Mayfair's Devon Theater has been a lot of things over the last 63 years. But for the first time in decades, the old single-screen movie house is finally a hit once again.
After six months and $3.5 million worth of renovations, the Devon is now ready for its new life as a state-of-the-art professional performing-arts venue and community center, according to leaders of the Mayfair Community Development Corp. and the facility's new management team.
Following a VIP Grand Opening Gala on March 27, the new Devon will host its first public performance on March 28. Nunsense, a comedy about a group of nuns who stage a talent show to raise money for their own funerals, will begin its three-week engagement at the theater at 8 that evening.
"It's about re-inventing the Devon Theater and letting the community know that the Devon has re-invented itself," said Mike Lally, the theater's new general manager. "We are confident that when people walk through it for the first time, they will be totally amazed at what has happened."
"We're a professional theater in a community," added Michael Pickering, the new artistic director. "The community can come in and see shows on par with anything they'd be able to see throughout the region - and they can walk to it."
Built in 1946, the venue at Frankford Avenue and Stirling Street spent its younger years as one of many single-screen movie houses in Northeast Philly, showing contemporary A-list features during the Golden Age of Hollywood.
As such, the Devon was a unique, charming, popular and presumably profitable entertainment destination in a rapidly growing community throughout the post-World War II era.
When the theater's prominence waned during the 1960s and '70s, due at least in part to the proliferation of cookie-cutter multiplexes with their advanced technologies and unrivaled variety, the Devon's owners turned to pornography to make a buck.
Years later, neighbors finally forced the skin flicks out of the "Dirty Devon," as it had come to be known, leaving the venue with little else to offer. The place fluctuated between showing second-run features at discount prices and standing idle as a white elephant for some two decades.
The Mayfair CDC saved the Devon from likely demolition when the non-profit neighborhood-development agency bought the theater from private ownership for about $800,000 in 2004. The purchase also included six adjoining storefronts along Frankford Avenue.
All told, the CDC has spent about $6 million at the site, including acquisition, pre-construction and renovation costs. It financed the project through loans, public grants and its own fund-raising programs.
"For us, this was a huge capital project. (Now) we can just hand it off and say, 'Here it is,'" said Brian King, executive director of the Mayfair CDC. "It's a gateway (to the neighborhood). We're ready for revitalization in the business corridor, and this should be the catalyst to get it done.
"This piece of construction is at an end, but it's a beginning to us. This is going to be a segue to that whole business corridor."
The new Devon maintains much of the exterior appearance of the old theater, with its simple yellow brick facade highlighted by new retro-style lighted marquees acquired in 2006 with a $50,000 grant from Drexel University.
The theater still has its original ticket booth, too. But that's just about the only holdover from the original structure.
"We definitely tried to maintain the old retro feel of the theater, but there was not a whole lot salvable from the old Devon Theater," Lally said. "With everything being built in the 1940s, the plumbing, the electric, they were below par by today's standards."
MODERN TOUCHES
Likewise, the old Devon was lacking in Americans with Disabilities Act compliance, and with the technological infrastructure necessary to attract top-level artistic productions to the off-the-beaten-path venue.
None of that is a problem now. The facility offers modern audio, lighting and video systems designed for high performance and ultra-convenience to performers and stage crews.
"We're a complete plug-and-play theater," Lally said. "You never see cables. Everything is already wired and set up.
"Our theater is one of the few that's designed from the technical end to benefit the artistic end. It lends itself to minimizing the back-end costs of any production that comes to the Devon."
Backstage, performer dressing rooms are well-lit with ample mirrors and countertops and full plumbing, including shower facilities.
"We have everything here that we need to facilitate union actors," said Amy Pickering, the theater's director of education.
The Pickerings are husband and wife. In addition to running their own management company, Fuse Management, they perform a nationally recognized dueling-pianos act in theaters and at corporate functions. From a performer's and producer's perspective, they believe that the new Devon compares very well with established theaters downtown.
"If you look at a lot of the spaces that are available for performers, if you're not downtown, you're in someone's garage or in a storefront," Michael Pickering said.
"There are other theaters like this around the country. They're actually quite desirable from an artist's perspective," Amy Pickering said.
Convenience and comfort were also the guiding principles in designing the theater's interface with audiences.
The 400 seats on the main floor are several hundred fewer than the original Devon had. They range in width from 21 to 23 inches, up to 5 inches wider than the old seats. The fewer number of rows ensures that even folks who sit in the back of the room can get a good look at the drama unfolding onstage.
A wheelchair platform was installed midway up the sloped rows in prime position to view the stage. Folks who may need a bit more volume than the rest of the audience can ask to use one of the wireless assisted-listening devices offered at the door.
Meanwhile, a new balcony seating area can accommodate private parties, VIP receptions or other special groups. It has room for buffet catering and a small performance space ideal for auditions or rehearsals.
BIG PLANS FOR THE FUTURE
From a programming perspective, the Devon not only will be a host venue but will also produce its own shows, such as Nunsense. The plan is to create about five per year, each with runs of four to six weeks.
Amy Pickering will oversee much of the community component in the form of performing-arts classes and workshops for all ages, including school groups. Subjects will run the gamut from acting to voice to dance to circus-style acts, as well as makeup and "stage combat," or stunt training.
Other on-site activities could include youth book readings, birthday parties and scouting programs.
"We want to involve the community as much as possible," Amy Pickering said.
The Web site DevonTheater.org will serve the venue as a primary interface with the community. The plan is to regularly post new videos on the site, along with interactive and creative activities, like opportunities to critique the Devon's shows.
"We want to engage the community in the creative process," Michael Pickering said.
Some are already engaged by the prospect of gaining a performing-arts mecca in Mayfair.
"Just talking to people (in the neighborhood), they're so excited for it to open. They just can't wait," Amy Pickering said.
They won't have to wait much longer.
For information, visit the Devon Theater online at www.DevonTheater.org
Mayfair Community Development Corporation (CDC) is a valued client to the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation. PIDC assisted Mayfair CDC in applying for the State of Pennsylvania RACP grant to assist in the redevelopment of The Devon Theater into a state-of-the-art professional performing arts venue and community center.
The Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation (PIDC), is a private, not-for-profit corporation created in 1958 by the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce and the Commerce Department of the City of Philadelphia to promote economic development and job creation throughout the City. PIDC provides financing programs and real estate products to business and developer client groups in all neighborhoods of Philadelphia.
For further information on PIDC contact Peter S. Longstreth, President, Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation, 2600 Centre Square West, 1500 Market St., Philadelphia, PA 19102-2126, phone (215) 496-8181.
