Dr. Indira Etwaroo, Executive Director of the Billie Holiday Theater welcomes the community to the theater and hears these days walking down the street in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn the excitement. People wanting to know what is the new production coming to the neighborhood’s Billie Holiday Theater.
The Billie has been a neighborhood institution virtually since it was founded in 1972, and once featured up-and-coming stars like Debbie Allen and Sam Jackson (before he added the “L”).
And it was in need of a major face-lift.
For the past two years, the theater at Restoration Plaza, a former Sheffield Farms dairy bottling plant, has been closed for a $4.1 million gut renovation and expansion. Narrow seats removed and replaced. New air-conditioning. A new boiler, and new dressing rooms with showers. New catwalks and rigging installed, acoustic panels added and the stage extended and rebuilt, using maple. Right now, new lights are being installed, as well as new red and black curtains, new railings and a control board inside a brand-new control room.
“It was long overdue; you’re talking about the first renovation in over 40 years,” said Ms. Etwaroo, who took over as executive director for the Center of Arts and Culture at Bedford-Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation just as it closed its theater for renovation two winters ago. “With the renaissance that’s been happening in Bedford-Stuyvesant, the Billie Holiday was poised for this project.”
From: www.nytimes.co...
5 сен 2024
