The clock is ticking for islanders to donate to the cause of saving Vashon Theatre, with less than 40 days remaining in a fundraising campaign to kickstart the creation of a new outdoor plaza at the theater.
On Friday, April 8, the theater will be open at 5:30 p.m. to welcome islanders to tour the facility, hear about the theater owners’ plans for the plaza, and participate in the cause by signing up to have their names etched in a “Walk of Fame.”
Last month, the owners announced a visionary new project to carry the single-screen local landmark into the future — and potentially enhance the look and feel of downtown Vashon for years to come.
According to the mother and son team of Eileen and Jake Wolcott, who manage all of the theater’s day-to-day operations, islanders will soon notice a new outdoor plaza taking shape in the theater’s large and now empty parking lot, on the north side of the theater building.
The installation of the outdoor space — which the family hopes to open in July and then operate seasonally, in good weather — is being overseen by Simon Clark, an islander with decades of experience in entertainment industry production design.
The new outdoor plaza will be centered by a freestanding, shaded metal structure that will support a stage and LED video wall measuring 32 feet wide by 18 feet high.
The LED screen, said Eileen, will be suitable for a variety of purposes in both daylight and nighttime hours, including video gaming, digital art installations, sporting events, “silent disco” dances, animated content for children, and the presentation of silent, classic and indie films.
Courtyard-style, the plaza will have room for cafe seating and expanded outdoor beverage, snack and dining options provided by the theater staff as well as other local food purveyors. The Wolcotts envision that several wooden booths will line the perimeter of the space, serving as stalls and kiosks where small businesses can sell wares and offer services.
Without a radical rethinking of Vashon Theatre’s operations and footprint, both Eileen and Jake said, the historic venue will not survive. They cited sweeping changes in the ways movies are now distributed, as well as ongoing impacts of the pandemic, that have made the drive to create a new business model a do-or-die proposition for the theater.
Soon, they will begin retooling the theater’s tile entryway into a “Walk of Fame” for supporters of the project. All islanders donating to the project will have their names etched onto new tiles to be installed directly outside the theater doors.
Find out more and sign up to be part of Vashon Theatre history at tinyurl.com/2p958yua or tinyurl.com/4ma4dsfe. To find out what’s playing now at Vashon Theatre, visit vashontheatre.com.
