Tupper Arts closed on buying both the building and the business from Sally Strasser last Friday, and the group plans to renovate it extensively using town grant money combined with revenue from fundraising. Movie times and prices will the remain the same, according to Tupper Arts.

With Strasser retiring after 20 years as the theater’s owner, Tupper Arts took on the task of purchasing and fixing up the theater with some of the $10 million Downtown Revitalization Initiative — DRI — state grant awarded to Tupper Lake after town Director of Community Development Melissa McManus approached them about doing so.

The planned renovations, which are expected to take more or less two years, include expanding the stage in the main theater to accommodate live performances, making the screen in the main theater a retractable screen instead of a fixed one, clearing out old theater chairs from behind the screen in the main theater, removing the railing in the upstairs theater, replacing the leaky roof, redoing the wall coverings, replacing the carpet, installing new lighting, adding an HVAC system and replacing the marquee out front with one that is “more upscale,” according to Tupper Arts President Susan Delehanty. She said that Tupper Arts has already “coordinated purchasing items and things that we need, both at the Art Center and (at the theater),” and figured out ways they can maximize cost savings.

Tupper Arts has already raised $200,000 to go along with the $700,000 dollars from the grant in order to pay for the building and the business. Delehanty said that after ending up with $1 million from the grant and their fundraising combined, they will now need to raise $2 million more to cover the renovations. She hopes that they can do even more than was originally planned. In the meantime, she said they already have enough money to start the renovations.

Tupper Arts Director of Operations Evie Longhurst and theater Manager John Barton stand in front of Adirondack State Theater in Tupper Lake Tuesday. (Enterprise photo — Galen Halasz)

Delehanty said that previous owner Sally Strasser, who they are now hiring to book movies for them, has always been excellent at making sure the theater is showing the most popular movies on a consistent basis. Thanks to Strasser, business has been going well, according to Delehanty, and she expects that the theater’s popularity will only continue and will hopefully grow.

“As theaters close in bigger communities all around us, we are pretty proud of the fact that we still have the movie theater in Tupper Lake and we want to continue that,” she said. “… There’s a lot that needs to be done, but I think the transformation is going to make this a beautiful place and people are going to enjoy coming here for events, whether it’s a movie or a play or a talent show or a concert. I think that this is going to be the place to be.”

She said she is planning to bring her own grandchildren to see a movie there this week. At present, the theater is showing “Inside Out 2” and “The Garfield Movie.”

There are currently 136 seats in the main theater, according to Delehanty, but a few rows of them will be removed to accommodate the enlarged stage area in front of the where screen is. She said that in addition to first-run movies, the theater wants to have live performance groups from around the Adirondacks and New York State feature at the theater. Although she said that Tupper Lake itself does not have such a group, she mentioned Pendragon Theatre in Saranac Lake and the Depot Theater in Wesport as the type of organizations she hopes will want to bring the art of live performance to the theater. In the past, live performances, such as concerts, have been put on in the band shell at Flanders Park, but now, Delehanty said, the community will have a year-round venue to host these acts. They want to create a new position in the future for a performing arts director.

In the upstairs theater, there will be fewer changes because it is considerably smaller than the main theater, with less than half as many seats. The railing in front of the screen will be removed, which Delehanty said would allow for smaller live performances in that space.

Sally Strasser stands in front of the State Theater in Tupper Lake in November 2017. (Enterprise file photo — Aaron Marbone)

Delehanty said it was exciting to have finally acquired the theater, two years after Tupper Arts submitted their application for a DRI grant. She said that it was not an easy decision for the Tupper Arts board to choose this project without knowing much about how to run a movie theater, but by hiring Sally Strasser, the previous owner, to book movies for them and help with general operations, they have made up for any deficit in expertise. In addition, Delehanty said that most of the people involved with the theater before the change in ownership are still going to work there in key rolls.

One of those employees, John Barton, who is the theater manager for the business, said that the transition has been “pretty fantastic.” He said that there have already been some upgrades and he has “pretty much the same duties, with a little bit more responsibility, actually.”

Barton’s job has him running the whole theater. He puts on the movies, schedules the other two employees and sells tickets and concessions.

“I love this place,” he said.

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Significant to the community

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Strasser shared some of the theater’s history and spoke about some of the reasons why it is important to the community on Tuesday.

Built in 1914, the theater started out doing shows where there would be a live act followed by reels of silent film.

The theater survived a few fires thanks to the integrity of its fire walls. The first fire was not long after the theater was built. Because the film was made of nitrate back then, and couldn’t be put out with water, the projectionist burned his hands and the projection booth had to be rebuilt. The two other fires, in 1957 and 1966, happened on each side of the street, but once again, they were not enough to bring the place down, even while the rest of the street burned.

After the theater suffered water damage and closed down in 1975, the community volunteer group Project Pride took ownership of the business and fixed it up.

Strasser acquired the theater about 20 years ago, thinking that the theater business would start to decline after a while, but “it turns out people still like to go to movies.” She said it was hard to keep the theater open, but she managed it, even when it took “a feat” to stay in business. She said the theater industry’s conversion to digital movies was especially hard, when suddenly film projector’s were useless and theaters across the Adirondacks had to update their technology. Strasser also ushered the theater through the coronavirus pandemic, navigating state-mandated shutdowns.

She is happy that the Art Center will care for the theater now after carrying the responsibility herself for so long. She said it is “just too wonderful that they are doing this.” She added that the Art Center itself is a big part of the Tupper Lake community already.

When asked if she had heard any stories of locals with a special connection to the theater, she said she’d heard countless.

“Everybody’s got a story about a relative that worked there or an event or somebody’s first date,” she said. “Just yesterday, somebody told me about their first date being there. … All the schools bring their kids there … and so all the little kids have gone through the theater at some point.”

Delehanty said that she’s heard people throughout the community say they remembered watching movies in the theater as children and performing there with the school choral group. She said that one person she has talked to described how there would be high school pep rallies in the theater, fans, athletes, coaches, cheerleaders and all.

Barton said he also knew a lot of similar stories. He said that over the years, the village has kept the theater running through donations, which enabled them to go digital and keep up with the times.

Locals are invited to volunteer Thursday to clear out the storage area behind the main screen. The rest of the renovations are expected to begin in late summer or early fall of this year.