“Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly,” Langston Hughes wrote.
As the coronavirus pandemic hit, the destruction of dreams seemed inevitable but not for the Longmont Theatre Company, which has spent the months it has been closed fulfilling a personal and important dream.
The Longmont Theatre Company lost a longtime volunteer and member, Tracy Cravens, nearly a year ago. For those who knew Cravens, the only complaint she would ever utter was how incredibly uncomfortable the seats of the Longmont Performing Arts Center were, said Longmont Theatre Company’s President Faye Lamb.
“She had hiding places for her pillows all over the theater (in the cabinets, the lobby furniture, upstairs lockers) and would give them out to patrons and little kids to make the seats more comfortable and to help little persons see over the adults. She would often find you in the dark after the show had started "with your pillow,” Lamb said in a January Facebook post.
When Cravens died in January, Lamb and the other members of Longmont Theatre Company could not think of a better way to honor her memory than to redo the seats. They immediately began a GoFundMe campaign and raised more than $50,000 for the project.
Working with local vendors, Lamb said the seats have a completely different feel. S & S Upholstery, an upholstery shop serving Longmont since 1984, added foam to add support for the lower spine, making the seats far more comfortable, Lamb said.
Brad Wilson, whose family has owned S & S Upholstery for the last 35 years, grew up in Longmont and saw many movies at the theater when it was the Old Trojan Movie House.
“I saw things like ‘Sleeping Beauty’ and all the ‘Star Wars’ movies there,” he said.
Being a local business and someone who has sat in the uncomfortable seats of the theater many times, Wilson said he is excited to be a part of the seat restoration project.
“We added more foam to the seats and new fabric. They are much more comfortable now,” he said.
The seats were a problem for many audience members, Lamb said someone messaged her on Facebook to say she had not been to the theater in years because of the seats. She is excited to return again when the doors open.
A before and after comparison of the brown seats on the left at and the new seats at the Longmont Performing Arts Center. (Photo courtesy of Faye Lamb)Harnessing that energy, it felt like time to refresh the place in other ways. Since the doors were already closed because of the pandemic the timing worked out perfectly.
Through fundraising efforts, Longmont Theatre Company has been able to update the carpet in the aisles and lobby, repaint the floor around the new seats, replace the previously donated stage curtains, switch to a new ticketing service and update its website, add house lights to illuminate the audience area, update back of the house lighting and a few other minor updates.
“We have really taken advantage of this time to give a better theater experience,” Lamb said. “Sometimes good things come out of tragedy or sadness and that’s this. We would have probably never done this.”
The Longmont Performing Arts Center doubles as the Longmont Trojan Movie House. Lamb hoped to be able to open the doors in November to host some socially distanced movie viewings, but as COVID-related restrictions continue to change, that has not been possible.
She hopes to find some creative ways to bring in more revenue over the next few months. The theater brings in more than $250,000 from ticket sales and summer camps in a normal year. During COVID, the doors have remained closed and the theatre has lost 70% of its revenue.
The Longmont Theatre Company has a few ideas for livestreaming some events and partnering with local businesses. Currently, it is working on the details of such plans, but Lamb encourages theater lovers to keep an eye on the Facebook page for announcements.
“I think people are wanting, especially our performers, to get back in here,” Lamb said. “I’m one of those old-school people who think that art is part of everyday life and I think that anything that makes that creative process happen is good for people. I think in times like this is when we really realize how important music and poetry really is and I think it helps us get through crises.”
In order to do that, even after COVID restrictions lift, the Theatre Company will still need to cover the costs of producing a show. It has started a Support the Theatre campaign in order to be ready to go when the doors can open again.
The Longmont Performing Arts Center before and after painting started.(Photo courtesy of Faye Lamb)
