SPRINGVILLE — The Villa Theater fits nicely into plans to turn downtown into an arts center with entertainment a part of the evening mix in an environment of restored old town buildings and freshened landscaping.

Pam Lockwood wants to keep it that way.

"The last thing we want is for the theater to not be a theater," she said. "We want to fulfill the Downtown Business Alliance dream."

For the past year she has been running the private Emerson-Smith College — an art and acting school — out of the 1930s vintage theater. The current crop of 10 students learn about drama, acting and filmmaking, along with their language and math studies. The ecclesiastic-affiliated school is accredited by the Christian Disciples International.

Lockwood now has a chance to purchase the old theater the school has been renting and she and the students are putting together plans for a series of fund-raisers to keep the community theater operating.

"We need $25,000 to put down to tie up the deal," Lockwood said. Then, when she meets the other terms, owner Bill Brown will sell it to her on contract, she said.

Brown, who owns Bill Brown Realty next door to the theater, has been active in theater arts over the past few years and has acted in many of the live plays. Now suffering from ill health, he has given Emerson-Smith College the first option to acquire the Villa.

The first fund-raiser on the list will be a silent auction of donated items June 10-11. The auction will include vignettes from some of the shows the students have performed as community theater. Area residents often mix with students to put on the plays.

"Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" opened Thursday and runs through June 4. The Villa Theater is the only Utah County theater and one of only three theaters in the state with permission to perform the play this year, she said. The limitation is due to a national touring group that will perform the play next March at the Capitol Theater in Salt Lake City.

Emerson-Smith College opened its doors in 1999. It is an offshoot of the Emerson-Smith High School that launched in 1992. School curriculum is based around the student and creates a program to meet each student's needs, Lockwood said. She said it is a nontraditional concept and sometimes parents need education about the process as well as the students.

Diplomas from the high school are not recognized by the state but are accredited by other Christian organizations. Lockwood says students are able go on to most colleges with the diploma.

To graduate requires a solid portfolio of the student's work, passage of SAT tests and a participation in community service programs. The school doesn't grade its students — "either you know the subject matter or you don't," Lockwood said.