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10
May 2007
Night of music, summer of potential
Posted by Scott Spielman
at 2:00 AM | Comments
This will prove to be an interesting summer for the supporters of the Historic Wayne Theater.
The group of volunteers is hosting a series of concerts outside the theater every week, hoping to attract attention to their efforts to restore the theater and, hopefully, help revitalize the downtown area.
They’ve got a long way to go, but they’re working hard at it. That’s probably the best way to undertake something like this: don’t keep looking up at the peak, but at the ground right under your feet. Then take another step.
Don Nicholson, who is spearheading the effort, will probably have quite a few public relations battles ahead of him, too. The concerts take place outside the theater, which is relatively close to the Newberry Square Apartments, populated mostly by senior citizens.
It goes without saying that some of the music that will happen on Friday nights, won’t bring the seniors out with their dancing shoes.
The theater group has made some changes after the few concerts they hosted last year. They moved the stage so that it backs up to the theater wall, rather than the empty lot where the old Jamieson Block building once stood. If I understand anything about sound waves—a dubious assumption, let me assure you—that means that most of the sound will be projected to the south, toward the street, rather than bouncing off the walls and into the senior citizen apartments.
Even so, there are bound to be complaints.
It’s a difficult place to be in. The concerts are necessary in order to promote the efforts to restore the theater and bring in some funding that will get the project under way. At the same time, it’s not wise to offend one’s neighbors or—in the case of the city council—one’s voters.
Nicholson told me a story Monday about the first concert, which took place a few days earlier.
A resident of the apartment building came down to complain, but by the time Nicholson had explained what they were trying to do with the theater, he had won her over to his side. She even brought back a few of her neighbors.
Granted, a chorus doing their take on James Bond tunes is a little different than a sweaty 20-something mangling a guitar riff, but the example is still the best way to deal with any ongoing problems. Explain what you’re trying to do, keep things as civilized and as sensitive to their concerns as can be, and try to win people over, one at a time.
This project will be very difficult, to say the least. It will require a lot of cooperation between the city, its residents and those who come to visit.
The payoff is worth a few noisy Fridays, though. If they are successful with this project, it will be quite a boon to the downtown area.
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