July 31, 2002
Old Town Playhouse refurbishes sagging theater seats
'Have a Seat' campaign updates 293 main floor and 64 balcony chairs in Traverse City playhouse
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
With a summer remodeling project winding up, patrons of the Old Town Playhouse will be pleasantly surprised during their next visit.
When attending a play at the main stage, new carpeting and wooden runners, fresh painting and completely refurbished seats will greet them.
The seats, in particular, needed some major help. While they were structurally sound, they sagged, bagged and otherwise were uncomfortable to audience members.
"These chairs were 25 years old," said Mary Gillett, executive director of the Old Town Playhouse, noting these projects are a continuation of the ongoing building renovation that began in 1999. "We are very excited to get them redone."
Gutting the seating in the playhouse took, well, guts. And perfect timing to work around the Old Town Playhouse's busy schedule. Gillett said workers have just a six-week window to accomplish everything.
"The seats left the building on June 25, the day after 'A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court' closed," Gillett said. "They being installed this week, and will be done by August 3, in time for the upcoming Missoula Children's Theater production that begins August 12."
In fact, the whole refurbishing project was as tightly choreographed as any main stage production, with the floor guys working around the painters who worked around the carpet installers who had to be done before the chairs arrived en masse Monday morning.
The Old Town Playhouse seats were overdue for an update. Since 1977, the 293 main floor and 64 balcony chairs have been used for 85 performance days and at least 200 rehearsal days per year. That computes to thousands of hours and thousands of pounds of sitting per seat.
With torn upholstery, sprung springs and sagging padding, Gillett said the playhouse first explored the idea of totally replacing the seats. However, seating experts recommended refurbishing them instead so the playhouse kicked off a capital campaign to raise the needed $55,000 to do so.
Dubbed the 'Have a Seat' drive, this campaign has already received grants from a variety of community organizations, including the Les and Anne Biederman Foundation, Fifth Third Bank Foundation, the Oleson Foundation, the Charles M. Bauervic Foundation, the Mariel Foundation and the Kiwanis Club of Traverse City. Individuals can donate $200 or more and have an engraved brass plate affixed to one of the restored seat's armrests. More than half of the seats on the main floor have found sponsors so far.
For more information on the Have a Seat campaign, contact the Old Town Playhouse at 947-2210 or otp@traverse.net.