Now that repairs to a wall surrounding the stage at Galesburg’s Orpheum Theatre have been completed, it’s showtime again.
The 109-year-old theater at 57 S. Kellogg St. had been closed since mid-July.
At a Galesburg Area Chamber of Commerce ribbon cutting to celebrate the reopening, Orpheum Executive Director Andrew Driscoll said the repairs were completed on time. So the theater will kick off its new season on Thursday with a concert by Aaron Tippin as planned, followed by an ABBA tribute band on Saturday.
“When I started this position about a year and a half ago, it was made very clear that we had a problem,” Driscoll said. “And we no longer had time to wait in terms of finding a remedy to that problem.”
The Orpheum’s staff had been monitoring the wall around the stage for years. Because the wall appeared to be moving, there were concerns it could compromise the integrity of the theater’s roof.
The repairs were funded by a $500,000 state appropriation secured by State Sen. Mike Halpin, D-Rock Island.
“If that had not occurred, the Orpheum would be in a very different situation right now. We would be in the midst of a fundraising campaign and hoping that we would be able to reopen soon,” Driscoll said.
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