The Emporia Gazette

May 27, 2012

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Painting time is fast approaching for the crew working on the restoration of the Granada Theatre, and construction manager Bones Ownbey could use some extra help.

Ownbey said the crew is probably two weeks away from the process of stenciling the intricate paint patterns of the original theater’s ceilings. He’d like some experienced painters with a steady hand to join the effort.

“I say if they’d like to brag that they helped paint the Granada, they need to contact me,” Ownbey said, “because we’re going to need a whole bunch of people doing the stenciling.”

Anyone interested in joining the crew may call Ownbey at 344-2248.

The paint job is just one facet of the theater’s revival, but it will be the culmination of some extended investigative work. Finding the original colors of the ceilings involved stripping away paint one layer at a time, then finding appropriate paint color matches.

Recreating the colors for the decorative plaster pieces that adorned the theater’s proscenium arch was a bit of a different story. Most of the old arch pieces weren’t available for the paint-stripping process. The crew had photos of the old theater’s proscenium arch, but none of them were in color.

So it took some common sense to paint most of the recreated plaster arch pieces, which sit in the theater’s basement waiting for installation. For instance, Ownbey said, a tree design on one of the arch pieces would likely have been green in the original version, so it was painted that way for the new arch piece.

“We’ve had to do some guesswork on the plaster,” Ownbey said, “but on the stencils, we’re sure.”

Crews continue to work on taping the sheet rock in the theater. Last weekend, permanent power and gas service were installed.

Ownbey said this week’s projects include work on the steel framing that will hold the proscenium arch pieces, welding the fire escape, installation of the theater’s sprinkler system, and sanding the sheet rock in the main auditorium to prepare it for painting, which he hopes will begin next week.