University of Arizona and all stops in between.

Tom Heath
You get the inside track right here on 99.1 FM streaming on downtown radio.org. We’re also available on your iPhone or Android if you get our Downtown Radio Tucson app. And for those of you that want to interact with us here on the show, we recommend you do that through social media like Facebook and Instagram. And you can always head over to our website.

Tom Heath
Life Along the Street car.org. If you want information about us, listen to past episodes or maybe order a copy of our book. And as always, we invite you to listen to the podcast on whatever platform you like out there. And we probably get it out there. Well, it’s been a couple of weeks since I’ve been on the air here.

Tom Heath
I had to head to Ohio to tend to some family matters and, love Ohio. Love my peeps there. But it’s good to be back. I want to thank, as always, the fabulous DJ Bank, the self-described musical bum who, fills in, you know, when I have things come up and can’t quite make it. He’s always eager to share that extra half hour of love on his show, the Art of easing.

Tom Heath
So, DJ bang, thank you. Thank you for, the last couple of weeks, and we’re back and rolling. And so what I did here is I got a two parter. So I knew I had some some stuff lined up when I got back. Well, our guest today, it’s Robert Alpaugh. He he is a very unique individual.

Tom Heath
I didn’t know him until just I don’t know, probably like a month or so ago. And then I started researching and as always, just completely impressed with the lives the people lead that lead them to Tucson. He was a performer on Broadway. He has managed various companies. He is he was the the he was in charge of the Arizona Theater Company during the late 80s and early 90s, when they were transitioning into the Temple of Music and Art.

Tom Heath
And, just really when I heard that when we get this historical perspective and he shows up to the interview, he’s got all this great, stories and, memorabilia, including the opening, program from 1927 when the temple launched. Just a huge fun, interview turn into two parts as we talk about the temple this week.

Tom Heath
And we’ll talk about the Arizona Theater Company a little bit more next week. But this is my, interview with, Robert Alpaugh from, the, Tucson Gallery Studios. Robert, welcome to a lifelong streetcar.

Robert Alpaugh
Thank you. It’s great to be here. My first podcast.

Tom Heath
Oh, my gosh, of all your accomplishments, I kind of feel like I’m going to totally brag on the fact that we were your first podcast.

Robert Alpaugh
My first.

Tom Heath
But I do have to be completely transparent with you, because I did get you here under the guise of doing a podcast. But the reality is, this is more of an intervention because you are very much an arts board junkie. Like, he’s right, you have an addiction. You cannot say no to an arts board. Doesn’t matter if it’s ballet, if it’s music, it doesn’t matter.

Tom Heath
You, you say yes.

Robert Alpaugh
Yeah. I’ve had a long career in the performing arts, started out as a performer, and worked my way up, into management and then doing boards, and, I love it.

Tom Heath
What was your performance? What were you known for?

Robert Alpaugh
Musicals. Musical comedies. I was what they call a slash, which means, actor. Singer, dancer.

Tom Heath
Oh, I thought you meant you played for guns N roses. You were that.

Robert Alpaugh
No, I wish, I wish no, slash and I always said I was a singer, dancer, talker because I was not a very good actor. Okay, so when I stopped being able to dance, I retired.

Tom Heath
But I would think a slash would be a pretty important role, because you can sort of fill in on all kinds of different.

Robert Alpaugh
Critical and, and today, on Broadway, if you can’t do all three, it’s very hard to get hired unless you’re some sort of a star.

Tom Heath
Okay, so you were so you were were you on Broadway or.

Robert Alpaugh
Were did some on Broadway tours? Off-Broadway, regional theaters?

Tom Heath
Good heavens. Yeah, it was fun. So then how did you get from performing, on Broadway to hanging out at an art gallery on a local podcast in Tucson? I know there’s a few years in there, but, like, let’s watch what transpires.

Robert Alpaugh
The more years that I’m ever going to met. It’s a funny story, and you can edit this out if you want, but, But I quit performing. I was working at Actor’s Equity, and, we had those cubicles, you know, with just waist high or shoulder high walls. And I heard this woman screeching that she needed a managing director, but she had no money.

Robert Alpaugh
And, I was making the transition from performing to management, I hoped. And so I went over to the guy she was talking to. Who is this? He told me I went out to her theater in Montclair, new Jersey. I went in her office and said, I need a job. I want to be your managing director. Do you have a resume?

Robert Alpaugh
Yes. Here it is. She said you’re an actor. You’re not. You know, you have no experience. And I said, well, you have no money. So it’s a match made in heaven. And it was someone who became very famous. Later, Olympia Dukakis. Oh, and she became my mentor and dear friend for many years, passed away a couple of years ago.

Robert Alpaugh
And, that was where I got my start.

Tom Heath
That’s hilarious. You you’re not. You’re not a manager. You have no money. That’s right. Yeah.

Robert Alpaugh
It’s, it worked very well. It was a great relationship. I had Valley Of on my desk because she was very intense. But it was fun. And, you know, we been friends for years.

Tom Heath
I thought you’re going to say, well, I’m an actor. I can act like I know how to manage. Well, that’s what I thought. That’s what. That’s what I thought when the line was going to be.

Robert Alpaugh
That would have been a better answer.

Tom Heath
I don’t think so. I didn’t.

Robert Alpaugh
Have it.

Tom Heath
So I think your, your answer was perfect. So that gets you. Does that end acting for you? Yeah. For me?

Robert Alpaugh
Yeah. I always thought I would go back to it, but I just enjoyed managing and I enjoyed being around the art and learning how it was made. You know, the whole thing rather than just my kids. And so I never really looked back at it. I had a great time doing what I did, and now I’m consulting.

Robert Alpaugh
I’m with the ballet right now, Tucson Ballet, Ballet Tucson. And so I’m still, you know, doing it.

Tom Heath
Okay. Yeah. Well, I saw on your resume, it’s like whenever there’s a vacancy, someone needs a board member or an interim director or something they call Robert. And there it’s like, is all Pollock Latin for. I’ll do it.

Robert Alpaugh
Yeah. It’s, it’s as long as they. Well, no boards, you don’t get paid. But when I’m interim this or that, I get paid.

Tom Heath
And then as a consultant, it seems like from from what I was against on LinkedIn, it was much more about, philanthropic consulting and, and helping people achieve, you know, kind of crazy ideas to make things happen in this world. Not necessarily supporting set organizations, but helping anyone kind of achieve a different level.

Robert Alpaugh
Yeah, a lot of what I did was hospitals, but I was really consulting with a big firm in Chicago hospitals, museums,

Tom Heath
Universities and hangouts, or in New York or New Jersey, where in Chicago? Yeah. Is it easier just to name the big cities you haven’t lived in?

Robert Alpaugh
Yes. Never. Los Angeles, that’s it.

Tom Heath
Yep. What about, like, Northern California and San?

Robert Alpaugh
No, but I’ve lived in the top five cities New York, Boston, New York, Chicago, LA, Houston and Phoenix.

Tom Heath
All right. In Tucson.

Robert Alpaugh
Yeah, two.

Tom Heath
Cities and that’s where top 7 or 8.

Robert Alpaugh
Maybe? No, I don’t think so. Phoenix is five. Which really surprised me.

Tom Heath
Was was your role with, the theater company, was that what brought you to Tucson? Yes. Yes. And what roughly what time frame was that?

Robert Alpaugh
1989. Okay. George Rosenberg, who was one of the people who saved the Arizona Theater Company and was very instrumental in getting the temple, the Temple of Music and Art opened and refurbished. Called me and said, you know, we’re interviewing. And I said, well, yeah, I would love to interview. So he, arranged for me to come to Tucson.

Robert Alpaugh
I interviewed and I had to make a decision very quickly. He said, you know, we need to know in a week, coming from New York to Tucson, making that decision in a week was, hard. But I never looked back. I was thrilled.

Tom Heath
And I that’s just that’s going to be such a commitment to a project. You couldn’t have known too much about what you were getting yourself into.

Robert Alpaugh
I didn’t I knew that the theater had been in severely, severe financial straits just before I came and probably was the closest ever to closing. But the temple was on the horizon. We were performing at the Lyric Theater, at the TCC at the time, and the temple was on the horizon. And we were right in the beginning of doing a management agreement with the city of Tucson, where ATK would be the managing tenant of the temple.

Robert Alpaugh
Also, though, making it available to other local arts groups as well. And that deal was on the table and, George and others here in town really worked very hard to close that deal. And, the whole school of family, Alice Holtzclaw was the one for the theater who really did close that deal. She I think either 2 or $300,000, which helped us buy lighting equipment, sound and things like that to really turn it into a state of the art theater in 1989.

Tom Heath
So we’ve got it. We’ve got. And I think even now I get somewhat confused, you but you have two separate entities that are coming together at this point. You have the Temple of Music and Art, which that launched in 27. You told me.

Robert Alpaugh
At the Temple of Music and Art opened in 1927. Okay. And it was started by the Saturday morning Musical Ladies Club. And it was a group of women who got together and did musicals and brought opera singers and other people in from all over the country, to perform here in Tucson Saturday morning musical club.

Tom Heath
And did they build that building as the temple, or did they renovated something else?

Robert Alpaugh
They built it. And there’s a very funny story about that, which I learned later. The architect and I don’t remember his name, but the architect for the temple, built that theater, did, you know, for Tucson? And you can see it’s very Spanish colonial and Southwest. It’s gorgeous. And, the Pasadena Playhouse in Pasadena, California, was building a new theater at about that time.

Robert Alpaugh
And the, assistant to the architect who built the temple did the design for the Pasadena Playhouse. And actually, he just ripped off the whole design and flipped it, though. So when you walk into the temple here in Tucson, the restaurants on the left, the box offices on the right. Wow. And in Pasadena, the box office is on the left and the restaurants on the right, and the art gallery is upstairs in the center, like ours is like the temple.

Robert Alpaugh
And so, there are two theaters in the country that are exactly the same, except the one that Pasadena slept.

Tom Heath
I love, I love stories like that. You just all. Yeah, I never I figured that I might if I stumbled into that theater, I might have recognized the word, but it’s. That’s the only way I think I could know it.

Robert Alpaugh
The fountains in the middle. I mean, it’s exactly the same.

Tom Heath
That’s the voice of Robert Alpaught. He is, telling us the story of how he got to Tucson and ended up becoming in charge of the Arizona Theater Company and, the interview, we just really kept going on and on about all this amazing thing. So we cut it into 2 to 2 sections. We’ve got the the history of the Temple of Music and Art.

Tom Heath
And, we also have the Arizona Theater Company. Today’s focus is on the music in the temple. And then next week will be on the Arizona Theater Company, and we’ll be back to, the second half of this interview with, Robert Alpine in just a few minutes. But I want to remind you that you are listening to lifelong the streetcar on downtown radio.

Tom Heath
It’s 99.1 FM and streaming on downtown radio.org.

Tom Heath
All right, we are back. Just a couple seconds there. A couple brief moments to thank our underwriters, one of which is the Tucson Gallery. And this interview with Robert Alpaugh was actually recorded in their studio there on Congress. We’re talking to him about the history of the Temple of Music and Art. Next week, we’ll get more to the Arizona Theater Company, as those two have really kind of merged as of the late 90s.

Tom Heath
I’m sorry, the late 80s, early 90s, when he came out on a week’s notice from New York to take over and, he’s back in Tucson, so we had to sit down with him and get this story. And so they they created the Temple of Music and Art. Do you do you know where that name came from?

Tom Heath
Because that seems interesting to me that that’s not just like a performance hall or something.

Robert Alpaugh
Well, the, I could read you a quote from, the original. The woman who really spearheaded this.

Tom Heath
He talked about the prepared. He’s got a quote from 1927.

Robert Alpaugh
It’s awesome. I’ll read it. We are offering you this temple with its spirit of music to be yours for all time to enjoy, to care for and to cause to grow. Let its harmony spread from the few who are here. To the many who are not here tonight. It is young. Into your kind hands and big hearts.

Robert Alpaugh
We place it look thin into the future and make it the Mecca of art. Wow. And this was written by Madeline Heinemann, who was the really the driver of creating the Temple of Music and Art. So that so that’s. It was a temple. That’s great.

Tom Heath
It’s very much like I was going to say very, very much that, sort of Grecian idea. The and this idea of spirituality that comes through that I wasn’t sure because we have like the Labor Temple, we’ve got the Masonic and we have all these and I was kind of curious as to how they get there, because when I look at that facility, it certainly is much more than just an arena, because, as you said, there’s so many different connections to the artist community within there.

Tom Heath
But I’ve always wondered if the temple was which came first. But I guess they came together.

Robert Alpaugh
They came together, because a lot of people do feel like theaters are temples, and that’s where, you know, the stories are told is where lives are, examined and shared. And it is very spiritual because many, many souls and lives live in that space. And they change week to week, month to month.

Tom Heath
And I know when I go back to see something, I’m always recalling a show that I’d seen there previously, you know? So it’s even though that show hasn’t aired and hasn’t performed in maybe a couple of years, I’m still thinking about, oh, I remember when I saw this and this is what happened. So I guess it is sort of my own ghosts that are there.

Robert Alpaugh
Absolutely, absolutely. A lot of ghosts in the theater a year.

Tom Heath
Your time is around or 1989, between 27 and 89, though the building. Do you know much of that history like it operated for how long? And then it and it fell apart.

Robert Alpaugh
I’m not sure how long it it, operated as the Saturday morning musical club, but it did fall into disrepair. It had become, a place, for, like, vaudeville, in the 30s and 40s, it it became a, home for, Spanish language films that were shown there. The Borderlands Theater performed there for maybe a year, and then it really fell into disrepair.

Robert Alpaugh
And it sat for a long time. And in fact, it was going to be, not torn down, but it was going to be sort of there was going to be a six story office tower built in the back of it for law as a law center, with the, the, the library, sorry, the, the art gallery in the temple was going to be the law library.

Robert Alpaugh
They were going to keep the facade, and it was going to become an office building.

Tom Heath
You know, roughly what time period this was?

Robert Alpaugh
Yeah, this is probably in the early 80s. Okay, 80s in the 80s.

Tom Heath
It seems like maybe when the when the, the convention center, the Lyric Theater, the music hall that become such a prominent place in Tucson that some of these other theaters might have struggled to, to keep up in the, in the 60s? I don’t know if that’s the time connection or not, but.

Robert Alpaugh
I’m not really sure. But certainly, the community wanted to save this building because of its historic, prominence and because of the fact that it was the temple. And so, there’s a guy who still lives here, John Hudak, he’s the publisher of Tucson Lifestyle now. Okay. Yeah. John was one of the people, one of the really lead people who saved that building.

Robert Alpaugh
He led a group of people who chained themselves to the chain link fence, and said, you can’t tear this down. Got the city involved. Tom Forgy, the city manager, who I don’t remember, Tucson downtown partnership. You know, all of these, Tucson Chamber, the community really got behind it and said, we don’t want it was a firm out of Colorado and the community just said, no, this is we can’t let we can’t lose this building because they had lost so much when they built the T say.

Tom Heath
Yeah, that that’s that’s the other side of it, that when you add so much history and culture that was put under all that concrete. So to to turn around and I can see a community rallying to save something.

Robert Alpaugh
It was amazing. And so the city really spearheaded this and I forget the guy’s name, but he was a city employee and he was the project manager. And, you know, my first year there, we were overseeing with the city the renovation. You know, at one point you could look from Scott Avenue all the way through to Stone, see, right through the building.

Robert Alpaugh
The stage in the back of the stage was wide open. You know, there was a storm. It would blow through the temple. I mean, it was, a major, major restoration. And, everyone who worked on it did an amazing job.

Tom Heath
You know, if if you’re trying to locate if you’re right, because we I really mentioned it’s on Scott. It’s, McCormick and 14th are kind of its boundaries there. And it’s it’s near what we call the children’s museum. But it was the Carnegie Library at the time. So you so you have the Carnegie Library, you have this temple.

Tom Heath
So you really start to create a, a, a series of, philosophical place here in Tucson where.

Robert Alpaugh
People had the idea was to make that the Arts district and the temple certainly was going to be the, anchor, the things that were hoped for, it didn’t really all pan out, you know, because of the economy and other priorities. The Scott Avenue streetscape, which is now complete, was supposed to open at the same time the temple opened.

Robert Alpaugh
It didn’t open until 20 years later. And that’s all the planting and the new carving and the sculptures and the lighting. It’s a beautiful street now, Scott, between Broadway and whatever it is, 16th Street or whatever.

Tom Heath
You know it is. And at the corner of Broadway and Scott, on both sides, there are, pillars with testaments to the neighborhood and talk about the history and some of the names. And I had walked by that so many times, and before I stopped to actually read it. And fascinating the the people on this community that drove in, the passion that they created, what they or they created.

Tom Heath
Because if it opened in 27, I mean, these people were in the late 1800s, early 1900s were were coming up with this idea and pushing that idea forward. And it’s and to be still using that facility for its original purpose. It’s so cool for to experience that.

Robert Alpaugh
Well, it’s very cool. And Tucson is kind of known for that. The Fox Theater, Herb Stratford, led that, renovation. And now he’s leading, Theatrical Carmel, which is being brought back.

Tom Heath
As you were talking about the state of of the theater of the temple. I’m thinking, okay, that’s we’ll be telling this story in 30 years to, to people about the, the theatrical Carmen and, you know, Rialto Theater, all of these, these things that were at some point on the verge, all of them were on the verge of becoming something very basic and mundane and parking lots or buildings and and there are people that stepped forward and maybe not, who saw the final vision, but knew enough that we have to at least stop the destruction.

Tom Heath
And then we’ll figure out the path forward.

Robert Alpaugh
Right? Yeah. Opening that temple and restoring that was a big step forward, and I think paved the way for doing the fox. I would add to our. Carmen Herbert’s really done an amazing job for Tucson. I don’t know him. I just know his name.

Tom Heath
Yeah. He has he’s we’ve, we’ve had we actually just has we carry on a couple of weeks ago because she’s been a driving force of that to, just two people that they met at the U of A and, just really started falling in love with Tucson and figuring out ways to make it better. And they’ve done so much there.

Tom Heath
But you get here at the time you get here. The renovation was complete, not complete.

Robert Alpaugh
It was, no, it was not complete, but it was far enough along that we were making decisions. Then about the seats, about lighting equipment, sound equipment, carpet, toilet facilities, and, I mean, that was really an interesting thing because, you know, budget and, and so we didn’t go with the state of the art toilets that we wanted.

Robert Alpaugh
We went with toilets that fit the budget, carpet. The carpet’s been replaced now, but, you know, the carpet, we we did another painting, you know, we were doing we were making it a theater, right? By the time I got here. Okay. Still performing at the Leo Ranch, which just isn’t was not built for theater. It works.

Robert Alpaugh
The ballet performs there, and it works quite well for ballet because it’s a wide stage. It’s not deep enough, but it’s a wide stage. And when we went into the temple, our production manager, was able to really make that stage what it needed to be for the work that Arizona Theater Company wanted to do in there.

Robert Alpaugh
So when we opened the temple, we opened with Peter Shaffer’s, Amadeus and it was a magnificent performance. The designers used every inch of the space, the sides, stages, which are now closed. But the side stages were used. I mean, it, the production elements that we were able to create in there, were just spectacular and really was a huge lift for the theater.

Tom Heath
That’s the voice of Robert Alpaugh. As we were discussing the Temple of Music and Art during his time as it transitioned into the home of the, Arizona Theater Company in the late 80s, early 90s. We heard a lot about his story, how he got here to Tucson and kind of his background as a performer on Broadway and, and some of the jobs that led him here and things that he did.

Tom Heath
Soon after next week, we’re going to pick up the second piece of this interview, which really kind of shifts the focus more to the Arizona Theater company. Talk a lot about the building and the temple. Next week, we’ll talk about the performers and the performances, and those two part series about, the Temple of Music and Art and Arizona Theater Company.

Tom Heath
Well, my name is Tom Heath, and you are listening to Life Along the Streetcar War on Downtown Radio 99.1 FM, and we’re streaming on downtown radio.org.

Tom Heath
Well, I had this cool plan worked out for August. I was, going to do a summer road trip. I thought it’d be fun to leave the urban core and get to talk to some of these fascinating stories outside, and and, due to some, personal issues that I that just, you know, obviously, life happens and we weren’t able to, to accommodate that.

Tom Heath
So we’re going to focus, you know, still on the, the typical footprint of life along the streetcar. But we are going to leave this, this area for some, some theme coming up here in the fall. And if you’ve got any topics that are sort of maybe adjacent or connected to the urban core but aren’t really typically what we would cover, let us know.

Tom Heath
Don’t go anywhere, though. Today we got, Ted Brazell ski with words and work coming up in just a few minutes. And, we’ll be back next week with our second half of, Robert, all Paul’s, story as we talk about the Arizona Theater Company. But James Portis is our production specialist. Ryan Hood provides the music.

Tom Heath
We begin with each week. And, my name is Tom Heath. I’m your host and producer. And today we’re going to leave you with music from, Jane Austen. This goes back to 1927 or whatever. The hit to the day when the Temple of Music and Art was getting started. It’s called My Blue Heaven. I hope you have a great week.

Tom Heath
And to the next Sunday for more life along the streetcar.