Sights Unseen: Into the spaces at The Public Theater

The second floor of The Public Theater in Lewiston houses what you would normally associate with the workings of a professional theater.

Costumes and props from every era are organized into a little over 6,000 square feet.

“We save everything, because you never know,” said Christopher Schario, Artistic Director for the theater. “We have this plastic peacock, bought for $2 at a garage sale, that has ended up in two different shows!”

Budgets for a show can range from anytwhere between $1,200 to $2,000, depending on the size of the show and the complexity of the set.

But, a lot of that cost can be deferred by finding items in storage.

Still, as soon as the theater can raise more money, a portion of their storage will be transformed into dressing rooms and the light decks in the theater will be raised.

“We’ve already raised and spent a million and a half on renovations,” stated Schario.

Last Chirtmas, they moved into a new office space on the second floor, and a section of storage was rehabbed.

And there are still even bigger plans for the backstage area, where they hope to move the shop and lighting storage area into a large area currently not being used.

: The Public Theater hopes to be able to move their dressing rooms to the second floor after they raise more money for renovations, since one of their two current dressing rooms is a narrow hallway leading to the spare lighting equipment area.

: Costumes from every era and in varied sizes are kept on the second floor of The Public Theater in Lewiston. There is a little over 6,000 square feet of storage on the second floor, but that will be diminished after the theater raises another $1 million so they can raise the lighting deck and move the dressing rooms.

: A random bright yellow M&M is housed with all of the furniture on the second floor of The Public Theater.

: Spare lightening equipment is stored in a narrow space just off of the backstage area at The Public Theater.

: Old cell phones and display models are kept in a box on the second floor of The Public Theater. During the production of “Rounding Third,” the players discovered the floor models broke easily as they had to destroy a cell phone per night according to Artistic Director Christopher Schario.

: The second floor of The Public Theater houses props of all types, including a gravestone made in the shop of the theater for the production of “Moonshine” in 2005.

: The set designer at The Public Theater creates a scale model of each set, like this one for Animals Out of paper, before the technical director builds the life-sized version.

: Backstage of The Public Theater is clear so that the main set in the center can be moved backwards and this side set can be swung around to face the audience during the production of “Animals Out of Paper.”