Volunteers are rolling up the carpet on the aisle in the newly renamed and historic Polaris Theater, which has recently been soiled by a leak. The Bay Street Building was once the Orchard Harbor Cinema of various names-the nearest Dragonfly Cinema. (Facebook photo)
Goodbye, Dragonfly: The Polaris Theater is being conducted by tenacious volunteers once and again
PORT ORCHARD, the Bay Street dual-screen movie theater that closed more than two years ago-formerly known as Dragonfly Cinema-is now in full cleaning mode.
In addition to moving out all kinds of surplus odds and ends—boxes filled with items that might be identified as trash, outdated movie reels the size of a tavern table, and old posters that advertised movie screenings long ago—the movie company now has them. A new nickname: Polaris Theater.
Co-owner and operator Joshua Johnson said that the new name is reminiscent of the image of the North Star, "All other images are from our perspective on Earth."
Johnson and a group of new owners who successfully restored Bremerton’s historic Roxy Theater began to explore the idea of buying the building from Orchard Harbor owner Bob Geiger and “reactivating” the space to better serve Community service, not just as an art cinema.
In the theater mission statement on its website page, the new ownership group defines it as a place that is no longer just a movie theater: "The Polaris Theater will be a single-stage performance space that can also accommodate live music, special events, and theater performances. , Lectures, seminars and movies.
"We envision to provide space for film festivals, comedy shows, DJ nights, student productions, private events, fundraising events, and any event our community can dream of."
The building that houses the Polaris now has a history of nearly 100 years. After opening in 1924, it was once a live juggling venue. Four years later, it became a D&R cinema and continued to show movies until 1965. After some renovation and reconfiguration into two smaller auditorium spaces, it reopened as the Twin Plaza Theater in 1980. The theater operated until 2005, after which a series of local theater operators tried to reopen the space-the most recent was Nick Taylor and his wife and business partner Gabriel Evans.
This cinema has been closed for more than two years.
A small group of volunteers and members of the nascent Port Orchard Historical Theater Foundation have been wiping and cleaning the rows of red velvet-covered seats that once sat in Seattle's Panorama Theater on Saturday mornings in the past two weeks, or they would otherwise be thrown away A bunch of extra "things" occupy every corner and gap in the old building.
After almost uninterrupted rainfall this month encircled the area, due to leakage from the foundations of the old building, part of the aisle carpet of the theater near the movie screen-both auditoriums were down to their lowest point-became soaked and unstoppable The sewage pump system of rainwater seeping into the old building failed.
Since then, volunteers have repaired sewage pumps, added a dehumidifier to remove excess water from the building, and took on the unpleasant task of rolling up and disposing of aisle carpets that were previously changed by occasional flooding wet. Despite efforts to repair the leak, it still exists for many years.
In a post on the troupe’s Facebook page, the organizer stated that dealing with moldy carpets is “free”: “Aisle carpets are flood sponges, you have to go! It’s so satisfying to tear and roll up carpets for years! Here, almost all the old-fashioned red seats have been cleaned for the first time, and now they look much better!"
More extensive rehabilitation work is underway. On Saturday, members of the foundation's board of directors were informed that the non-profit organization had received a bonus of $50,000 to replace the inoperable HVAC system of the theater, add a firewall to part of the building, repair the porous foundation of the building, and renovate its lobby area.
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Patrons Russ and Linda Young stated that the community has a responsibility to take care of animals
The co-owners say their business will become a bar again
The historic Polaris Theater Foundation replaces the theater’s HVAC system and repairs leaks in the building
David Pruitt was shot when the delegates thought the man was reaching out for a weapon