The Grand Scheme Volunteers in Ellsworth combine efforts to renovate historic community theater

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It takes a village to raise a child, the saying goes, but it has taken a city and many villages and towns to rehab The Grand Auditorium in Ellsworth.

For weeks now, the marquee of the 68-year-old art deco landmark has been shrouded in clear plastic, hiding the bustling behind the doors. Inside the theater, more than 30 volunteers have been busily installing nearly 500 new seats, putting in fresh carpeting, updating the restrooms and giving the interior a fresh coat of paint.

The renovations, though, have represented more than a cosmetic and structural upgrade. They have brought a community together – one that knows the value of having its local theater and performance space.

“This is just a place that people love,” Lee McWilliams, the theater’s executive director, said recently inside The Grand while volunteers whizzed purposefully by her.

Two workers walked down the new widened aisles, stopping to marvel at the additional space.

“You could do scenes here, it’s so large,” one remarked.

“We could ride motorcycles or horses down the aisles,” the other countered, both continuing on their way.

In recent weeks, the energy flowing from The Grand has been contagious, and it culminates tonight with a reprise of the Broadway hit “Disney’s Beauty and the Beast,” which ran for several weeks last fall to packed crowds.

“We’re having a great time, but there are a lot of last-minute details,” the musical’s director Ken Stack said this week. The cast is largely the same.

“We’re putting back in a number that we cut last fall and making some small changes,” Stack said. “We want to offer the audience something new.”

Stack, artistic director for Acadia Repertory Theatre on Mount Desert Island, has been directing shows at the Grand since 1990. He said community support for the recent renovations has been staggering.

“I think the entire town realized that Ellsworth has something really special on Main Street and they want to see it preserved,” he said.

McWilliams agrees.

“This place was in pretty rough shape, but since we decided to explore renovations, the project has just gathered momentum,” she said. “It’s amazing how many people want to see this succeed.”

It wasn’t always that way.

The Grand opened in Ellsworth in 1938 as a movie theater, but financial and structural problems forced its closure in the 1950s. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, it was used sparsely as a boxing ring. In 1974, it was scheduled to be demolished. But in 1975, a group of community leaders formed the Hancock County Auditorium Associates and bought the theater for $7,000. It reopened in August that year with a benefit concert and has been serving the greater Hancock County area since, offering diverse entertainment spanning all genres of music, stage and film.

Lately, though, the theater has needed a little physical pick-me-up and once again a dedicated group rose to the challenge.

The recent renovations started with the donation of 480 new seats from long-time Grand supporters Jim and Brenda Pendergist of Ellsworth. The Pendergists bought the red padded seats for a song from a theater in Presque Isle that was being shut down, an ironic contrast to the tireless efforts of many to keep the Grand alive.

Doug Kell of Milbridge, whose business, Kelco Industries, provides Christmas wreath and tree material and equipment and produces Christmas wreaths, volunteered to organize the volunteers.

“This is something that needed help and I’ve done very well for myself,” Kell declared. “So why not help?”

Kell is no stranger to volunteering and served for many years as chair of the University of Maine at Machias board of trustees.

“I’ve been in small business for many years, I’m used to getting things done,” the 76-year-old businessman said. “This has been fun … people have really come out of the woodwork for this project.”

Some of those volunteers include Acadia Painting Company, led by Elliott Moon, which repainted the hall with paint donated by Sherwin Williams and the Ellsworth Rotary Club. Local architect Bruce Stahnke provided design expertise, and Mark Beaulieu of the Hussey Seating Company offered technical support on installing the new seats. The Acadia Hearing Center contributed a new audio system for the hearing impaired. Several local restaurants have donated breakfast and lunch for the work crews during the renovations.

“Even members of the cast were in there carrying new seats,” Stack said. “It’s really been glorious to see that kind of effort; everybody is just caught up in the spirit.”

In addition to Friday’s grand reopening (pun intended), the theater will host a public reception at 1 p.m. Saturday. The renovations will be dedicated to Skip Baker, the theater’s longtime projectionist who died last November after a battle with cancer.

With all the renovations and the reopening this weekend, McWilliams said the volunteers haven’t had much time to soak it all in.

But when they do, “You can bet we’ll have a celebration,” she said.

Eric Russell can be reached at 664-0524 and erussell@bangordailynews.net.