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Library theater needs money for a makeover

Rich Copley Herald-Leader Culture Columnist

Doug Tattershall walks to the back of the control booth in the theater at the Lexington Public Library downtown, opens the door on a cabinet and rolls out an extra-special item: a record player.

And not just a turntable, but a changer ready for stacks of wax.

It sits right below an analog radio tuner.

Yes, this theater could use some updating.

"Everything is over 20 years old," Tattershall says.

Lexington Public Library Foundation director William Watts says, "We were told that we couldn't even get parts anymore for a lot of this equipment."

Thanks to a $268,644 challenge grant from the W. Paul and Lucille Caudill Little Foundation, help could be on the way. If the challenge is met by July, $100,000 of the more than $537,000 will go into an endowment to maintain the five-story Foucault pendulum clock that Lucille Little donated to the library in 2001, and the remainder will be used for theater renovations.

"This is a very worthwhile program," Watts says. "The Little Foundation is very interested in arts and the theater. They had funded the clock and wanted to protect that investment. We talked to them about how they could also help the theater."

The library theater is not a major area venue, but it has hosted numerous groups and events, including productions by the Jazz Arts Foundation, the Apprentice Players, ActOut, the now-defunct Phoenix Group Theatre, the One World Film Festival and countless political debates.

It can be a boon for some groups; not-for-profit entities may use the theater for free.

Paying for space can be a huge issue for small artists and groups.

Renovations will go well beyond the outdated control room.

Backstage, the dressing rooms are being used for storage. The movie screen sits far back on the stage, away from the audience, and the lighting is far from state-of-the-art.

The renovation plan calls for staggering the seating, which now is in regimented rows that would make a military officer proud but isn't great if you are trying to see around the person in front of you on the fairly flat theater floor.

"Sight lines are certainly a problem because this theater does not have staggered seating," Janet Scott, a Lexington actor who has produced plays in the theater, says in a fund-raising video.

Annette Mayer, chairwoman of the One World Film Festival, says, "We would love to have a situation where everybody could see the screen."

David McWhorter, president of the Jazz Arts Foundation, says the theater's harsh lighting makes it difficult to produce video of the group's monthly concerts.

And everyone in the fund-raising video emphasize the library's central location: So many people are library patrons and know where it is.

Now, they just need to get the theater out of the vinyl era.