Lights, camera and community theater: $500G in renovations planned for Smithtown's performing arts center

New seats, carpeting, brickwork, HVAC and bathrooms: Oh, and 200 light bulbs to once again illuminate the giant theater marquee over Smithtown’s Main Street. 

That is a partial wish list for the Smithtown Performing Arts Council, which, after renting the historic Smithtown Theatre for roughly 20 years, bought the building in a $1.45 million deal announced in June. 

The board and its supporters now aim to raise $500,000 for renovations, president Michael Mucciolo and vice president Keith Blum said, a prospect both daunting and thrilling. Mucciolo, 43, who works in information technology but has a background in professional theater production, and Blum, 47, a retired Nassau County bomb squad detective, are now stewards of a community institution that has provided some combination of movies, live theater and educational programming since 1933. 

“Not only is this an economic anchor, but it’s a community anchor,” Mucciolo told Newsday last week, as he and Blum took a break from work on the underwater set of an upcoming production of “The Little Mermaid.” Some Smithtown adults got their first taste of freedom at Friday night movies when the theater was still a United Artists property, Mucciolo said. For some of the town’s younger families, “the first time they took their kids to theater, or to see a movie,” they came to this old building in the center of town, towering over its low-rise neighbors and made distinctive by its stained glass windows.

For much of the past three years, the two said, they focused on the theater's survival. The pandemic forced suspension of indoor operations from March 2020 to September 2021. For the year ending December 2020, the nonprofit’s revenue from ticket sales and other sources, which averaged $1.2 million annually in the four years before the pandemic, dropped to $535,785, according to the council’s latest IRS filing. 

There was also a spat with Kenneth Washington, the group’s former executive director and landlord, who put the building up for sale for $1.6 million after he said the council owed him more than $90,000 in back rent. Mucciolo said all claims were dropped after the sale.   

Washington in 2020 collected a $79,000 salary and $73,750 in rent payments, according to the filing. Washington’s wife, Laura Washington, was also paid $10,421, according to the filing. The council’s management is now all-volunteer. 

They are seeking arts grants and private donations, in cash and in kind, from local tradespeople. Town government will be an early donor, Supervisor Edward Wehrheim said, awarding up to $40,000 from a downtown facade improvement grant program expected to open in coming weeks. 

Wehrheim — who grew up taking the Long Island Rail Road from Kings Park to Smithtown to watch weekend movies — said he saw the theater as a “vital component” of the town’s downtown revitalization efforts. “Theater will draw,” he said. “If we don’t have a theater, we’re going to see folks that enjoy that go to other venues in other townships.” 

Blum and Mucciolo said they were working on partnerships with area restaurants to entice patrons looking for a full night out. They will continue successful initiatives like outdoor children’s shows at the nearby Historical Society property and open the theater more nights, partnering with a comedy club to offer 10 to 12 comedy shows a year. 

“We know what works,” said Blum. “Fixing the whole building and bringing it back to life is where we need help.”