LAKEPORT — It has been a great year at the Soper-Reese. The entire community has gotten behind the first year of the new incarnation of the beloved performing arts center. We do need to take care of some unfinished business, however.
You may notice on your next trip through the south end of downtown Lakeport that the Soper-Reese, Your community theater, is under going some work. It is indeed. We have taken this time, a break in the weather, as well as a space in our booking calendar, to do a major performance of our own.
The theater will be closed for approximately two months while we take care of a few updates to this valuable, historic building.
For those of you who are familiar with the layout of the stage you will see some exciting changes. We are widening the stage by 20 feet taking it all the way to the north and south walls. By doing so, the stage will be almost 2,500 square feet. This will allow us to book larger acts for the theater.
District 4 County Supervisor, Anthony Farrington, presented a check for $15,000 to members of the Lake County Arts Council”s Soper-Reese Theater Renovation Committee on Tuesday, April 7. The funds, authorized in December, reflect the ongoing support for this important community project by the County Board of Supervisors. Mr. Farrington toured the theater and expressed approval of the continuing progress being made during “Phase 2” renovation work and thanked the all-volunteer committee for their hard work and congratulated them for staying on budget with the tasks that have been completed so far.
We are raising the rear entry doors and enlarging the north set of doors to six feet by nine feet. This new size will allow for the easy delivery of large flats and props for various shows being staged at the venue. There are several ramps being installed for our handicapped patrons and an exit door cut into the south wall along Martin Street for access to the future garden patio.
At this same time, the concrete foundation for the dressing rooms is being poured and a new sewer hookup is being connected along the south wall. The dressing rooms will have to be built at a later date. We decided to do all of the concrete work for this next phase of the construction project together. It is the best way to maximize the dollars that have so generously been donated. This also helps keep people employed. As with the previous work, the $258,800 required for this construction, was raised prior to starting the work to ensure the long term success of the theater by not incurring debt.
The immediate fundraising goal is now $100,000 needed to construct the dressing rooms and restrooms on the completed foundation.
We always welcome donations for this project and thank everyone for their dedicated help.
We are putting together a new web site with a shortened Web address, which will be online soon. It is being created by our local web master, Eric Schlange at Bitsculptor in Lakeport. The new address will be: www.SoperReese.com.
So keep looking at our marquee and watch the front windows for updates about our re-opening.
The theater can be booked for rentals again probably by the middle of June. We will keep you posted and thanks for your continued support of the Soper-Reese, y0our community theater.
