Benson Theater

Project Overview

Website refinements for Benson Theatre - a WordPress site with a poor admin interface that needs improvements.

• Website: https://bensontheatre.org/
• Location: 6054 Maple Street, Benson (Omaha), NE
• Venue Size: 8,700 sq ft
• Organization Type: 501(c)(3) nonprofit

Client Contact

• Jim Schneider - Board member/contact
• Email: jim.schneider60@gmail.com
• Phone: (402) 651-0572
• Miranda Hindman - New part-time General Manager (hired ~April 16, 2026)
• Needs miranda@bensontheatre.org once Workspace access is restored (blocked by GoDaddy)

Technical Contacts

• Paul Allen - Has access to GoDaddy 2FA
• Email: paulballen4@1stskyomaha.com
• Has cell number on file for SMS verification

Access Credentials

See logins.md for all credentials.

Project Status

• Initial conversation: January 7-8, 2026
• Jim offered theater space for G&M meetings as thanks

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. New plan:

1. GoDaddy is unlocked. May 7, 2026 GoDaddy reset the email on the account. Jim is logging in, setting a new password, and will share access with Eric. Domain + DNS now under our control.
2. No more Flywheel/WordPress access attempts. Shape Society's theme is broken in places anyway. We're not migrating it.
3. Scrape the live site for all content (page copy, images, video URLs, external links, event detail) and rebuild from scratch in a custom Benson Theatre WordPress theme — G&M's standard Tailwind + ACF stack.
4. Edit out the cruft. Eric and Jim will do a working session to decide what NOT to bring back. Already on the cut list: the Broadway Bar promo / "the bar section" and miscellaneous additional pages they don't want.
5. DNS-cutover at launch: when the new site is ready, change DNS at GoDaddy to point at our hosting (Flywheel under G&M's account, probably). Old Shape Society Flywheel install becomes orphaned.

Site scrape complete (May 7): 28 pages + 7 events scraped to site-scrape/ directory. Tech stack catalogued in site-scrape/tech-stack.md. Sitemap in site-scrape/sitemap.md.

Critical finding from scrape: the live site is compromised — pharmacy SEO spam links (hydrea, imuran, terbinafine) injected into the nav menu near the Education item. Reinforces the rebuild-don't-migrate decision. Domain SEO reputation likely already harmed.

Tech stack to replace (full detail in site-scrape/tech-stack.md)

• Donations: PayPal hosted button + PayPal subscription billing plans (multiple membership tiers). Need to confirm PayPal merchant account ownership. Likely keep PayPal short-term to avoid migrating recurring members.
• Ticketing: NO centralized platform — each event uses whatever the artist/promoter set up (Purplepass, buytickets.at, ComedyTicketing). Rebuild needs only a "Buy Tickets" URL field per event.
• Forms: Google Forms (volunteer application + free student membership signup) → replace with Gravity Forms.
• Newsletter: not detected. Sent manually? TBD with Jim.
• Events: custom post type event + event-category taxonomy. Likely The Events Calendar plugin. Rebuild as a lighter custom CPT.
• Image CDN: ExactDN (Jetpack). Goes away on rehost.

Current Challenge (Access Blocked)

• WordPress Admin: Still blocked — but no longer trying to access. Rebuilding from scratch.
• GoDaddy: ✅ Unlocked May 7, 2026. Email reset by GoDaddy support after Jim submitted his selfie+ID via Case #01266653. Jim taking ownership; will share creds with Eric.
• Email (@bensontheatre.org): Still locked at the Workspace level. Recovery now possible via DNS TXT record (we control DNS now). Lower priority — not blocking the rebuild.

Next Steps

1. ~~Reach out to Shape Society (Chris LaCroix)~~ - DONE - Jim sent increasingly firm emails (Feb 25, Mar 4, Mar 17, Mar 26). Chris responded once (Feb 25) citing a family emergency and noting Benson is past-due on fees. As of March 26, Jim sent a blunt final email threatening to escalate if Chris doesn't respond. No reply yet.

2. GoDaddy Account Recovery (In Progress — path shifted) - Jim submitted account recovery request (Case #01266653) on March 20, 2026 - GoDaddy confirmed Jim is NOT the account holder - Eric met with Jim at the theater on March 23 - March 24: Eric recommended Option 2 (domain-only) via IRS 501(c)(3) letter - March 26: Jim replied to GoDaddy submitting the 501(c)(3) letter. He explained the legal name is "Kindair at the Benson Theatre" and flagged possible name confusion (all-caps IRS vs. mixed-case on GoDaddy, "C/O Amy Ryan" in the letter, etc.). He also mentioned Paul Allen as possibly being on the account. - March 28: GoDaddy responded — they now require a government-issued photo ID for Paul Allen to proceed. The 501(c)(3) letter path apparently didn't match. - March 28: Jim emailed Paul asking for a color scan of his driver's license (front + back) - March 28: Paul replied — he apologized for going quiet, and revealed that his personal credit card is attached to a Dreamhost account that has the old/archived Benson Theatre site on it. He wants to try transferring that hosting to the theater first, before resorting to sharing his ID. Jim responded positively.

3. Paul Allen / Dreamhost thread (New) - Paul's credit card has been funding a Dreamhost account with a preserved version of the old site ("B-side stuff"). He set it up years ago in a rush when the site was being rebuilt. - April 1 update: Paul found the Dreamhost account and confirmed it's tied to paul@bensontheatre.org. He tried a password reset but it went to that inbox, which he can't access. He needs Workspace email access to proceed — which itself requires GoDaddy domain verification first. This route is blocked until GoDaddy is resolved. - If Dreamhost has the old site content, it's separate from the current Flywheel/WordPress site.

4. Google Workspace Admin Recovery (Blocked — needs GoDaddy first) - April 1: Confirmed bensontheatre.org email runs on Google Workspace (MX records → aspmx.l.google.com) - Jim logged into admin@bensontheatre.org and tried admin.google.com — page fails silently, meaning the account lacks super admin privileges - Paul's email (paul@bensontheatre.org) is on the same Workspace — he triggered a Dreamhost password reset that went there, but can't access the inbox - Recovery path: Once GoDaddy access is secured, add a DNS TXT record to verify domain ownership with Google → reclaim Workspace super admin → reset any user passwords (including paul@) → Paul can then receive hosting/domain password resets - Timeline: GoDaddy first (waiting on Paul's ID or case resolution), then Google domain verification (~24-48 hrs for DNS propagation + Google review), then Workspace admin recovery

Status (as of April 16, 2026): Paul has conceded. After trying for a couple of days to work GoDaddy directly, he gave up and agreed to send his driver's license. He also confirmed he can't access Dreamhost (it's tied to his @bensontheatre.org email, same circular dependency as before). Paul asked Eric directly if he's still on the job and when Eric is ready for the ID. Jim already replied asking for a color scan of both sides, to be submitted to GoDaddy to reopen Case #01266653.

Next action: Ball is in Paul's court to send the ID to Jim. Eric opted not to reply on April 20 — Jim's immediate reply to Paul already covered the green light (color scan, both sides, delete after GoDaddy receives it), so a third voice would just add noise.

Hosting / SEO

Infrastructure Stack (researched March 17, 2026)

• Domain Registrar: GoDaddy — owns the domain name only, manages DNS via ns69/ns70.domaincontrol.com
• Web Host: Flywheel (managed WordPress hosting) — confirmed via server headers (Server: Flywheel/5.1.0). This is where the WordPress files and database actually live.
• CDN: Fastly (IP 151.101.66.159) — sits in front of Flywheel and serves the site globally
• Domain expiry: January 20, 2027

Key insight: GoDaddy has NO access to the WordPress database or files. The database lives on Flywheel, which is under Shape Society's account. Calling GoDaddy would only recover domain/DNS control — it cannot reset WordPress passwords or grant admin access.

Shape Society

• Manages the Flywheel hosting account (WordPress files + database)
• Manages SEO
• Contact: Chris LaCroix — hello@shapesociety.com, (402) 807-0066
• Benson Theatre is reportedly past-due on hosting/maintenance fees

Known Issues

• Event date display bug: Black boxes with dates (e.g., "24 JAN") are obscuring event images. Date showing is correct for one event but wrong for another.

Notes

• Credentials came from "staff departure memos" - suggests previous staff turnover
• Website interface described as "poor" - refinements needed
• Paul Allen was initially confused about being contacted - Jim clarified in person
• Legal name of the org: "Kindair at the Benson Theatre" — this is the IRS 501(c)(3) name. The GoDaddy account name may use a variation of this. Founder is Amy Ryan (her name appears in the 501(c)(3) as C/O, not part of the legal name).
• Jim has access to booking@ and admin@ email addresses, but NOT info@bensontheatre.org (which is the address shown publicly on the website)
• Email is Google Workspace — confirmed via MX records (aspmx.l.google.com). admin@bensontheatre.org does NOT have super admin privileges — clicking through to admin.google.com fails silently. The actual Workspace super admin is likely whoever originally set up the account (Shape Society or Amy Ryan). To reclaim Workspace admin, you need to verify domain ownership via a DNS TXT record — which requires GoDaddy access first. So GoDaddy recovery remains the critical first domino.

Email Digest — April 27, 2026

• No new Benson Theatre project activity in the past 3 days. No replies from Paul (still no ID sent), no new GoDaddy case correspondence, no messages from Jim or Shape Society.
• The only inbox matches were two automated GoDaddy emails to the shared hello@grainandmortar.com mailbox — a generic renewal reminder ("Your product has expired, don't lose it—renew now," April 25) and a generic privacy/account-info notice (April 24). Neither references Benson Theatre or Case #01266653; both appear to be unrelated G&M account marketing.
• Status unchanged: ball is still in Paul's court to send a color scan of his driver's license (front + back) so Jim can reopen GoDaddy Case #01266653.

Email Digest — April 25, 2026

• Benson Design Academy Awards Ceremony (From: Angela Johanek Angela.Johanek@ops.org, April 22) Not a project email — OPS invitation to a Benson Design Academy ceremony at Benson High School auditorium (different "Benson"). Notable only because the recipient list includes maddie@bensontheatre.org, a mailbox not previously mentioned in these notes. Could be a separate staff member/board contact, or possibly Miranda Hindman under a nickname. Worth confirming with Jim when convenient.

• No new GoDaddy / Paul Allen / Shape Society activity in the past 3 days. Last update was Paul's April 16 evening message agreeing to send his ID; ball still appears to be in Paul's court.

Email Digest — April 4–16, 2026

• Fwd: Auto-Closed: Case #01266653 (Jim → Paul + Eric, April 4) GoDaddy auto-closed the case due to inactivity (no response from Paul with his ID). Jim forwarded the auto-close to Paul and asked once more for a copy of his driver's license. Case can be reopened simply by replying with the requested info.

• Re: Auto-Closed: Case #01266653 (Paul ↔ Jim, April 6) Paul asked whether he could work with GoDaddy directly so his ID wouldn't have to pass through multiple hands (his concern was limiting how far his ID traveled, plus he wanted to remove his credit card himself). Jim encouraged this approach — said GoDaddy just wants to verify Jim isn't hijacking Paul's access — and gave him the case #. Paul said he'd get on it.

• Re: Auto-Closed: Case #01266653 (Jim ↔ Paul, April 14–15) Jim followed up on April 14 asking if Paul had any luck with GoDaddy. Paul apologized for the delay April 15 morning and said he'd get back on it that afternoon. Jim thanked him.

• Fwd: Auto-Closed: Case #01266653 (Jim → Eric, April 16 morning) Jim mentioned the theater just hired Miranda Hindman as part-time GM and asked if they have credentials to set up miranda@bensontheatre.org. Eric replied that this is tied to the pending GoDaddy credentials and will have to wait (or become a separate endeavor) — same thing that blocked Paul's email reset. Jim replied with a sigh.

• Re: Auto-Closed: Case #01266653 (Paul → Jim + Eric, April 16 evening) ← LATEST Paul punted. After a couple of days of trying on his own he wasn't getting anywhere, and he also can't get into Dreamhost (password reset routes to his BT email, same wall). He's ready to send his ID so they can reopen the GoDaddy case. Asked Eric directly: "let me know if you are still on the job, and when you are ready for me to send my ID." Explained his hesitation: he's had his identity stolen before. Jim immediately replied asking for a good color scan, both sides, and promised to delete his copy after GoDaddy gets it. Waiting on Eric's reply to Paul.

Email Digest — April 1, 2026

• Re: Reminder: Case # 01266653 | Account Recovery (Thread: Jim ↔ Paul ↔ Eric, April 1) GoDaddy sent an automated reminder on Case #01266653 requesting the previously asked-for info (Paul's ID). Jim forwarded to Paul, nudging on both the ID and Dreamhost progress. Paul replied: he found the Dreamhost credit card and confirmed his account email is paul@bensontheatre.org — but a password reset went to that inbox, which he can't access. He asked Jim to get him access to paul@bensontheatre.org so he can transfer the domain and hosting. Jim asked Eric if he could restore Paul's email. Eric explained admin@bensontheatre.org lacks Google Workspace super admin privileges, and the only path to reclaim Workspace admin runs through GoDaddy (verify domain ownership → take over Workspace → reset paul@ password). Jim thanked Eric and asked Paul directly again to share his driver's license.

Email Digest — March 26–28, 2026

• Re: Benson Theatre (From: Jim Schneider → Chris LaCroix, CC: Eric, March 26) Jim sent a firm final email to Chris LaCroix after weeks of silence — demanded WordPress admin access and the info@ email, asked again for unpaid invoices, and warned he'd escalate if Chris doesn't respond. Eric replied to Jim with 👏👏👏.

• Fwd: Case #01266653 | Account Recovery (From: Jim → Eric, March 28) Jim forwarded the latest GoDaddy response: GoDaddy now requires a government-issued photo ID for Paul Allen to proceed. Jim's 501(c)(3) letter submission (which named the org as "Kindair at the Benson Theatre" with name variation context) did not unlock domain access on its own.

• Benson Theatre website / Re: Benson Theatre website (Jim ↔ Paul Allen, CC: Eric, March 28) Jim reached out to Paul asking for a driver's license scan for GoDaddy. Paul responded, apologized for going dark, and revealed his personal credit card is tied to a Dreamhost account he set up years ago to preserve the old site. He'd like to try transferring the Dreamhost account to the theater before providing his ID. Jim replied warmly. Paul said he'd look into it that afternoon — no follow-up received yet.

Quick Links

• Website: https://bensontheatre.org/
• Logins: logins.md
• Site scrape + tech inventory + rebuild plan: site-scrape/
• Todoist project: Benson Theatre 🎭 (6gXqGmXJ2j7R2RwF)

Integrations

Todoist

• Project: Benson Theatre 🎭
• Project ID: 6gXqGmXJ2j7R2RwF
• Kanban sections:
• Ready: 6gXqGmf7pfQVx59m
• In Progress: 6gXqGmfj8P96C87F
• Blocked: 6gXqGmjc3G548Xxm
• Phase Gates: 6gXqGmm2Cff2RC2m
• Launch Queue: 6gXqGmr6prMxq89F
• Complete: 6gXqGmqV7vcv6VJm