(Editor’s note: This story originally ran Jan. 11, 2024. On May 23, 2024, the organization closed on the property at 712 Ellis St. and has launched a capital campaign.)
Over the years, the Augusta Players have auditioned and rehearsed in a myriad of places across the area from Sunday school classrooms to gymnasiums to vacated retail spaces to other non-profit organizations’ buildings all while maintaining separate offices and storage facilities.
Some spaces they used for many years, but the common denominator was “we didn’t own it, we leased it,” said Scott Seidl, the theater group’s artistic and executive director. “This will be something that’s our own for the first time in the soon to be 80-year existence of the organization.”
As the Players head into their 80th season in fall 2024, they have embarked on a capital campaign to raise $2.3 million for the purchase, renovation and first year’s operation of a 17,000 square foot building on Ellis Street, which once served as a downtown firehouse, he said.
Seidl can envision a lively space with three upstairs rehearsal rooms, one of which will offer the same dimensions as the Imperial Theatre’s stage, where the main performances are held. Also, the upstairs would house the administrative offices.
The area could double as a venue for its season-holder event or for smaller Augusta Junior Player shows.
Downstairs would offer storage space as well as a place to construct set pieces, which could be taken upstairs via the elevator that is part of the upgrades.
Currently, the administrative offices are located at Sacred Heart Cultural Center and sets and costumes are in another storage facility.
And he can also envision a creative freedom the organization doesn’t fully have.
“We have great partners,” he said of the Jessye Norman School for the Arts, the Kroc Center and Sacred Heart; however, because the Players use borrowed space, there are limitations in what types of programming they can offer.
Seidl said he’d love to expand Camp Wonderland, a summer camp for children with autism and neurotypical diagnoses, but it often comes down to the space issue.
“Scheduling camp is a bit of a challenge, but that’s all going to change,” he said.
During the school year, they are limited to using the space once other after-school programs end, but with their own building, there are other options.
“We can teach acting classes. We can teach dance. We can do things for people on the spectrum all year long; not that those things are going to happen on Day One,” he said. “I would love to do technical theater programs.”
And the Players might be able to be the ones giving a helping hand to other organizations in need of space in the future.
The idea for a home of their own started churning in 2017.
For many years, the organization used a downtown warehouse for storage because it was free, but its owners were going to start charging for it. The place was run down, and the hunt for a new storage space began in earnest.
That hunt also sparked the “what if” of a home of their own, he said.
Prior to finding the Ellis Street location, they had located a place that could’ve worked.
“It was a space everybody was really excited about, but our benefactor was not excited about it,” he said.
When Seidl asked, the benefactor turned the question back and asked Seidl what he thought about the building.
“I said, it’s doable and would work,’” Seidl said. “He then said ‘do you want to spend this amount of money on something that will work or do you want to find a space that’s the right space?’”
Seidl believes they’ve found the right space.
The group has been using the building since September, rehearsing shows such as “Little Shop of Horrors” and “White Christmas” in it.
And the Artreach shows for schoolchildren were directly across the street at the Miller Theater, which has a back entrance that opens to Ellis Street.
“I’m so excited about it. I feel like we’re now part of the theater district. Not that we weren’t before because this is where we produced, but this is our home. This is where we have room in this space long-term. I have ideas and goals to help this part of downtown grow and become more vital.
And now that we’re going to be in the middle of it, we can start looking at ways to make that happen.”
One of the ways the organization is raising money is through a brick program. People can buy bricks and have them engraved for $250. These bricks will be placed inside the renovated building.
Visit the Players’ website for more information.
Charmain Z. Brackett, the publisher of Augusta Good News and Inspiring: Women of Augusta, has covered Augusta’s news for 35 years. Reach her at charmain@augustagoodnews.com. Sign up for the newsletter here.
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