Brunswick residents want theater to stay put

BRUNSWICK – Brunswick residents are making a push to keep the Maine State Music Theatre from moving to Gorham.

Theater officials announced recently that the Pickard Theater at Bowdoin College has become too small for their needs. They plan to move to the University of Southern Maine’s Gorham campus, where a 900-seat theater is being built.

But Brunswick residents say they want the theater to stay.

“If Maine State Music Theatre left Brunswick we would suffer a real cultural loss,” said Jacqueline Sartoris, a town councilor. “My hope is that we can brainstorm and come up with a solution.”

Town officials estimate the theater pumps $2.8 million a year into the local economy.

Theater sponsor and builder John Wasileski has offered 5 acres in his latest retirement community, Highland Green in Topsham, in hopes that the theater will stay in Brunswick.

“It’s a premier location, just off the Coastal Connector,” said Wasileski, who is also developing options for the theater’s housing needs.

Theater officials cited an inability to increase revenues and the rising costs of producing shows as reasons to move. The current theater has just 598 seats and no air conditioning.

They also said Brunswick’s housing prices are expected to rise dramatically, which will make it virtually impossible for the group’s 120 members to find affordable housing.

The nonprofit company is also about $60,000 in debt. It costs about $250,000 to produce shows such as “Damn Yankees,” “The Sound of Music,” “Cabaret” and “Carousel,” said Raymond Marc Dumont, the theater’s managing director.

“We want to stay in Brunswick if it can be done, but we also want to stay in business,” he said.

If everything fall into place, the theater in Gorham could open in 2005, a year after the music theater’s contract runs out with Bowdoin.