Carbondale’s Varsity Theater reopens

posted by melders on October 28, 2008 at 7:33 am

CARBONDALE, IL — The Varsity Theater reopened Friday, October 24th, as the Varsity Center for the Arts, after showing its last movie in May of 2003. Kerosotes Theatres donated the theater to the city in Febuary of this year. The city then gave it to the Stage Company, which had been without a home since the demolition of their old theater two years before. After a long campaign of clean-up and renovation, the group performed their first play Friday, “The Star-Spangled Girl”, by Neil Simon.

The reopening of the theater is just the beginning of a long campaign planned by the Stage Company. The group plans to renovate the main theater as their primary performance space and reopen the old balcony for movies. They also wish to restore the exterior as close as possible to its original state.

You can read more about the reopening in The Southern Illinoisan. If you hurry, there is also a video on their site about the theater.

Theaters in this post

• Varsity Center for the Arts