Second wind
Cheryl Unruh
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
“I’VE BEEN all over the world and this is the most beautiful theater I’ve seen,” Kelley Hunt told the audience.
“I’m so proud of you for doing this,” she said.
It’s open — it’s finally open — the Granada Theatre. After first raising about $3 million, then spending that money on a complete restoration, the Emporia Granada Theatre Alliance has opened the doors to the public.
When I moved to Emporia in 1981, the building, beat up and run down, operated as the Fox Theatre. Then, for years the place sat empty, deteriorating even more.
Now there’s a reconstructed proscenium arch, new carpeting covers the floor, and hand-stenciled designs brighten the ceiling.
This historic building has had a revival; the Granada is on its second wind — and we all feel the rush.
Oct. 3, 1929, was the Granada’s grand opening. William Allen White spoke at the dedication. Seventy-nine years later, to the date, the theater reopened in all its glory.
On the evening of Oct. 10, Doug Ford, executive director of the Granada Theatre Alliance, welcomed the audience to a concert featuring performances by hometown musicians: the DeWayn Brothers, a local bluegrass band, and Kelley Hunt, a blues singer who was raised in Emporia and now lives in Lawrence.
First up were the DeWayn Brothers with their energetic bluegrass tunes. Josh Finley peddled his mandolin as fast as it would go.
As the DeWayn Brothers (Garrett Briggeman, Jamie Lee Briggeman, Finley, Peter Gaskamp and Eric Nelson) sang and played, the band and the audience became a part of the Granada’s second lifetime.
Some restoration projects turn buildings into museums, but the Granada is meant to be used. It’s not only a part of the past, or the present, this theater is a link to the future.
In July of 2007, the Granada’s project foreman, Bones Ownbey, gave me a tour of the building. At that time, the main floor was a den of darkness with scaffolds rising high enough so workers could sheetrock the ceiling.
Fifteen months ago, in the Granada’s basement, Ownbey showed me the plaster pieces that would go on the proscenium arch and the front of the balcony. I could follow Ownbey’s vision as he described what went where, but the vision is real now with those gold-colored pieces in place.
Beth Thomas made and painted the plaster sections; she was one of many dedicated people who worked in that dark cave for years. On the night of the concert, Thomas said of the Granada, “It’s a lot different with people in it. It’s alive.”
And this strong old building was able to withstand the powerful music of Kelley Hunt and her band.
From the balcony, I watched Hunt’s hands fly off her Yamaha keyboard, but they always knew exactly where to land.
Kelley Hunt puts the magic of the prairie into music. One of her songs takes us to the Cottonwood River and the Flint Hills. “I need to rest my soul in the Heartland,” she sang.
And she performed “Roses,” a song about the one-time mom-and-pop grocery store on Ninth Avenue between Rural and West streets.
As Hunt performed those songs about life in Emporia and the Flint Hills, I wondered how her audiences in Vermont, Michigan and Iowa might interpret our landscape through her words and music. When Hunt plays in venues across the country, a bit of Emporia goes with her.
While the essence of Emporia travels with Hunt, Kelley herself has become a part of the Granada. She and the DeWayn Brothers have placed themselves into the theater’s history and into the memories of those in the audience.
The Granada gives us a tangible link to the past — and to the future; the theater will serve generations to come.
We will all create fresh memories here. The Granada is back — it’s alive.
Cheryl Unruh can be reached at cheryl@flyoverpeopl.net.
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