Group Raising Funds For Summer Theater Festival
AUBURN, N.Y. -- With theater season still a month away, the Merry-Go-Round playhouse sits empty, but that could change in a big way in the near future. The playhouse's theater group is working with The Musical Theater Festival group to bring a festival to Auburn.
"The idea is for this to be running from the end of May through the beginning of September. It would be operating in five different theaters," said Musical Theater Festival Managing Director Michael Chamberlain.
One of those theaters would be the playhouse, which has been a staple of Auburn's theater scene for years. Theater officials think the festival can help them build on their success and attract a large number of theatergoers.
"We intend to really celebrate everything that's going on with musical theater and we can bring in plays from as far away as Texas or as close as Skaneateles but it's really going to be a national festival," said Merry-Go-Round Playhouse Producer-Director Ed Sayles.
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The two groups have joined forces in raising funds and are working toward raising $11.9 million for the project. Part of the money would go toward putting a 300 seat theater in the old Kalet building. The project could get a big boost if the group is able to secure a grant of over $2 million from the state.
"We're working with the city right now on a grant application to New York State's Restore New York program and we're hopeful that that will be successful. We should find out about that later this summer," said Chamberlain. So far the group says they have raised two million dollars in funds, and believe that the festival could bring in as much as 30 million dollars to the area.
"Geographically it is a gem. I got out to do demos one day and I realized that within four and a half hours of Auburn there's over 30 million people," said Sayles.
"We think that this is going to have a significant tourism impact in central new york and the eastern finger lakes," said Chamberlain.
Chamberlain says he will be meeting with a development advisory board about the project later this week.