When Pam Docken shut down the Oops Dinner Theatre in 2007, she vowed to never run a theater company again.
But fans of her well-known, light-hearted, slapstick-filled productions would have nothing of it. For three years, they called and e-mailed Docken, begging and cajoling her to reconsider and get back into the business she called the love of her life. In July, she relented and founded the Funside Dinner Theatre.
So many people turned out for the theater's inaugural production, a holiday show staged at the Applewood Hills Golf Club in Stillwater, that Docken has moved its current show, "Ole and Lena's New York Adventure: In Search of the Big Apple," to the 2900 Event Center in Little Canada.
The much larger space with room for up to 300 people now will be the theater's permanent home. Funside's administrative offices will remain in Willernie for the time being.
"I love theater, but I was never going to do this again," said Docken, 51, a stand-up comedian and playwright who opened Oops in North St. Paul. "I didn't want to get back into business. I guess it was meant to be."
The pieces all fell into place.
Docken said she put on "An Ole and Lena Christmas" mainly to appease her following. She secured Applewood Hills Golf Club for the holiday show and figured that the space that could accommodate 80 to 100 people would be large enough. Then she reconnected with former acquaintance Jerry Ross and put him in charge of sales. Performances sold out, and "we had to turn people away," Ross said.
With high demand, it was clear Funside would need a larger venue for future shows. Enter one of Docken's friends and a theater devotee, Eileen O'Hara, manager of the 2900 Event Center. The banquet hall she runs in a strip mall at 2900 Rice St. needed a tenant. It was being used primarily for church services and the occasional funeral or wedding reception.
