Town Hall Benefactor Boosts

Renovation, Restoration

By John Voket

A local benefactor, who wishes to remain anonymous, has made a substantial donation toward completing some much-needed restorations and improvements at the Edmond Town Hall theater.

According to Board of Managers Chairman James Juliano, the individual is an opera lover who hopes to see the theater used occasionally to simulcast live opera presentations from around the nation or the globe. 

“The work involves some real craftsmen who are expert at this type of plaster restoration,” Mr Juliano said, adding that he is also removing and cleaning various sconces that decorate the 80-year-old theater.

Some of the interior plaster, particularly in the rear ceiling area above the small balcony, were damaged by water leaking into the structure over the past few years, he explained.

On Monday, December 19, Cecil Watson and David Massey, both of Kronenberger & Sons Restoration, Inc, of Middletown, continued crafting plaster repairs in the balcony area.

“It’s hard to even notice the damage when the theater is dark, but when you turned a light on it, you could see all the blemishes,” Mr Juliano said. “It’s such a beautiful room, I think once it’s fully renovated it could rival the Palace Theater [renovation] in Waterbury.”

The managers’ board of trustee said some work is also being completed in a first floor bathroom. He estimated when all was said and done, the project cost would be about $60,000 with “a substantial amount” being covered by the donation.

Mr Juliano described the local theater as “a jewel that needed some polish,” and hopes that the news of this strategic financial support to enhance the historic features of the room would inspire other donations to help complete renovations and add the equipment necessary to offer opera broadcasts to local audiences.

A campaign to replace the theater’s aging seats was conducted several years ago with great success.

Currently, the Metropolitan Opera offers live simulcast and encore presentations of some of its operas at a host of locations in Connecticut including the Quick Center for the Arts at Fairfield University, the Ridgefield Playhouse, Old Saybrook’s Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center, the Warner Theatre in Torrington and Sprague Memorial Hall at the Yale School of Music in New Haven. Some of the opera broadcasts are also offered at Regal Cinema complexes in Waterbury and Branford.

Among the Met’s 2012 simulcast presentations are Verdi’s Ernani and La Traviata as well as a new production of Massenet’s Manon.