Kris Garrett of the Evergreen Playhouse talks about renovations to the lobby Wednesday morning in Centralia.
Picture frames hold photos and newspaper clippings from the playhouse’s history Wednesday morning in Centralia.
Masks are sold at the Evergreen Playhouse seen Wednesday morning in Centralia.
New seats are displayed inside the Evergreen Playhouse Wednesday morning in Centralia featuring engraved plaques.
Posters for plays scheduled previously hang on the wall inside the Evergreen Playhouse on Wednesday.
A plaque on a seat in the playhouse reads, ‘The Show Must Go On,’ Wednesday morning in Centralia.
With fresh paint, new flooring and 130 new chairs installed, the Evergreen Playhouse plans to open at 25% capacity to present two of what it’s calling “One From the Shelf” performances in the improved space.
Evergreen Playhouse Board President Kris Garrett said the closure of the playhouse due to the COVID-19 pandemic gave them “the gift of time” to complete the upgrades so they didn’t have to work around performances and rehearsals.
A seating company based out of Wisconsin installed all 130 of the larger, more comfortable seats over this past summer. A company was hired to paint the exterior of the building, and the 12 Evergreen Playhouse board members worked in shifts to give the inside of the playhouse a fresh coat of paint.
The old seats had wooden backs and were at least 50 years old. In order to preserve the history of the playhouse, three of the original seats were kept and put on display in the entryway of the building.
Garrett said she would love to have Philip Wickstrom, one of the founding members of the Evergreen Playhouse, which opened in 1959, visit the playhouse to see the improvements.
“For all of us, we were all pretty emotional seeing the new seats and then you sit in them your back doesn’t hurt,” Garrett said. “It’s exciting, and there’s that little bit of tearfulness because we are letting go of an era. We’re letting go of that past.”
The Evergreen Playhouse board held a small open house event in November to showcase the upgrades to the playhouse members and to collect donations.
“We got quite a few donations that night and it was really helpful because we don’t have any regular income since we aren’t having any shows right now,” Garrett said.
Now, with Lewis County in Phase 2 of the state’s reopening plan, the playhouse can operate at 25% capacity and is planning to host “One From the Shelf” performances of “All Rights Reserved” on Feb. 27 and “Writer’s Run” on March 6, both at 7:30 p.m. Information about ticket sales will be posted on the Evergreen Playhouse website at https://evergreenplayhouse.com/.
For the “One From the Shelf” shows, the actors perform with scripts in hand and a videographer records the performance and puts it up online for those who cannot attend in person, Garrett said.
Garrett also operates a theater company called TOAD (Theatre of Arts Discipline) that provides the theater experience to children. The Evergreen Playhouse is planning to partner with TOAD in June to put on an outdoor performance of a shortened version of a “Midsummer Night’s Dream.”
Another performance that is on the horizon is a revival of “Next to Normal.” In March of 2020, the cast of the “Next to Normal” show was only able to perform one weekend before the COVID-19 closures. Garrett hopes this show will return in the spring or summer of 2021 after the cast is able to reacquaint themselves with the show after having a year off.
The Evergreen Playhouse is working to keep everyone safe when hosting any events or shows, Garrett said, by having masks and hand sanitizer available and by scheduling regular cleanings of the playhouse.
“We always want to stay in compliance. I can’t wait to reopen, but I only want to reopen if we can do it safely,” Garrett said.
