The Capitol Centre turns 30 on Sunday

The arts hub of the downtown is celebrating this weekend.

The Capitol Centre turns 30 on Sunday with a free movie to celebrate.

Marketing Manager Katelynn Ricci says the Capitol Theatre dates back to 1929, but it was in the 80’s, during a time of decline in movie audiences, when the Capitol Centre was born.

“A group of people formed, and Betty Speers was the head of that, and they decided they weren’t going to let the theatre get chopped up into pieces,” she says about the drive to save the Capitol.

“We’re the hub of the downtown, as far as the arts go and we’ll remain here as long as we can. That’s the hope and that’s why we need lots of support from our community and also why we want to give back to our community,” she adds.

To that end, the Capitol Centre is giving back on Sunday with a cake cutting and free movie, The Princess Bride, which also turns 30 this year.

Earlier this week officials announced 2016 was a success for the Capitol Centre.

A small surplus of $1,200 on a $1.7-million budget was reported at Tuesday night’s Annual General Meeting.

Over 35,000 tickets to events were sold during the season, a drop of about 1,300.

All told there were over 160 events or activities including performance days, commercial rentals, Symphony performances, receptions and community rentals like TOROS and Dreamcoat.

In a release, Micheal Roth, President of the Board of Directors commented on how the year went.

“2016 was an exciting and eventful year. The Capitol Centre was, as always, North Bay’s central hub for visual and performing arts. We strive to be an organization that is open and welcoming to all people of all backgrounds from this great city and beyond. We take great pains to attempt to ensure we have something for everyone, whether that is a concert, a play, a dance recital, an exhibition or a Sunday Movie,” he says.

“2016 has been a very successful year for the Capitol Centre, showing a slight surplus of $1,268 before transfers. We can’t say enough good things about everyone who has contributed.” says Dee Adrian, Executive Director.

“The highestselling day in the Box Office last year was April 1 when we the local dance studio Dance Expressions went on sale with their recital and sales totalled a whopping  $18,686, surpassing Burton Cummings by $8,000,” says Adrian.