AUGUSTA, Maine — The Augusta Colonial Theater is hosting its first live performance in 53 years. The show will feature master mind reader and magician Kent Axell.
Axell performs regularly in Las Vegas and is in Maine Friday to help put the theater back on the map.
Kathi Wall is the theater's executive director. She said the goal is to bring a new arts and cultural center to the capital area of the state.
“We are thrilled to open the theater’s doors and welcome the community back for the first performance in over 50 years,” Wall said. “This is a step into the theater’s next chapter and a look at the capital area’s future with an arts and cultural center. Our community can look forward to more and more performances, live music, movies, and so much more in the very near future.”
"Better handicap accessibility, elevators, larger bathroom facilities and that type of thing, and on the top floor there will be a restaurant. And it will be the only restaurant in the downtown area that has a direct overview of the river, so I think that we will have galleries, conference space ... there will be ways of producing income for this theatre project ... not just as a movie theater," she added.
Tickets for the show on Friday, titled "Lifting the Curtain," are all sold out. But if you would like to support the theater's revitalization efforts, click here.
Wall said a limited number of tickets would be sold at the door, but she suggested interested people get there early.
"Augusta is the only capital city in the United States without an arts and culture center. So, I see that there can be focus on military, on mental health services, on job opportunities ... I think that to think about this just as a theater is to really sell it short, and the fact is that it can be so much more of a community endeavor than anyone ever dreams about," Wall said.