A Former Central Maine Theater Will Get a New Life as a Playhouse

Before we all had huge flat-screen TVs, streaming services, and the internet on our phones, movie theaters were king.  Every Maine town had at least one, and most of them were locally owned.

Today, we live in a much different world.

While most towns still have at least one movie theater, very few of them are locally-owned.  Instead, they are owned by large companies that own hundreds (or thousands) of theaters.

As a way to differentiate themselves from the corporate theaters, many locally-owned theaters have made the shift to exclusively playing older movies and artsy movies.  Sadly, some are still not able to make it and must close.

In other cases, these theaters end up relocating to a different space.  This is what happened with the Maine Film Center.  Their films used to be shown at the Railroad Square Cinemas.  In 2022, they made the move to the 3rd floor of the Paul J. Schupf Arts Center in downtown Waterville.

This left the old theater vacant.

However, that is about to change.

According to an article in the KJ, the old movie theater will be transformed into a performing arts center for the Aqua City Actors Theatre.

The article explains that Randy and Lisa Jones of Augusta have purchased the old theater and will use it as a performance space for the Aqua City Actors Theatre, also known as ACAT.

According to the article, ACAT has been without a performance space since their old one was torn down to make room for the Paul J. Schupf Arts Center.

In addition to housing ACAT, the theater, which has been renamed The Playhouse at Waterville Station, will serve as an event space.  It will be able to be rented for lectures, plays, musical performance, comedy nights, and more.

Now that the Jones' have finished upgrading the heating and fire alarm system, they are hoping to hold their first performances in the spring.

You can read more about Randy and Lisa HERE, and learn more about ACAT and the theater on the theater's Facebook page.

If you want to broaden your horizons and expand your mind, you can check out foreign and independent movies at the Maine Film Center.