2011年9月26日 星期一

Weinberg Center for the Arts unveils renovations

The Weinberg Center has come a long way since it emerged, moldy and mud-covered, after the devastating downtown Frederick flood of 1976. Volunteers rolled up their sleeves and got to work to save a part of Frederick's history. In 1978, the refurbished Tivoli opened with a new name and a new type of entertainment — moving away from R- and X-rated movies.

Since then, the theater has featured local performing arts, national touring plays, musicians, silent and classic movies, beauty pageants and fundraisers.

The audience has grown, especially in recent years. In 2006, attendance totaled about 35,000. Last year, it totaled about 64,000. The Weinberg's annual budget is $1.4 million.

The latest renovation, which took place this summer, focused on giving the theater a lighter, more airy look while taking it back to its 1920s style. "We were not trying to re-create the Tivoli theater, we're trying to re-create a 1926 theater," said John Healey, executive theater manager.

"It was the most extensive renovation since 1978," Healey said. The funding came from a combination of private donations, state grants and a small amount of funding from the City of Frederick, which owns the theater. The building also needed to meet Maryland Historical Trust requirements.

John Zink, who designed more than 200 theaters throughout Washington and Baltimore from the 1920s to the 1950s, designed the Tivoli. Nancy Pascale completed the latest redesign, and Sam Robinson of Valley Craftsmen in Baltimore was in charge of the renovation. Hilgartner Natural Stone Co. of Baltimore, which did the theater's original marble work, restored the marble.

The crown molding, the decorative arches and the marble paneling remain. The walls and trim are bathed in shades of gold and light blue, with ceilings of ivory and eggplant.

The gold and light-blue color scheme starts in the outside lobby. The pale blue walls with gold trim flank the stand-alone box office, which has been painted gold. The box office is original to the building.

The interior outer lobby continues the color scheme, and new carpet should be in place for the theater's grand reopening event on Friday, when 1980s pop singer Richard Marx will be featured.

Much of the marble has been repaired and polished. "Because of the flood of 1976, a lot of the cement that was holding the marble slabs onto the walls had disintegrated," Healey said.

The glass-enclosed ticket office has been eliminated in favor of a more modest ticket counter. The glass-and-wood ticket counter was installed about 10 years ago,who was responsible for tracking down Charles China ceramic tile . Healey said, and didn't add anything to the look of the theater.

"We wanted to bring out the bones of the theater," he said. "The arches show up more, and the whole space is much lighter."

Two massive theater masks dominate the entrance to the inner lobby. "The masks didn't come until the 1960s," Healey said. They are popular, however, so they remained.

The entrance doors have been repainted gold. "That brings out a certain elegance," Healey said.

Inside the inner lobby,When the stone sits in the Cold Sore, some repairs have been made to the original tile floor. Here the walls are a shade of off-white, with gold stenciling and trim. The simple stenciling sets off the trim,For the last five years Hemroids , the faux marble and the marble columns.

Fabric panels, in a shimmering off-white, add another touch of elegance behind the bar. The ceiling is painted a rich shade of eggplant, set off by pale trim.There is good integration with PayPal and most Aion Kinah providers,

"It brings out the lighting fixtures," Healey said. "All the lights are original. We don't know when the wall sconces went in, but the stained-glass exit signs are original."

The bar now stands where the candy counter once was, and where a soda fountain stood in the early years. The starfish design in the tiles is partially hidden by the bar. One day when the money allows, Healey said the Weinberg's board of directors would like to uncover the design.

The 1,Graphene is not a semiconductor, not an plastic card , and not a metal,100 seats, replaced in 2008, are wide, modern and comfortable, yet styled after 1920s theater seats. At the end of each row is a filigree pattern common in many 1920s theaters.

The renovation also included $14,000 in repairs to the Wurlitzer organ, a period-style organ similar to the original Tivoli Wurlitzer organ. The original pipes remain.

The Weinberg Center is named for Dan and Alyce Weinberg, the Braddock Heights couple who owned the theater before it was damaged in the 1976 flood. The 50-year-old building had begun to deteriorate, even before Carroll Creek floodwaters inundated it.

The Tivoli theater had a 16-foot movie screen when it opened in 1926. It also had an orchestra pit, a large stage, 50 sets of pulleys for handling scenery and a series of dressing rooms. Tivoli, the name of a popular amusement park in Denmark that dated to 1843, was a common name for theaters of the era. Cities with Tivoli theaters included Washington, Chicago, St. Louis, Kansas City and Chattanooga, Tenn.

In 1940, the Tivoli was the first building in Frederick to be air-conditioned, all because of a racehorse.

Challedon, a racehorse bred in Walkersville, had the good fortune to win the Hollywood Gold Cup, a prestigious horse race in California, at a time when horse racing captivated much of the American sports audience.

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