The historic Milton Theatre is getting a facelift.
The theatre has been around for more than a century, surviving a major fire and countless severe nor’easters. In that time, it’s been a movie theatre, a garage, a fire station, and a private home. But for the last ten years, it’s been a hub for drama, comedy, and music, as well as home to arts education programs serving thousands of students.
Now the theatre’s director, Fred Munzert, is spearheading a project to expand the theatre, including the education spaces. The theatre has a robust set of educational offerings, which serve some 4,000 students a year, according to the theatre.
“We have classes one night a week now during the school year and then four weeks during the summer. The program we're building will be three to four days a week of education programs and six weeks during the summer," Munzert says.
He adds the new programs will open up more space for kids who can't get in now.
“All the children that are on a wait list every year with us, it breaks my heart because I don't have the space or the ability to even allow them into the program," he says. "And this is going to open that up significantly for us.”
The expansion also includes upgrades to the theatre’s backstage spaces, something Munzert says is very necessary.
“Right now, people get ready upstairs and then they walk out onto the roof outside and down a set of stairs to get to our stage door," he says.
The price tag for the new construction is around $3 million, and the theatre is running a capital campaign to help fund it.
Delaware Public Media's arts coverage is made possible, in part, by support from the Delaware Division of the Arts, a state agency dedicated to nurturing and supporting the arts in Delaware, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts.
