Final curtain for Allegra center

A popular performing arts center faces closure due to mounting bills

THIRTEEN YEARS ago, Judie Willis Lee came to Kailua from California with blond hair swinging down to her waist, a suitcase in her hand and a heart so full of music that her students say she's changed their lives.

"She literally saved my life in those teenage years." said Katie Wayman, 25, who started taking piano lessons from Lee at age 12. "I was this chubby kid, dealing with issues of being adopted, with big glasses and braces, and I didn't feel like I fit in anywhere."

"She saw in me what I didn't see in myself," Wayman said. "She found my strengths. She was more than a teacher, she was kind of like a hero."

Lee and her musician husband, Derrick, founded the Allegra Performing Arts Center at the Aikahi Shopping Center five years ago, attracting about 250 students a year with dance, voice and music lessons, plus full-scale theatrical productions.

But the Lees have decided to shut down next month because they can't afford to keep the business afloat any longer. Rents have nearly tripled over the last five years. The last straw came when the air conditioner conked out and they faced a $10,000 bill to replace the system.

"My husband and I are artists," said Judie Lee, who met Derrick in a rock band. "That's what we do well. Art and business are completely different sides of the brain. To try and do both is just sort of asking for it."

The couple ran Allegra as a personal business, and they are paying the price. They put all their own money into the school. When Derrick's mother died, the money she left them also went into it. Now they face about $50,000 in tax debt.

"Last year we only made, between the two of us, $30,000," said Derrick Lee. "That's poverty level, and that's before taxes. It's not that the place didn't make money, but in order to make money it costs."

Their school was open six days a week, offering classes to students aged 3 to 50. The Lees, both versatile singers and musicians, hired about 20 teachers as private contractors. Derrick taught guitar, drums and voice, and also handled sound, lighting and technical direction. Judie taught acting, staged the shows and managed the staff.

Despite the need to meet payroll, and rising costs from maintenance fees to insurance, Allegra didn't turn away students who couldn't afford to pay.

"Half of our kids are scholarshipped," Judie Lee said. Added her husband, "If you can't afford it, you can come in and help, sit at the desk, sign people out, whatever."

Now Allegra's students and parents are rallying to try to figure out a way to keep it alive. Some want to create a nonprofit corporation, to allow the center to receive grants to support their work, or to join with another organization. Judie Lee says she wishes she could just put on the shows, and not have to handle the business end of it.

"The truth is that if I had the money, I'd probably try to go in as a partner, but I don't," said Jocelyn Pratt, whose daughter, Briana, now a Kamehameha Schools freshman, has studied music with Judie Lee since kindergarten at Aikahi.

"Briana is just devastated that Allegra is closing," Pratt said. "It's helped form who she is not only as a performer but as an individual. I've watched her come alive there. I've watched that with a lot of students there."

Added Wayman: "Judie just draws people to her, it's the most amazing thing. And Derrick inspires people."

Judie Lee started with music classes once a week at Aikahi Elementary and Christmas shows. Parents including Pratt urged her to open a studio for after-school classes. Aikahi Shopping Center offered space, letting them take a year to fix it up rent free.

With help from parents, the Lees transformed the warehouse space into studios, fundraising to put in Harlequin dance floors and wall-to-wall mirrors. As recently as spring break, they renovated the reception area, unaware that the air conditioner was about to die.

Allegra will continue to offer private music lessons and a few dance classes until the lease ends July 31.

Ironically, Allegra's last big show, "Crescendo," staged with more than 100 students June 16-18, is the story of a performing arts school that faced shutdown because of the bottom line. It was written several years ago by Gay Jennings and updated in the fall, before any thought of closing Allegra.

"They of course saved the school, or it wouldn't be a very good show," Judie Lee said wistfully. "I wish I could as easily rewrite our ending."

HOW TO HELP Contributions may be made to Allegra Music, 25 Kaneohe Bay Drive No. 310, Kailua, HI 96734. Telephone: 254-8863 On the Net: www.allegraperformingartscenter.com