Milton Theatre to begin balcony construction in January
After four years of fundraising interrupted by a pandemic, Milton Theatre will begin work on putting the balcony back into the historic venue in January.
Theater Director Fred Munzert said, “It’s happening.”
He said construction is scheduled to last for four to five months.
“It’s exciting. It’s challenging. We’re finally at the point where we’re going to build something. Returning the balcony is wildly exciting to me because it was built with a balcony initially. To me, it just makes sense that that’s the first thing you do,” Munzert said.
He said the intention is to put in the balcony while keeping a lot of the building’s old charm, like the exposed brick walls. At first, 48 seats will be put in, but eventually, the balcony will grow to 114 seats.
“We’re not going to close. We’re going to build a partition and still do shows while we’re building. It’s going to significantly reduce our seating capacity, but we’re going to keep doing shows,” Munzert said.
He added that the construction team is planning to put lighting and windows in the partition so theatergoers can see the progress as it goes along. The section to be partitioned off will go from the rear wall of the theater to the current tech booth.
Munzert said eventually, the plan is to use the space under the balcony as a kind of second performance area for acoustic sets or jazz combos.
The theater will host its first big fundraiser of the yearSaturday, Jan. 8: the unGala, also known as Bootlegger’s Ball, a 1920s-themed cocktail party. Partygoers are encouraged to dress up in Prohibition-era outfits, and the event will include a whiskey bar with Dogfish Head spirits, catering by Hari Cameron and music by Virginia-based jazz group Good Shot Judy.
Munzert said he envisions the event as the theater’s second major fundraiser of the year, to go along with October’s Zombie Fest.
Theater board member Annette Babich said, “This is a little bit more formal, a little bit more fancy. It’s going to be fun. It’s going to be festive.”
Munzert added, “We just went through a pandemic; it needs to be a party.”
The fundraiser will also kick off both the balcony reconstruction and Phase 2 of the Milton Theatre Renaissance Initiative, which 100 percent of event proceeds will support, Munzert said.
Phase 2 will relocate the artists’ facilities to the first floor so they can have easy access to the stage, which will allow for an expanded rehearsal space on the second floor. This phase will also see the remainder of the seats put into the balcony, and Munzert said funds raised will also be put toward paying down debt on the theater building itself and the Milton Theatre House, which was purchased in 2020 as a space for artists to stay the night when in town for shows.
The unGala represents a return to large-scale fundraising for the theater, which paused its theater renaissance capital campaign during the pandemic due to economic uncertainty. Munzert said enough was raised already to move forward with the balcony, and now the theater is ready to start the next phase.
Babich said, “The event is a celebration of everything that the theater has been working on all these years. It is an exciting time for both the theater and the town to see these initiatives come to fruition, and I'm so proud to be there and be part of it.”
For tickets to the unGala, visit miltontheatre.com.
