Back on track: Wayne Theatre façade work to be complete by April

With façade work on track to be completed on the Wayne Theatre by mid-April, the Wayne Theatre Alliance is hoping to secure the extra money it needs to begin construction on its interior by June and be open within 18 months.

Clair Myers, WTA executive director, said the theater has raised nearly $2.2 million and needs to raise another $1.25 million to begin the interior construction by the beginning of June. The theater is expected to cost $6.8 million.

“As soon as I can get assured that we have the extra money here in one form or another, we can go on,” Myers said.

In 2008, the Waynesboro City Council adopted a resolution supporting a performance measures agreement between the WTA and the Economic Development Authority.

The nonbinding agreement stipulates that if the alliance meets a series of benchmarks, it would receive a $700,000 incentive package over 10 years, including a $200,000 first installment once the WTA receives its occupancy permit for the theater and submits to the EDA a preliminary schedule of events.

The city, in 2007, also passed a resolution giving the WTA $300,000 for the theater’s restoration.

The current council majority of Mayor Tim Williams, Vice Mayor Frank Lucente and Councilman Bruce Allen oppose more spending on the Wayne Theatre.

Myers said the WTA should be able to weather the current economic recession that is starting to have an impact on theaters nationwide, including the American Shakespeare Center in Staunton, which has raised $250,000 of a needed $650,000 in its “Survive and Thrive” campaign, and the Mill Mountain Theater in Roanoke, which in January announced it would close due to large debts.

Liz Bartolomeo, marketing coordinator for Americans for the Arts in Washington, D.C., said she expects to see more cuts across the 100,000-plus arts organizations throughout the United States, but hopes, like Myers, that the economic stimulus package currently before Congress can help arts organizations. 

“We show that the arts are a good indicator of an economic stimulus,” Bartolomeo said. “It can also revitalize downtowns [and] bring people together.”

Once the Wayne opens, plans are for a diversity of programming that Myers believes will help set it apart. It will serve as a movie house, a performing arts theater and a conference center.

Myers cites some of the WTA’s programming, from “Greater Tuna,” River City Radio Hour, The Children’s Hour, Murder at the Winery, the upcoming play “Love Letters” and the second annual Bluegrass, Blue Jeans & BBQ Festival in June as examples of the diversity the Wayne will offer once it opens.

“Just as when we move into the new theater, it has to have the whole breadth of programming,” Myers said.

Myers said the theater would have to get the right kind of programming to attract people not just locally, but from more metropolitan areas as well.

“We’ve got to create destination-type programming,” Myers said. 

The façade work was delayed for about a month, but is on track to be completed by mid-April. By that time, the outside will have an LED marquee similar in look to the old theater. In addition, the bricks are being repointed, windows restored and two lanterns – one on each side – put back in front of the building.

“It really will look like 1926,” Myers said.

Mathers Construction of Waynesboro is the project’s construction manager and general contractor, and is collaborating with Bushman and Dreyfus of Charlottesville, who are the architects for the project.

The Wayne, Myers said, is getting “closer and closer” to opening.

“I think we’ve got the momentum to get through this challenging time,” Myers said.