PORT ANGELES — Scott Nagel wants to reunite the two halves of the Lincoln Theater to make it more than it ever was when it was whole.
Nagel, who with his wife, Karen Powell, heads the Port Angeles Theatre Project, hopes his nonprofit group can buy the shuttered moviehouse and turn it into a showplace for films, concerts, speakers and what he called “an amazing venue for things that can’t even come to Port Angeles now.”
That’s because the town — while it has small entertainment spaces like Peninsula College’s Maier Hall and large ones like the Port Angeles High School auditorium — has no midsize performance place.
Maier Hall seats fewer than 150 people, Nagel said; the auditorium, more than 1,100. The Lincoln, 132 E. First St., would seat 480 if it is renovated.
Nagel leads a band of volunteers called Light Up the Lincoln, which hosted an open house Saturday in a bid to encourage donations to buy and renovate the theater, built in 1916.
Cartoons were shown on the big screen, and free popcorn, candy and soft drinks were in the lobby. Nagel told of plans for the building in two presentations.
“This wall comes down,” he said, gesturing to the divider that now splits the theater into two parts, one with blue seats, the other with red.
“We’re going to have a Republican side and a Democrat side,” he joked Saturday to about 50 people who attended the first of the presentations in the blue (east) half of the theater.
People touring the theater also inspected architect’s drawings of the hoped-for renaissance and picked up fliers to see their contributions and volunteer services.
Nagel’s group had raised about $185,000 as of Saturday.
The purchase price of the theater from Sun Basin Theatres of Wenatchee, owner of Deer Park Cinemas, which closed the Lincoln rather than upgrade its projection system, is $250,000.
It would cost another $850,000 to renovate the Lincoln fully, Nagel said, a process expected to take 18 months after the sale closes.
But before then, the theater could start earning money from a relatively inexpensive Blu-ray projection and sound system.
What will follow could include plays, lectures, even simulcasts from the Metropolitan Opera, he said.
The new Lincoln would have a proscenium stage the full width of the auditorium, a retractable movie screen, room for cabaret seating and a dance floor, and new first-floor restrooms, he said.
As things stand, “having a dead theater here is unacceptable,” Nagel said.
Nagel, an arts promoter for more than 40 years and a former performer, said, “I can tell you how much fun it’s not to play to 200 people in a 1,000-seat hall.”
Nagel compared his dream to those that came true for the Lincoln Theatre in Mount Vernon, the Admiral Theatre in Bremerton and the Liberty Theater in Astoria, Ore., through which Nagel said tourists once drove on their way to ocean beaches but now stop overnight for entertainment.
Details of the proposal, including its financing and management, are available on the “Light Up the Lincoln” tab at www.revitalizeportangeles.org. Nagel can be reached at 360-808-3940,
“I’m excited about spending the next couple of years of my life doing this,” Nagel said.
“We don’t even know all the possibilities.”
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Reporter James Casey can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5074, or at jcasey@peninsuladailynews.com.
