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hey revamped the marquee. They hung a
new red curtain. They added a brand new
PA, a new coat of paint and refurbished
the bathrooms; these were all part of the
improvements.
Improvements that proved to be tem
porary; all these factors contributed to the
gradual renovation of the historic Georgia
Theatre between 2004 and 2009. And with the
exception of the iconic marquee, all of them
were lost. "After the fire, we had to gut the
thing out and completely shell it," says Scott
Orvold, talent buyer for the Georgia Theatre.
"We literally had four walls and a marquee
when we started rebuilding."
The grand reopening of the Georgia Theatre
has long felt like both an inevitability and
a far-off goal. Aptly, the same could be said
for the reemergence of the opening night's
headlining act, The Glands, Athens' reclusive
indie-rock cult favorites. While heavier hitters
in terms of national prevalence are booked
for the two-week grand-opening celebration
that runs Aug. 1-14—Georgia-centric acts like
Big Boi or Drive-By Truckers, for example—
the solidly local line-up and reasonable price
of admission for Aug. 1 say a lot about the
management's priorities. The same goes for
the "open house" show on Aug. 3, which will
allow patrons to enter for free while Kenosha
Kid soundtracks their rediscovery of the space.
"We've been trying to talk them into play
ing here for a long time," says owner Wilmot
Greene of The Glands. "The reason I like it
personally is because it's so Athens. It's the
most Athens thing I could think of. And it's a
S10 ticket; that's cool."
The gravity of the impending event is not
lost on Madeline Adams, who, with her Black
Velvet Band, will be the first official act to
set foot on the stage before the return of The
Glands (there was at least one unannounced
show at the Theatre last week). "It's an
incredible honor," Adams says. "This is defi
nitely going to be the largest audience we've
ever played in front of." After recalling her
first visit to the Theatre—a listening party for
R.E.M.'s Up which she attended with parental
supervision—she says that since the recon
struction, "I wanted to go and check it out,
but now I'm sort of holding off until the show
to give myself the happy surprise."
The end result of the rebuilding effort is
a combination of comforting commonality
with the Theatre's traditional look and the
aforementioned happy surprise, and it's all a
long, long way from four walls and a marquee.
Two weeks before the official reopening of the
Theatre, Orvold and Greene walked around and
inspected what was left to be done as well as
what had been accomplished so far. It's all an
overwhelming amount of change, but the com
mitment to retaining much of the Theatre's old
charm is wholly evident.
"We tried to make the venue feel as much
like it did before [as possible]," says Orvold.
"So, we're trying to do things like have the
red curtain that everybody remembers, have
the slanted floor that everyone remembers...
we were able to reclaim some of the stuff from
the old venue, like some of the old wood that
was in our office and in the hallway. We were
able to salvage it ar .ire a wood craftsman
to reuse it and continue to give it the same
feel that it had in the-past."
The handiwork of Landus Bennett and
Richard Shrader, the wood craftsmen from the
company Watson Springs who were hired for
the project, is evident in nearly every corner
of the building, including the scorched wood
found in the ticket booth, the semicircular
bars and elsewhere in the venue. Upon step
ping into the foyer, a colorful, fractal-flecked
ceiling mural by local painter Kris D can be
seen overhead.
Stepping further into the building, under
one of the original beams from 1887, one can
take in one of the biggest differences in the
new Theatre: a completely revamped balcony.
"We changed the style of the balcony; instead
of having all seats, we made it three-tiered,"
says Orvold. "That was for a couple of reasons.
One, to gain capacity, so we could sell more
tickets legally; and two, just to make it more
of a rock/dance style venue. We modeled a lot
of the building after the way they have it set
up at the 9:30 Club in D.C."
The new balcony is equipped with stylish
handrails and a bar of its own; there are areas
along the sides that can be reserved for VIP
tables. The sight lines all around give a per
fect view of the expanded stage as well as the
new Nexo PA system put in place by produc
tion manager Rick Wallace.
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14 FLAGPOLE.COM-JULY 27, 2011
