A group of artists, local leaders and community members is working to revive a historic theater in downtown Staunton as a multipurpose perming arts venue and community center. WMRA’s Calvin Pynn checked in with The Arcadia Project and filed this report.
Grotesque, laughing, stone faces and bright mosaics overlook East Beverly Street in Staunton on the façade of the building formerly known as the Dixie Theater. The style recalls the building’s history as a space for Vaudeville and burlesque performances.
The Arcadia Project is working to restore the space for modern audiences while preserving the eclectic element of the theater’s history.
(sound of construction inside theater)
In the meantime, though, there’s plenty of work to be done.
PAMELA WAGNER: So, we are happy that we are under construction and if you drive by the building, you will see all kinds of activity inside - buzz saws and plumbers and electricians going like it's like a busy as a beehive in there.
Pamela Wagner is the Executive Director and co-founder of the Arcadia Project. She hopes that the project will fill a void for a higher-capacity performance arts venue in Staunton once construction is done and the building is ready to welcome audiences and artists.
WAGNER: There's so much talent in the valley, and that's what we learned when we did the survey. People want to give back, and they have deep knowledge about how to do really cool things. And there's a desire to share that with the next generation and we really want to create a platform where that can happen.
The theater was built in 1913 in the Italian Renaissance Revival style and named The New Theatre. It was destroyed by a fire in 1936 and then rebuilt as an Art Deco Style movie theater and renamed The Dixie Theater. That operated as a four-screen movie theater until closing in 2014, because a switch to digital projection for film screenings was not feasible.
The Arcadia Project has been in the works for nearly a decade, while state funding and in-kind donations were secured in the past couple of years. Construction started in February. The effort is in its first phase, which is focused on renovating the stage and dance hall, and opening a café in the building’s entrance. Wagner said the theater is on track to open early next year.
That only covers 75 percent of the building, though. The Arcadia Project is raising funds for Phase 2, which would renovate the single-screen movie theater adjacent to the live performance space, and build classrooms and a recording studio upstairs.
Community feedback has guided the effort.
WAGNER: All the programming and architectural design for the building was guided by a survey that we did at the very beginning of taking on this project where we asked the community what they wanted to see happen inside the building.
Themed movie screenings, a listening room and workshops for podcasting and storytelling, among other crafts, were just some of the options the community asked for in the survey results. Meanwhile, the Arcadia Project is whetting their appetites with a summer concert series on the street right outside the building. That starts this Saturday with The William Hayes Duo.
Later this month, folk duo The Honey Dewdrops will perform a benefit concert at Trinity Church just up the street from the theater to raise funds for Phase Two of the project.
(sound of Honey Dewdrops music)
KAGEY PARRISH: Mostly we've been able to come to various corners of the world to play music because there are communities there that want music to happen... it's basically like people in the town that are trying to raise money and put their heads together in order to bring about this kind of space.
Kagey Parrish is one half of the Honey Dewdrops along with his partner, Laura Wortman. The group recently relocated to Staunton from Baltimore and were immediately interested in The Arcadia Project.
PARRISH: These places are historic. These places are full. Even if they're, you know, empty for a while, they're still full of a kind of spirit that is just really special. It's just really special to have this old building that has a history in this town.
Their concert is on June 27th, and as work continues, Wagner emphasized the importance of having performances near the space while the community waits for the doors to open.
WAGNER: So we have felt all along that we need to demonstrate what we will bring to the community once our doors are open. So we've done a series of activities, performances, events the entire time we've been working on this renovation.
Until that time, The Arcadia Project is focusing on trading the sound of construction with the sound of live music.
For WMRA News, I’m Calvin Pynn.
