Marilyn Rodman Performing Arts Center Celebrates Ribbon Cutting

From Tri- Town Chamber of Commerce: We congratulate The Marilyn Rodman Performing Arts Center with a Ribbon Cutting ceremony. At the event were State and Local Town officials as well as Tri-Town Chamber of Commerce members. “The building is a true landmark in Foxborough and we are thrilled that under new ownership it will continue on with its dedication to the Arts!” Kara Griffin, Executive Director of the Tri-Town Chamber of Commerce.

PLAYS, MUSICALS, MOVIES AND MORE... The Orpheum Theatre started next door in the old Union Building in 1912, with 250 seats reported on the second floor auditorium floor, it served the community as a silent movie and Vaudeville stage.

Purchased in 1918 by F.W. Perry, owner of the local bus line with Foxborough as the hub, the current building was built in 1926 as a silent movie house with an alleged 550 seats, all the more to encourage bus ridership.

Mr. Perry and his son owned and operated the theater until shortly after his passing in 1956. Several entities later, including converting to first a duplex and then a triplex, the movie house was closed in 1989 for good.

The Orpheum Theatre was reborn as a performing arts stage when the original Foxborough Regional Center for the Performing Arts, Inc. (FRCPA) was established in 1993 by a collaborative headed by Neil and Linda Colvin. By purchasing the building with the purpose of renovating and operating it as a functional live performance theater, there was promise of a new beginning. Re-opening in September 1994, several community arts organizations, including Bay Colony Productions, performed and made their home here.

Designed to provide maximum flexibility and convenience to all of the performing arts, the comfortable auditorium seats 400 and allows each patron complete visibility of the stage. Climate controlled and handicapped accessible to audiences, the theater is a great venue to watch and perform in.

The Orpheum also features the Upper Lobby, a comfortable meeting and reception area that is also popular for our birthday parties as well as a green room/dance studio that makes for a robust environment for practice and performance preparation.

The current group is purchasing the building from Bay Colony Productions and has operated the Orpheum since September, 2017

With Bob Hickey serving as Executive Director, The Orpheum Theatre is excited to make this iconic building a space dedicated to promoting the performing arts in the region, providing entertainment to our patrons and the chance to perform for so many who have lacked space and opportunity until now.

January 6, 2018 was the date of our new identity as we re-opened in grand style as the Marilyn Rodman Performing Arts Center.

Inspired by Marilyn, a career Canton schoolteacher whose legacy of helping others, giving children opportunity, rallying behind good causes and respectfully providing for the less fortunate in many area communities continues today through the good works of the Rodman Ride for Kids, the life and work of Marilyn Rodman has embodied the mission of our ambitious endeavor with this theater.

And so it is with great pride, we announce the dedication of our community theater to the memory of Marilyn Rodman. In honor of an extraordinary woman, who has blessed this community immensely, we invite you to enjoy all that the newly minted Marilyn Rodman Performing Arts Center has to offer.

The Tri-Town Chamber of Commerce is a private, non-profit corporation whose mission is to bring business people together to improve the economic well-being of their organizations and thereby improve the quality of life in our communities. The Tri-Town Chamber of Commerce can be reached at 508-339-5655 – Join Your Local Chamber Today.

Photo courtesy of Tri-Town Chamber of Commerce