Ray Evans Seneca Theater facts for kids
The Ray Evans Seneca Theater is a stage theater located in Salamanca, New York. You can find it at the corner of Broad Street and Main Street in the city center. The theater is named after Ray Evans. He was a famous songwriter who grew up in Salamanca.
History of the Seneca Theater
The theater was first called the Seneca Theatre. It was built by the Schine Chain, a company that owned many movie theaters. They wanted to replace an older theater nearby. John and Drew Eberson designed the building. Construction started in 1941, just before World War II began. Because of the war, there was a shortage of building materials. This meant the theater wasn't finished until 1945, after the war ended.
The theater was named "Seneca" after the Seneca Nation. This Native American nation owns the land the theater is built on. In fact, the entire city of Salamanca is located on the Seneca Indian reservation. People in the town pay an annual rent to the Seneca Nation for using the land.
The theater's lobby used to have many sculptures in the walls. The Schine Chain ran the theater until 1965. It continued to show movies until June 1972. That's when Hurricane Agnes caused a lot of flooding. The theater's auditorium ended up under eight feet of water! The Kinzua Dam, built recently, made the flooding even worse. The theater originally had 1272 seats.
The Seneca Theater was empty for many years. Then, in the early 1980s, Cattaraugus County took over the building. Over the next few years, the theater was slowly fixed up. It became the Cattaraugus County Living Arts Association (CCLAA). This group is also known as the Cattaraugus County Center For the Performing Arts.
The theater closed again in 2011. Its electrical system was old and broken, and there wasn't enough money to fix it. Stage events moved to the Salamanca High School auditorium. Some shows also went to the Seneca Allegany Events Center. The CCLAA stayed active. They kept the theater's marquee (the sign outside) as a billboard. They hoped to use money from marquee rentals to fix the theater.
The theater reopened in November 2013. They announced that movies could be shown again. They used a temporary film screen for this. The first movie shown was The Lemon Drop Kid. Ray Evans and Jay Livingston wrote the music for this film. When Harry Met Sally... was shown in February 2014. Most films shown now are ones that have recently come out on DVD. Live theater shows started again in 2014.
What's Happening Now at the Theater
Most of the shows at the theater are amateur community theatre productions. The CCLAA group puts on these shows. They usually have two big productions each year. One is in the winter, and the other is in the summer. An annual Christmas variety show is also a regular event at the theater.
Until 2019, the Ray Evans Seneca Theater was the only standalone performance venue in Cattaraugus County. This will change when Olean's Temple B'Nai Israel becomes a theater in late 2019.
