By Robert Shumskis, Standard Correspondent
After five months of work, Pentangle’s Woodstock Town Hall Theatre is getting a facelift. Under the guidance of Deborah Greene, the Executive Director of Pentangle Arts, the lobby and theatre have been refreshed with repaired and repainted walls and new lighting fixtures to showcase the historic structure’s beauty.
“We’ve been involved with people who have either been on the design board or been involved with looking at this theatre for a while,” Greene told the Standard last week. “There are many people looking at the colors to figure it out. As you see in the lobby and going up the stairs, we’re using very traditional colors — colors that are in other theatres from around this period of time. The trick of it is keeping all of the real key pieces that keep the history and just elevating it without taking away any of the things that make it warm, cozy, and important.” Demonstrating that point, Greene pointed to some plaques that hang above the landing between the lobby and the upstairs town offices and said, “We’re still keeping everything where people are celebrated.”
Although the lobby painting work is finished, there is one element that is left to be installed. In a space that has been used for storage, a small bar is going to be built. “We’re going to get our liquor license,” Greene said. “We bought tables, so we’re working with local craftsmen. The sconces are from Simon Pearce, and they match everything that is going [in the lobby]. We’re making sure that we are keeping everything that is historic and updating where there is a need. There are going to be just as many tables as there were before, except they’re going to be made from this beautiful recycled wood.”
The bar will be closed in by a barnyard-style split door. “If it’s a slow night, we can do it here,” Greene gestured towards the small room. “Otherwise, we will open it up with the table out here. Everything is up to code with the sink and the prep area.”
“We’re going to be serving wine and beer. We’ll also have small charcuterie boxes and we’re getting locals involved with that. We’ll have a variety of Plymouth cheeses and local meats,” she continued. “Depending on the show, we’ll open up a half hour before movies so people can hang out, have a glass of wine, then take it in with them. Before any kind of performance, like a play or a musical, we’re going to open up an hour before so people can congregate,” she stated happily.
Stepping into the entryway to the theatre, Greene said, “This whole area will be painted. There’s a lot to do. This area is going to be one color and it’s really going to be like entering a theatre space. We are getting new lighting because it’s a really dark space. It’s one of the things we are going to raise funds for.”
Left, Deborah Greene admires the new look of the vaulted ceiling in the lobby of the Town Hall. At center, paint samples in the town offices show some of the color options. Right, a painter patches a section of a wall at Woodstock Town Hall Theatre.
Glancing up to the large windows, Greene mentioned how she wishes to see them restored. “I have a picture from a town meeting in 1940. At that time, the curtains opened up, but instead of having a big black barrier, you could see out. All of these windows would open up, so light was streaming in, and it was magnificent. Everybody was sitting here, and you could really feel the town because you could see it from all angles. One of the next things that we are going to do is to get an electronic blackout underneath the curtains.”
She next focused on the stage. “By the 14th, we will have all of the painting done. We’re doing lighter colors and bringing in more light in general,” she said. The physical structure of the stage will be the same. Another new feature for the stage will be a movable barrier. “It’s a really cool environment to have a party, but we need a removable barrier to keep it safe,” she stressed.
While the seating and carpeting are not being changed yet, Greene expressed her satisfaction with helping the project reach this point. “We have the largest screen around. We didn’t cut it into 17 pieces the way they did in Lebanon. It’s the largest screen around and we do have a state-of-the-art sound system. We’ll replace the seats eventually, but you can have a drink, sit down, and watch it on the big screen.”
Reflecting on why this project is important to her and the community, Greene said that her mother brought her to the theatre many times. “She was a psychologist, but she was also an artist. She was into all kinds of art; she was always on the ground making things, or painting, or taking classes [The theatre] was so much of my upbringing. She would be tickled that I’m doing this.”
She continued, “This is a labor of love for me. There is a lot to do and you want to get it right because it’s the center of the town in many ways, so it feels like a lot of pressure to get it right. It hasn’t been done in 40 years. If nothing else happens, I did this. I know that I pushed this up the hill, got it done, and people are going to enjoy it. That makes me super happy. It is tough to get everyone in agreement because it’s not one person’s project, it’s the town’s. Arts should be a priority because it gives us vehicles to talk over different opinions and boundaries.”
The spruce-up is not limited to the building, however. The Pentangle Arts website and assortment of shows are also going to be enhanced. “We want the ticketing and donating to be easier, but we also want people to understand the breadth of what we do and our history so that they can actively see what we did last week, what we’re doing next week, etc.”
The first performance at the refreshed theatre will be by Myra Flynn on Feb. 14. The concert is part of Pentangle’s new “After Hours” series, which Green describes as, “It’s going to be a salon series followed by music. There will be speakers, forums, and musicians.” She noted, “With ‘After Hours,’ we’re creating events to give people something to do — the joke being that ‘after hours’ in a city is like after midnight, and in Vermont, we just want something to do after 6 p.m.”
The next performance in the “After Hours” series will be Thursday, March 6, featuring the Nordic folk music band Frigg.
The theatre will also host an Oscar weekend featuring Timothée Chalamet’s “A Complete Unknown.” “For March, April, and May, we’re partnering with The Community Campus. We’re starting the film on Saturday night a little earlier, so instead of 7:30 p.m. it will be 7 p.m. The Community Campus does an event at the bottom of Mt. Tom that will allow parents to drop off their kids, then come here, have dinner and a glass of wine, watch a movie, then go pick up the kids. Part of the reason we want to do that is that we want to get more people in at the same time so that it really feels like a community movie night.”
Finally, Greene said there will be a broader range of programs, specifically in the early evenings from 3-6 p.m. There may be something for kids, or it may be a teacher holding a class. “People should be coming in and out of this theatre all the time,” she said emphatically. “We just finished our 50th year, and now this is a great moment to prepare for the next fifty.”