NORFOLK, Va. — Norfolk's Generic Theater is racing to transform a room inside the Masonic Temple on Granby Street into a performance-ready space before its new season begins in November.
The nonprofit community theater company spent 18 years performing in an intimate venue beneath Chrysler Hall downtown before the city's decision to renovate the hall forced it to find a new home.
Anne Ward, a volunteer who spent four years with Generic Theater helping build sets, paint and clean, traveled back to Norfolk from her new home in Colorado to help with the move.
"It's a family. It's just a family that offers theater to the community," Ward said. "Everything needs to be unpacked and put in its proper place and…it's a big, big job."
Elle White, an actor and board member for Generic Theater, said the organization is enthusiastic about its new neighborhood.
"We love Talbot Park. What a great area to be in," White said.
The room the theater is converting previously served a very different purpose inside the Masonic Temple.
"It was called the Scottish Rite Room, they had lots of ceremonies and such in here so it was set up very different, nothing like a theater really, so we gutted it," White said.
White shared blueprints for the space Monday, with tape on the floor marking where the theater's signature black box stage will go — a format in which the audience sits around the performers and in close proximity to them.
"Not a whole lot of glamour, but it's going to get us where we need to be. It's exciting to be right in the trenches getting our work done," White said.
The financial cost of the transition has been significant for the nonprofit.
In May, News 3 reported on more than $20,000 raised during the regional fundraising event Give Local 757 to fund the initial move.
But the overall cost so far has reached approximately $60,000 and the theater says the full remodel could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Generic Theater is preparing a capital campaign to raise the remaining funds with the help of a grant.
The organization is also finding ways to cut costs by repurposing items already inside the Masonic Temple. Chairs left behind in the Scottish Rite room are expected to eventually be reinstalled and used as theater seating.
For now, Generic Theater has pushed the start of its new season to November to allow time to complete the space. The company's first production is already chosen.
"Our very first show is called 'Putting It Together' in light of us putting it together and so we're right on track," White said.
Auditions are in the beginning of August.
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