Curtains are up! This project was especially satisfying—these massive curtains have been sitting in piles in my garage since September, each weighing over 200 lbs. Now, these colossal chunks of burgundy velvet are finally in place, adding a warm and beautiful glow to the stage! Not only do they protect the screen during live shows, but they also bring a sense of history: the steel track still bears the original shipping instructions from the 1950s—"Homer Theatre - Mr. Robert W. Kranich - Homer, Alaska," written in permanent marker. We're thrilled that the rigging was intact and everything came together perfectly!

Progress continues...

Almost all of the chairs are reupholstered with the metal parts buffed, and are stored at the ready. Their layout has been mapped to the concrete floor, for drilling in preparation for the installation of removal tracks. Construction has completed insulation and moved into sheet rock.

On Monday we engaged in some dusty theater spelunking to take down old curtains, and prepare for the new. This time we lost only one crewmember to the creature nesting in the rigging, and have every reason to believe the infestation will be fully contained before the gala.

Thanks to all the trick or treaters and Porcupine pals who dropped by our haunted awning yesterday evening for treats, frights, and a chance to collect tokens for the Chamber's Pioneer Ave Trick-or-Treat event.

We had a great time passing out the goods, and we look forward to upping the ante next year, when we have a finished space to make dreadful! 

We are making what was old, new again with the help from a few outstanding local businesses!
A big THANK YOU to the amazing team at Nomar for their absolutely gorgeous custom upholstering, Daniel with Independent Welding for his ingenious engineering to allow a portion of the seats to be removed for larger, standing room only events, the crew at Coastline Body & Paint for buffing up our freshly pressure washed seat bottoms so they shine like a new penny and Gerry and Sean at Diamond Ridge Peonies for letting us store our fresh new seats in their peony pack house until we're ready to re-install them!
It takes a village to tackle a project this epic and The Porcupine is thrilled to partner with such enthusiastic business owners to make it happen!

For the last few weeks we've been drilling and cutting and chipping and hammering and cursing and raging, and maybe sometimes throwing ourselves at the feet of the pitiless gods of concrete to atone for our hubris. But throughout these trials, our demolition crew stayed strong, and hefted nearly 30 tons of old concrete from the structure. As of Friday, our new slab is poured and setting up to be a strong foundation for an excellent future in this space.

As per our plan, the floor is now level from the entryway all the way to the end of what will be our cabaret seating area, a full eighteen feet into the auditorium. This elevated platform will make the space much more accessible, and allow for tabled viewing and concession munching, in addition to staggered and graded theater seating further into the auditorium.  

It was hard work, but we know it's worth it, and we're excited to have turned a corner in our process, to move out of demolition and into building up the space we all want to share! 

Everyone’s favorite anonymous Facebook group has rallied behind The Porcupine to help secure some marquee real estate! Homer’s Anonymous Communications has taken up the challenge thrown down by our beloved Porc. As of this writing, The Porcupine Theater’s Facebook page is sitting at 985 followers—just 15 short of the magic 1,000 needed for the group to earn marquee rights for a day.  How will they decide what gets put on the sign? Will they push forward and secure an additional 1000 followers in order to double the fun?  Stay tuned!

In an effort to open up the space and make part of the auditorium more accessible, we must first remove large parts of the poured concrete...a job that requires concrete saws, jackhammers, an expanding goo poured in drilled holes and lots and lots of hard physical labor.  Wish us luck! We can't do much else until we lose this excess slab!