Benson Theater
WordPress site rebuild for Benson Theatre — a 501(c)(3) nonprofit performing-arts venue in Omaha (8,700 sq ft, 168 seats, programming + community space). The original site was built and is hosted by Shape Society on Flywheel; that team has gone unresponsive, the site has been compromised by SEO spam injection, and recovery of admin access has been blocked for 4 months by a tangled credential / 2FA dependency. As of 2026-05-07 we have GoDaddy back, and the path forward is scrape the existing site for content, then rebuild from scratch in a custom G&M theme rather than chase Flywheel/WordPress access we'll never get.
Quick Links — All Findings & Working Docs
| Resource | What it is |
|---|---|
| 📊 KEEP/KILL/MERGE Spreadsheet (Google Sheets) | The working doc for the May 11 session with Jim. Tabs: Pages (28) · Events (7) · News & Press (11) · Categories (4) · Event Categories (7) · Spam Kill List (4) · Legend |
| 🚨 GAPS.md | Second-pass gap audit (May 8). Found: no SPF/DKIM, no GA4 access, /policies is COVID-only, /accessibility is empty, no schema markup, no 404 spec, no EIN visible, no privacy policy, etc. 25 items across 13 categories. |
| 🚧 BLOCKERS.md | Blockers + Plan B per item. 5 hard blockers, 11 soft (mitigatable), 3 sequential. Pre-drafted comms in comms-ready/. Living doc, updated after every phase. |
| ✉️ comms-ready/jim-prep-email.md | Pre-drafted email to Jim covering everything we need (GoDaddy login share, EIN, logos, partner list, board, 990, newsletter approach, PayPal ownership, past events policy, day-to-day admin). Ready to fire when Eric approves. |
| 🔧 comms-ready/dns-changes-when-ready.md | Sequenced DNS changes to run at GoDaddy when login lands. SPF + DKIM + DMARC + cutover plan. Ready to execute in ~15 min. |
| 💰 PROPOSED-AGREEMENT.md | Full agreement draft (v3): two options $275/24mo or $225/36mo, leverage protections, ownership clauses, kill switch, payment cascade, leadership transition. Mirror Google Doc. |
| 📃 Partnership Preview Doc (Google Doc) | Friendlier pre-meeting version for Jim. Layman's terms, no contract details, pricing table only. To send ahead of Mon May 11. |
| ✉️ comms-ready/jim-pre-meeting-email.md | Pre-meeting email to Jim covering the hack finding (with how-to-see-it instructions) plus a partnership preview attachment. Ready when Eric is. |
| 📋 SITEMAP-MASTER.md | Source-of-truth Markdown version of the spreadsheet, with full pre-recommendations and notes per row |
| 🛠️ BUILD-SPEC.md | Final plugin slate, CPT list, ACF schema, functional area solutions matrix, and resolved decisions |
| 🎨 BRAND-TOKENS.md | Color palette + typography (Manrope + Caveat as Adobe Fonts substitutes) extracted from the live site |
| 📦 site-scrape/ | Full scrape: 33 pages + 7 events + 66 images (61 downloaded), tech-stack catalogue, rebuild plan |
| 🎭 Todoist board | 30+ cards across Ready / Blocked / Launch Queue. Open decisions that resolved get moved to Complete with a comment. |
Project Info
| Job Number | Not assigned — informal/comp engagement |
| Phase | Active — Discovery / Rebuild planning |
| Billable | No (or comp / barter — Jim offered theater space "as thanks"; formal terms TBD) |
| Total | TBD — no quote signed |
| Production target | TBD — soft target: working session with Jim 2026-05-11, theme scaffold + first pages within 2-3 weeks of that |
Client Contacts
- Jim Schneider — Board member, primary contact
- Email: jim.schneider60@gmail.com
- Phone: (402) 651-0572
- Miranda Hindman — Part-time General Manager (hired ~2026-04-16)
- Will need miranda@bensontheatre.org once Workspace recovery completes
- Paul Allen — Historical technical contact (had Dreamhost + GoDaddy 2FA)
- Email: paulballen4@1stskyomaha.com
- Role going forward: minimal — GoDaddy is now reset off his account
- Amy Ryan — Founder (per IRS 501(c)(3) "Kindair at the Benson Theatre" letter)
- May still hold the Google Workspace super admin role from original setup
G&M Team
- Eric Downs (solo on this engagement so far)
Site Reference
| Current Live Site | https://bensontheatre.org/ (WordPress, Shape Society's Flywheel install) |
| Local Path | Not yet created — scaffold via /local-sites once hosting target is decided |
| Local URL | https://benson-theater.local (planned) |
| Production URL | https://bensontheatre.org (replacing in place at launch) |
| Hosting (planned) | TBD — Flywheel under G&M's account is the default; Kinsta on the table |
| GitHub | Not yet created — create when theme scaffold lands |
| SSH | Not yet provisioned |
| sites.json id | Not yet added |
Brand Identity
Approach: Eric's-own-take. The existing site's design language is a starting reference, not a target. The current Shape Society theme has a workable visual identity (cream-on-dark, theater poster aesthetic) but the structure is broken in places and the team explicitly wants to scope down (cutting the bar section + "a bunch of additional crap" from the rebuild).
No formal brand guide exists. Tokens to be derived from the current site's stylesheet during scaffold, then refined.
Integrations
| Service | Status | Details |
|---|---|---|
| GoDaddy | ✅ Recovered 2026-05-07 | Account #35049182. Email reset by GoDaddy support after Jim submitted his selfie+ID via Case #01266653. Jim taking ownership; will share creds with Eric. |
| Google Workspace | 🟡 Recoverable via DNS TXT once GoDaddy access shared | MX → aspmx.l.google.com confirmed. admin@bensontheatre.org lacks super admin. Recovery flow: TXT record → 24-48 hr propagation → reclaim Workspace → reset paul@. Lower priority than rebuild. |
| Flywheel (Shape Society's) | ❌ Abandoned | Not pursuing access. The whole rebuild-from-scrape plan exists because of this. |
| Dreamhost (Paul's) | ❌ Abandoned | Same circular email-reset block as Workspace. Old archived site sat there; not worth recovering. |
| PayPal (donations + memberships) | ⚠️ Owner unknown | One hosted button + 6 subscription plan IDs. Active recurring members. Confirm ownership before launch (open question for Jim). |
| Todoist | ✅ Active | Benson Theatre 🎭 — single board, dev work only. 17 starter tasks across Ready / Blocked / Launch Queue. |
| Harvest | Not set up — informal engagement | |
| Basecamp | Not set up | |
| Slack | Not set up — communication is direct email + phone with Jim | |
| Masterdoc | Not set up | |
| Drive Folder | Not set up — working spreadsheet lives in Eric's My Drive root | |
| KEEP/KILL/MERGE Sheet | ✅ Created 2026-05-08 | Spreadsheet — 7 tabs, color-coded Pre-rec column, ready for the May 11 session |
| Figma | Not set up — design happens in-theme during build | |
| GA4 / GSC | TBD — verify ownership and set up after DNS cutover; the spam compromise means a fresh reindex request post-launch is part of SEO recovery |
Scope Detail
No formal SOW — engagement is informal/comp. Working scope captured in site-scrape/REBUILD-PLAN.md:
| Phase | Deliverables |
|---|---|
| 0 — Access & Setup | GoDaddy access shared, DNS snapshot, hosting target decided, PayPal merchant ownership confirmed, Workspace TXT record posted |
| 1 — Working session with Jim | Walk every scraped page; mark KEEP / KILL / MERGE; resolve open questions |
| 2 — Theme scaffold | Custom G&M Tailwind+ACF theme on Local; tokens; header/footer base |
| 3 — Content architecture | Event CPT + ACF schema; taxonomies; ACF Options for site settings/footer/membership tiers |
| 4 — Page build | All KEEP-list pages populated from scrape; events; news/press archives |
| 5 — Tech replacements | Volunteer + Student Membership Google Forms → Gravity Forms; Buy-Tickets URL field per event; PayPal donate + 6 subscription tiers preserved as-is |
| 6 — Media migration | Pull 66 images from current site; rename hash-named ones; alt text |
| 7 — SEO + redirects | 301s from every old URL; sitemap; SEO recovery from spam compromise |
| 8 — Launch | DNS cutover at GoDaddy; SSL; verify email DNS preserved |
| 9 — Post-launch | Train Miranda; Admin Columns Pro; maintenance cadence decision |
Project Status
2026-05-07 — STRATEGY SHIFT: rebuild from scrape, skip Shape Society entirely
After 4 months of trying to recover access through Shape Society and Paul Allen's Dreamhost dependency, we're done waiting. GoDaddy reset the account email today via Jim's recovery case — we have the domain. The new plan: scrape the current site for content/imagery/links, catalog the tech stack, rebuild from scratch in a custom G&M theme on G&M-controlled hosting. Edit out the cruft (the bar section, miscellaneous additional pages) during a working session with Jim. DNS-cutover at launch.
Site scrape complete. 33 pages + 7 events scraped to site-scrape/. Tech stack catalogued. Critical finding: the live site is compromised — pharmacy SEO spam links injected into the nav menu (hydrea, imuran, terbinafine). Reinforces the rebuild-don't-migrate decision; domain SEO reputation likely already harmed.
Todoist project scaffolded with 17 starter tasks across Ready / Blocked / Launch Queue.
Next: working session with Jim Mon 2026-05-11 11am CDT to walk page-by-page through the scrape and mark KEEP/KILL/MERGE.
Docs
| File | Description |
|---|---|
| SITEMAP-MASTER.md | Working doc for May 11 session. Every page, event, post, and taxonomy with KEEP/KILL/MERGE pre-recommendations. Mirrored as a Google Sheet. |
| BUILD-SPEC.md | Build spec. Plugin slate, CPT list, ACF schema, functional area solutions matrix, resolved decisions (with the open ones flagged). |
| BRAND-TOKENS.md | Color palette + typography decisions for the rebuild (Manrope + Caveat as Adobe Fonts substitutes). |
| notes.md | Running history — original Jan 2026 conversation, GoDaddy recovery saga (Mar-May), strategy shift (May 7). The chronological source. |
| logins.md | Credentials for the systems we have or expect to have access to. |
| site-scrape/ | Self-contained content + tech inventory of the live site, plus the phased rebuild plan. |
| site-scrape/REBUILD-PLAN.md | The phased rebuild plan with open questions for Jim. |
| site-scrape/tech-stack.md | What technology the live site uses (donations, ticketing, forms, plugins). |
| site-scrape/sitemap.md | Initial Tavily URL inventory (superseded by SITEMAP-MASTER.md). |
| site-scrape/PAGES-INDEX.md | Index of every scraped page file. |
| site-scrape/pages/ | One Markdown file per scraped page (33 files). |
| site-scrape/media-inventory/downloaded/ | 61 images pulled from the live site (9.9 MB), ready for new media library. |