If you believed the headline, you’d think the Dixie Theatre in Staunton is on the path to reopening.
And maybe it is. Or maybe it isn’t.
The real story is a lot less definitive. All that happened last week was the news of a grant from Virginia Main Street that will pay for a market study, a structural engineering report, architectural services and research into the viability of applying for more grant funding.
Congrats to those who will get to share in the dollars to do that work.
All this is otherwise is a very, very beginning step in some direction on a project that could take years and cost millions.
Hate to be the wet blanket, but that’s the deeper story here, such as it is.
This I know as a veteran of the project to rehab the Wayne Theatre in Waynesboro, which began in 2000 and resulted in the reopening of the theatre way, way, way down the road from there, in 2016.
And looking at the Wayne’s first three years of operations, I’d say the jury is still out as to its long-term viability.
One thing we know for sure with the Wayne: it has not been the tourist driver that was envisioned at the outset of the project, drawing its paying customers mainly from the local area.
The folks involved work hard, really hard, so this isn’t casting aspersions in any way.
It’s just: is a small theatre in Waynesboro, and then also Staunton, if the Arcadia Project eventually reopens the Dixie, going to draw people from Charlottesville, Harrisonburg, Richmond, beyond, considering the entertainment options in the bigger cities?
Staunton is fortunate in that it already has the American Shakespeare Center that is a draw regionally and nationally for its unique entertainment offering: live Shakespeare.
The idea of throwing millions of local dollars, private and public, into a venue basically down the street seems a bit superfluous.
No doubt Staunton needs to do something with that important downtown building.
The Staunton community also needs to build an economy with living-wage jobs, educate its kids to be able to work the jobs of tomorrow, among a long list of existential needs.
Waynesboro, too, to that end.
Both communities would do better to put more efforts into creating more good-paying jobs and educating kids.
Are there grants that can help with that?
Column by Chris Graham
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