Soft opening, benefit set for March 21

Members of the Ritzville Downtown Development Association (RDDA) and countless volunteers have been hard at work over the past months working on restoring and upgrading the historic Ritz Theatre. The progress is outstanding, but the group is still working towards completion of the project and accepting donations to make the final purchases in order to reopen the doors to visitors this spring.

The RDDA is currently aiming to have a soft opening, live concert venue on March 21 in the renovated building. The tentative date would serve as a fundraiser for the theater and would showcase the Horse Crazy Cowgirl Band, who performed at the Ritzville Art Gallery last year.

With countless amounts of projects having to be completed to renovate the building and restore it to its 1937 luster, the group of volunteers has made substantial steps to reaching that goal. One major purchase still standing in the way of opening the single screen theater is the purchase of the new digital projection equipment for movies.

The RDDA is currently encouraging individuals to sponsor a seat at the theater, and asking donors to make a minimum contribution of a $100 to have their name, or the name of a loved one, recorded as a seat sponsor on a movie display poster at the theatre. The movie display poster listing the sponsors will be displayed prominently at the entrance of the building. To date, the RDDA has $8,000 donated to the seat sponsorships.

In early November, all of the seats were removed from the building and placed in the old Ritzville Motor Company building across the street. Volunteers tackled projects on both sides of the street, with electrical projects and painting being completed in the theater, and cleaning and reupholstering of the seats on the other side of the road.

The reupholstering of the original seats has now been completed, Bruce Benzel reported, and around 250 seats will be reinstalled into the theater. Because of the addition of a stage in the front of the building and with the expansion of space between the rows of seats, not all of the chairs are being put back into the building.

Benzel said the existing bolts from the chairs have been ground off, but a lot of drilling will have to be done to install the chairs. Benzel estimates patrons can expect to have an additional six inches of leg room when the seats are reinstalled, a big plus for theatergoers.

While the bolts were being removed from the floor, volunteers have been busy painting the interior of the building to restore the vibrant colors previously in the theater. The additional projects inside the building still yet to be completed include finishing painting, drilling holes for the seats and plastering portions of the ceiling.

Around 90 percent of the electrical upgrades have been completed, with the remaining work being based around the installation of the new sound system. The RDDA is planning to purchase the sound system within the next month and already has received volunteers willing to help with the installation.

Due to the electrical upgrades in the building, the RDDA has been able to get full insurance on the building. The RDDA also received a $2,000 grant to replace the neon on the marquee and the project is almost completed.

While the amount of community support and volunteers have been impressive so far, Benzel explained a lot more volunteer assistance will be needed in the upcoming months, especially during the seat installation.

Any individual interested in volunteering with the seat installation or other service projects with the theater are asked to contact Benzel at 659-1350 or 660-0935.

For more information on the project, contact RDDA President John Rankin at 650-7219. Donations can be mailed to 107 East Main Avenue in Ritzville.