Newtown Theatre Details Plans For $600K Renovation Project

NEWTOWN BOROUGH, PA — The historic Newtown Theatre has launched the “Balcony Edition” of its Adopt-a-Seat Program to help fund the next phase of its renovation project.

The renovations, scheduled for July and August of this year, will completely transform the theatre’s balcony and basement restrooms. The price tag for this round of renovations is $600,000.

“We have 107 eager seat adoptees!” said the theatre's executive director Andrew Smith. “This latest edition of our Adopt-a-Seat program follows up on our very successful campaign three years ago that saw every one of our new first-floor seats adopted.

“By adopting a seat, you will help fund the overall renovation and have your name or business, a short message or sentiment, or the name of another person you wish to honor engraved on a plaque placed on a seat,” Smith says.

The cost of each adopted seat is $600. For more information or to adopt a seat, visit TheNewtownTheatre.com/adopt-a-seat .

The second phase of the theatre’s renovation project will address the balcony and the restrooms at the historic theatre.

The Balcony

The transformation of the theatre’s balcony will be dramatic, according to Smith. Step one will be to demolish the projection booth and remove all of the old seats. The projection booth will be replaced with a much smaller, open-air booth in which the theatre’s sound and lighting technicians will work.

Additional balcony improvements will include new hardwood floors, new seats, and improved lighting, according to Smith. When finished, the balcony will have the same look and feel as the theatre’s renovated first floor.

“The loss of the projection booth doesn’t mean the theatre will stop showing movies,” Smith is quick to point out. “We have already ordered a new, $50,000 digital projector and plan to insert it into the front of the balcony, which is hollow. We expect the new projector to be as good if not better than our old projector, thus ensuring that we will still be showing movies for years to come.”

The Restrooms

The theatre’s basement restrooms are being completely reimagined. Plans call for replacing the current, extremely cramped men’s and women’s rooms with six private, single-person toilet rooms. This will nearly double the number of toilets at the theatre.

“These toilet rooms will be unisex, meaning whoever is next in line gets the next toilet room,” Smith says. “This is similar to our private, single-person restroom on the first floor. We are also pushing the facilities further into the theatre’s basement, which will create a restroom ‘lobby’ and should greatly improve the flow of foot traffic in that area,” he adds.

Located on North State Street in Newtown Borough, the Newtown Theatre is an historic, 230-seat theatre that dates to the 1800s. Originally built as a hall for town gatherings and a non-sectarian church for traveling ministers, it soon became a center of entertainment in Newtown.

Throughout the 1850s, the theatre hosted anti-slavery meetings, which included sermons by Lucretia Mott and Frederick Douglass. In 1906 the first movie was shown, making it the nation’s oldest continuously operating movie theater. Today, the theatre has greatly expanded its programming to include popular concerts, comedy shows, live theatre and other special events.