As you make a sharp turn into the heart of Estill County, Kentucky, the Mack Theatre welcomes you with its bold marque. The theater is a landmark of Main Street, but the Mack has not shown a film since 1993.
Today, River City Players, a local community theater group, is working to revive the Mack as a live performance space.
The Players recently held a lunch fundraiser at the Mack. For a $5 donation, they offered a pulled pork sandwich, chips, coleslaw and a drink. Volunteers were hustling to keep up with all the phone orders.
I sat in a folding chair in the lobby, amazed at the hard work and coordinated effort of the volunteers to make and deliver the lunches. The orders streamed in: “Three more for the library!” “Two for the county clerk’s office!”
This was clearly THE place for lunch that day.
Of course, this group is well versed in making things happen. After all, they managed to raise enough money to buy the building and secure a USDA grant to remove the asbestos and lead paint. These efforts took years of hard work, and the job is not done yet.
The next step will be to replace the roof and address structural issues with the walls. River City Players are in the process of applying for a HUD Community Development Block Grant for this work. EDIT FEBRUARY 2019: The group received their grant! (Details here)
A local historian named David Harrison took me on a tour of the building. In the late 1930s the Mack Theatre was used as a stable before it was converted into a theater. Builders dug a wide, shallow trench so that the seating would rise toward the screen, and I could still see where sound-absorption materials were mounted on the walls. In the balcony there was a distinct area behind the white seating, where black patrons were allowed to sit, after having come up the black-only staircase during segregation. I appreciated David sharing this part of the building’s painful history. MACED is working for a Just Transition to an equitable future for everyone, and acknowledging this history is a part of that transition.
“As with any old building, the Mack Theatre needs a lot of love, and money, to build the Community Center/Performance Venue we all envision,” reads a recent post on the River City Players’ Facebook Page.
A capstone of Main Street, this theater must have been a bustling center of the community in its heyday. The River City Players are working hard to re-establish the Mack’s prominent place in the local community.
If you would like more information on the project, please contact Susan Hawkins at susan.hawkins81@yahoo.com
