What will audiences think when the Cultch unveils its newly renovated theatre? A few who have had a sneak peek are feeling positive.

Almost every Vancouver arts fan has a favourite memory of the Cultch. There was the night a blanket of snow dusted the former church before a performance of Hank Williams: The Show He Never Gave. And the time audiences craned their necks over the balcony to watch Animals of Distinction dancers twist around the floor as projected drawings snaked out from their limbs.

The fact is, anyone who has fond memories of seeing shows at the Vancouver East Cultural Centre is going to have a twinge of trepidation the first time they step into the rebuilt theatre. The very creakiness of the place made it a favourite. Audiences will finally have their chance to see the $14-million reno when the main hall opens for this season, after a one-year closure, with the Edinburgh Festival Fringe hit Midsummer tonight (September 3).

If anyone should be nervous about seeing what’s been done to the venue, it’s Chris Wootten. Just over 35 years ago, the veteran arts producer helped transform the aging, turn-of-the-last-century Methodist church into a theatre. And the promising news is that he’s pleased.

“You wonder: will they do it right? And they did. It’s very gratifying to know that the building is going to be around for a long, long time,” he tells the Straight over the phone, a day after touring the new interior. “I’ve always thought of the cultural centre as a bit of a jewel, but a fragile jewel and one that’s been very tarnished in the last few years, as it’s been rundown. So it was a bit overwhelming: it’s not just a jewel but also a bit of a fortress. I mean, there’s air conditioning. There’s silence! I’m just not used to it.”

Sitting in the Cultch’s new boardroom with a view of downtown and the mountains, Cultch executive director Heather Redfern explains: “There was trepidation until I could start to show people around, and people said, ”˜It’s still the Cultch—only better.’”¦I didn’t doubt that it could be done. I just didn’t know how long it would take.”

The renovation, which qualifies for a LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Silver designation, has been an arduous process. The adjoining 50 to 100-seat Vancity Culture Lab theatre went according to schedule and opened in November 2008. But workers on the main heritage hall, which was supposed to reopen early this year, found unforeseen structural problems with the original foundation and roof. That postponed the opening for six months and sent the Cultch scrambling for venues like the Waterfront Theatre to finish out last season.

Now that Proscenium Architecture and Interiors’ design is complete, the hall still has its iconic scrolled balcony railing, arches, and hardwood floors. “The false proscenium has been taken out, so there are no bad seats anymore,” says Redfern. A new, carpeted outer passageway runs the length of the balcony, with cubbies by doors where you can wait to go into the theatre. “You don’t have to side-shuffle through the whole balcony to get to your seat anymore,” Redfern says. Along it are the facility’s refurbished stained-glass windows, which were once covered to blacken the theatre when its outer perimeter reached those walls.

Redfern says structural, lighting, and technical changes now allow shows the Cultch could never have staged before. Looking at this season, she points to February’s Fear of Flight, a Newfoundland theatre work with a cast of 14 people; March’s At Nightfall, a dance fairy tale with copious lighting cues; and this month’s Diary/Journal intime, a dance show with hundreds of tea lights and a grand piano. “It was getting doubtful whether we could even put a grand piano in the theatre anymore, because the floor was being held up with temporary metal supports,” Redfern explains.

The state-of-the-art technical booth and layout changes have meant the loss of 30 seats, lowering the total to 219. It’s the only aspect of the reno the business-minded Wootten regrets: “When you set as your standard comfortable seats and sightlines, and comply with all the safety regulations, it does reduce the capacity. I mean, we used to cram upwards of 400 people in there—but the sightlines were bad. It just reduces the gross potential.”

Still, some of the most drastic changes won’t be seen by audiences. “The thing I’m proudest of are the working conditions,” says Redfern. “While audiences have at least had heat, artists have put up with a hell of a lot more.”

The Cultch’s old dressing rooms consisted of a labyrinthine cellar that was cold and cramped, and lacked hot water. Sure, there was something bohemian about it all, but thanks to heightened ceilings, separate male and female dressing rooms, a new kitchen, and more, the artists who work here now feel—well, appreciated.

“With the new ones, if I could live there I would,” jokes Neworld Theatre’s Adrienne Wong, who recently mounted Mixie and the HalfBreeds at the Culture Lab and did several shows in the old Cultch. “You don’t feel hidden away in the dungeon anymore, and psychologically that has an effect on the artist. Now we have a bright, beautiful space.”

Other additions include an expanded lobby, an all-day ticket booth, a new parking lot that stretches behind the building, and a café-bar where Redfern hopes artists and audiences will mingle. “I fully believe this space belongs to this community,” says Redfern, who adds the whole organization has had to shift to handle the new arts-centre role. “We want people to come in during the day a lot more now—to eventually even have the café open at lunch, or invite people to have their book-club meetings in that space.”

The community will get the chance to officially celebrate the reopening in October, with a ribbon-cutting on the 15th, and a free neighbourhood square dance on the 16th.

Whether all those visitors will have the same positive response as Redfern, Wootten, and Wong remains to be seen. There will always be those who long for the past. But for them, Wong offers her own take on the renovation of the beloved theatre.

“My memories will always be there,” she offers. “The ghosts of the rooms may not be there when we go back—you know, the ghosts from all the lives lived there on the stage. But there’s a love and care for the building that means we can grow again. We’ve passed through this threshold, and we now have to build a new history there.”