Curtain rises on CenterStage

More than eight years in the making, the curtain rises on Richmond CenterStage Marilyn Blake found her favorite red velvety seats in the center aisle of Row O of the refurbished Carpenter Theatre. Grinning widely during a sneak-peek tour, she relished the seats as, once again, hers for a season of the Virginia Opera.

"It's magnificent! This is so exciting," her friend Janet Joyce said, gazing across the ornate historic theater.

"And long awaited," Blake added.

After more than eight years of planning, fundraising and political challenges, the red velour curtain with gold fringe and braids rose last night on Richmond CenterStage on East Grace Street in downtown Richmond.

The $73.5 million performing-arts center features the newly christened Carpenter Theatre, as well as two smaller performance venues and a soon-to-open arts-education center. Last night's grand-opening performance at the Carpenter featured the center's nine resident arts groups, plus other performers, and a sellout crowd of 1,736, including longtime project boosters and Gov. Timothy M. Kaine.

During an intermission, Pat Hayes gushed over the careful modernization of the 1928 theater and raved about the performances. A longtime patron of the Richmond Ballet, Hayes said she loved her first exposure to the Virginia Opera, African American Repertory Theatre, Barksdale Theatre and Theatre IV.

"The hair on my arms was [standing up], chills on my body," she said of her reaction to the first act's closing performance of "Climb Ev'ry Mountain" from "The Sound of Music."

"I've been here before, and it's a treat to have that rejuvenated spirit here in Richmond."

City officials and other downtown boosters announced the arts-center project in 2001 as a way to give local arts groups and their patrons first-class venues, and to revitalize part of downtown that once thrived with the now-departed Thalhimers and Miller & Rhoads department stores.

"Broad Street is back, and Richmond CenterStage is a big part of that progress," James E. Ukrop, chairman of the CenterStage Foundation, told a crowd that gathered yesterday afternoon for a ribbon-cutting to open the arts complex.

The project was planned to open in 2007, but it stalled in 2005 because of fundraising troubles and fierce opposition from then-Mayor L. Douglas Wilder. It was eventually scaled back and reworked at Wilder's insistence; however, he eventually provided critical support that got construction under way in mid-2007. Wilder did not respond to a message last week seeking comment about the opening, and he apparently skipped the arts center's opening festivities.

The controversies that accompanied CenterStage received only a passing mention on a day of celebration.

"After years of hard work and stumbles that have come along with a project of this magnitude, and thanks to the gracious giving from the city of Richmond, the commonwealth of Virginia and many private donors, I am pleased and thrilled to say that Richmond CenterStage is now arrived," Ukrop said at the ribbon-cutting.

Moments later, representatives of four youth arts groups cut the ribbon -- it was actually a decorative gold rope -- and pieces of blue, red and orange confetti were blasted skyward as about 50 performers burst from the arts center's doors to clap, dance and celebrate with the crowd.

Standing in the rain of confetti, Richmonder Jerry Eggleston said he was ecstatic to witness the rebirth of the Carpenter, which originally opened as the Loew's Theatre.

"It's very beautiful. It brings back a lot of memories from my childhood," he said, recalling seeing Bruce Lee movies for $1 at the theater. Eggleston missed last night's performance but was thinking a show would be a good way to celebrate his 49th birthday next June.

Miles Barnett, a violinist in the Richmond Symphony Youth Orchestra, had been one of the youth performers who cut the gold rope. The seventh-grader at Sabot at Stony Point kept a piece as a souvenir and declared the arts center "cool" after last visiting the Carpenter as a kindergartner.

His mother, Kerry Mills, said she's thankful the symphony will finally have a home after performing in area churches for several years. She believes CenterStage will make the city more vibrant and create new possibilities for collaboration by local arts organizations. She also said she's thrilled about CenterStage's arts-education program.

"Everybody knows the arts make kids do better in school, and it also feeds the soul, which is even more important," she said. "This is going to be one of the things that changes the face of Richmond."

Contact Will Jones at (804) 649-6911 or .