The Firehouse Gallery received a structural permit violation in December last year regarding the stage performance groups use to perform First Friday Night Live, a sketch-comedy show based off of Saturday Night Live.
Since opening in 2000 on 1st and Roosevelt streets, The Firehouse Gallery began using the stage August 2010 for its performance of the show every First Friday night.
First Friday Night Live director and ASU alumnus Michael 23, who legally changed his last name to a number, said the group felt the initial complaint about the stage came out of the blue.
“We do many events and things have been getting pretty awesome,” he said. “When things get really awesome, people from outside step in and try to interfere. That happened with us.”
The group does not know who filed the initial complaint to the city about the stage structure in the back of the gallery, he said.
“The fact that a random person can call a complaint on you and basically turn your whole life around — and you will never know who your accuser was — it’s just a really sort of bad way of doing things,” he said. “It’s totally disruptive.”
He said the incredibly high cost of restructuring the stage to comply with city code, as well as renovation requirements to turn the outside storage building into a café to complement performances, stifles the community’s development.
If the venue had initially applied for the permit, he said the construction costs would have run anywhere between $30,000 and $50,000.
“Imagine if something like (the) Firehouse when it was first getting started was supposed to come up with $50,000 to make a performance platform for the community,” he said. “It’s outright censorship.”
The performance group has relocated to Bragg’s Pie Factory on Grand and 13th avenues because the group can no longer perform their shows at The Firehouse Gallery.
The relocation has been difficult to execute, 23 said.
“It’s going to be really challenging,” he said. “We basically have to make our show mobile, so we acquired a large trailer and are kind of building a circus version of our show.”
First Friday Night Live assistant producer Kristy Theilen said she believes the city wants to profit off of development in downtown Phoenix.
“I don’t think that … people who want to profit off of development in downtown Phoenix want there to be any sense of community,” she said. “Especially a group of people who are empowering themselves to create something that is mind blowing.”
Non-permitted construction investigator for Phoenix, Bob Gawry, is one of two investigators working in his department. He said since the Phoenix created the sub-department of Planning and Development Services for the city of Phoenix in 2000, more than 5,000 permit complaints have been filed and he does not choose to single out any one business for violations.
“The codes are written in order to protect safety issues,” Gawry said. “They’re written to protect those that live there and to protect the public.”
He said before any business chooses to build such a structure, they are required to check with their department and local jurisdiction.
“We don’t segregate or go after certain people or certain companies,” he said. “When a complaint is called in we observe and see what has to be done and see whether it requires a permit or if unsafe conditions exist.”
Despite the complications, 23 said he is proud The Firehouse Gallery was able to have the stage for eight years.
“I feel like if we can keep going, we can get dozens and dozens of years out of this and it can be kind of a generational school of comedy and performance,” he said. “It’s a real, amazing static that we’re creating in downtown Phoenix.”
Reach the reporter at kmmandev@asu.edu Click here to subscribe to the daily State Press newsletter.
