By Paula Grubbs
Eagle Staff Writer
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Ron Carter of Cranberry Township, top, and Bill Jones of Wexford look over the interior of the Strand Theater on Main Street in Zelienople. Carter wants to renovate the former movie house and turn it into a venue for live, professional theater. |
ZELIENOPLE - A Cranberry Township man has a vision to turn a Main Street eyesore here into a professional theater.
Ron Carter is interested in the former Strand theater, which has been idle since projecting its last movie in the mid-1980’s.
Carter wants to form a nonprofit corporation to buy and renovate the property, then open a live theater with plays and musicals performed by professional acting troupes. Carter, who has a background in marketing , as well as acting in New Jersey and New York, estimates it will take a $500,000 to $750,000 to renovate the old theater.
That’s on top the $150,000 asking price for the building.
Carter envisions a 300- to 400-seat Victorian motif theater with balconies.
“I think the northern suburbs of Pittsburgh will support the idea to a very high degree because up until now, if you want to go see professional theater, you have to go (to Pittsburgh.)”
Carter hopes to entice Zelienople and Harmony business owners to get involved in the theater project. Besides the usual advertising in programs for shows, businesses and organizations could actually sponsor a show.
Having not settled on a name for the prospective theater, Carter is not ruling out the idea of a business donating money to have the facility named after that business. He also hopes to convince professionals in Zelienople to donate time for architectural, legal and other work.
“Anyone who is willing to participate will be welcomed with open arms,” Carter said.
Carter, who was born in the North Hills and raised in Glenshaw, got the idea when driving one of his children from the Seneca Valley campus to his home in Cranberry. The commute took him down Main Street in picturesque Zelienople.
“I saw the theater and those half-moon windows in the doors, and I was inspired that this would be an outstanding opportunity to bring live theater to the northern suburbs of Pittsburgh,” he said.
He contacted Liz Gallagher, owner of Gallagher Real Estate, the agent who has been trying to sell the Strand for several years. Though about half of the people who have looked at the Strand have had the theater idea in some form, she said none has looked at it from the nonprofit corporation angle.
She thinks the plan could work because a theater would draw patrons from Beaver, Butler, Cranberry Township and the North Hills.
“I hope Ron can do something with it,” she said. But Carter knows he would have his work cut out for him.
The Strand is a sound structure in a state of aesthetic disrepair. No utilities have been used in the building for several years, and none of the equipment is salvageable.
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Ron Carter examines film left in the projection booth of the former Strand Theater in Zelienople. Behind him is the projector that once ran movies before the theater closed in the 1980s |
"It is in a state of severe disrepair," said Carter. "The old projector and some film reels are still there."
The theater does boast a large lot, and Carter said a second building on the lot could be demolished for parking.
Gloria Nalevanko, who bought the theater with her husband in the 1960’s, ran the movie theater for a few years after her husband’s death in 1981. Eventually it became too much to handle, and Nalevanko had it boarded up. She thinks Carter’s idea for her building is a good one.
I think it would be wonderful,” said Nalevanko. “I love the theater.”
Anyone interested in helping with the theatre project may write Carter an e-mail message at: thestrand@zbzoom.net