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Politics & Government

Town Mulls Over Theater Proposal for Peconic School

A local theater group came before the town to suggest modifying two rooms at the Peconic School to turn it into performance space.

Although the lights have remained off at the Peconic School since Southold Town purchased the building four years ago, a local theater group would like to see the lights shine on the school’s stage once again.

Right now the town is making repairs to the interior to the building but Southold Town Supervisor Scott Russell said it’s time to start looking at ideas to get organizations into the building and turn it into community space.

Russell said the building’s use is limited. The requirements of the grant used to purchase the building stipulated it would become a community center and, he said, the Peconic stakeholders requested that the town not turn the building into office space. When the theater group came to him, he decided to bring it before the full board.

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To that avail, East End Light Theater came to the town board work session on Tuesday and proposed turning two rooms at the Peconic School into performance and rehearsal space for itself and other groups to use. The principals in the company are local residents Patrice Keitt, Michael Manuelian, and Gregory Welch-- all of whom have practiced law and have strong theater ties.

“We’ve scoured the area and looked for suitable theater spaces. We started doing research into the school and went to Supervisor Russell a few months ago. It’s become more and more exciting as we've seen the space,” said Keitt.

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Currently the building is not open to the public because the town has been renovating the space to turn it into a working community center. Councilman Vincent Orlando noted the heat and water should be up and running in the building within two weeks. Cosmetic changes, including removing the rugs, have already taken place.

“It looks nice inside. We’ve done a lot of work to the place,” Orlando said.

The group wants to run “quality” workshops and theater productions in the space. To do that, they feel the building would need interior alterations including making a 65-seat performance space/theater, ripping out an archway and lowering the stage. Orlando pointed out it might be more difficult and costly than the group proposed to do that, in part, because they have to have union labor do the work.

 “We’re trying to keep the historical integrity of the building intact and try to be as versatile as possible with the space. It is nice to have an asset like a stage,” Russell said.

Keitt commented on how good the location, parking, and outdoor space was at the school and with the group’s theater connections, she believes she could “attract seasoned professionals” to teach workshops . She feels the “buzz” created by the theater would encourage other organizations to use the space as well.

“We would be willing to participate with you from the beginning and come up with a season of programs,” Keitt said.

 Councilman Albert Krupski supported the idea but wanted to make sure if the town made the suggested building alterations, it would not limit use of the space.

“I want to make sure other people have access to this space. All our public space is scheduled and we want to incorporate this building into our available space,” Krupski said.

He also asked the group if it could use prior to any “dramatic alterations,” because Krupski pointed out the town has owned the space for four years already and it is still not open to the public.

 Manuelian said he believed the space could be used for workshops and recitals as is, but noted that full productions would be more difficult.

Public space used for community theater is not new to the East End. The Hampton Theatre Company has theater space in Quogue Village Hall.

The next step for the town, according to Russell, is to talk with the town attorney, and the parks and recreation department to determine if the group's proposal is feasible and if it is a good idea for the town.

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