The Concord City Auditorium is reopening for performances next month for the first time since the pandemic began.
The Audi, as the theater is known, is owned by the City of Concord and managed by the Parks and Recreation Department.
The first event at the Audi is currently scheduled for October. However, the space is available to rent beginning in August.
Some COVID-19 measures will remain in place, including asking people to stay six feet away from others and requesting that unvaccinated patrons wear masks.
Other COVID measures in place include hand sanitizer stations and a one-way entrance and exit. Theater-goers are asked to stay home if they have been exposed to the coronavirus or are not feeling well.
The city and volunteer group Friends of the Audi have used the pandemic closure as an opportunity to install new curtains and make other upgrades to the theater.
Last week, Friends of the Audi gave its annual Friend of the Year award to the public properties division of Concord General Services, which carried out those changes. Friends of the Audi volunteer Carol Bagan said this is the first time the award has gone to a group rather than an individual.
“They spent the whole plague year working at the Audi and redoing it,” Bagan said. Along with new red curtains, the auditorium has a new dressing room and revamped backstage area along with new LED lighting. “What they’ve done is fabulous. It’s really gorgeous.”
Meanwhile, the archivist of Friends of the Audi, Dr. Patricia Andrews, has spent the last year assembling historical records and memorabilia related to the theater.
Bagan encourages any Concord residents with Audi mementos to contact Friends of the Audi instead of tossing them out.
“If anybody has paper ephemera, tickets, pictures, clippings, etc, for heaven’s sake, don’t throw them out,” she said. The organization ultimately plans to create a permanent, rotating display of Concord community art and entertainment artifacts in the Audi.
Typically, Friends of the Audi has hosted a Pitch-In in the third week of August, a three-day event when more than 100 community members usually show up to wash windows, clean seats and polish brass to prepare the auditorium for the gala where attendees can get a taste of the season’s offerings.
This year, city staff has already done the work to clean up the auditorium. Although there will be no season-opening gala this fall, the Audi will host performances in 2021 from a variety of different Concord groups including Concord Community Concerts, Community Players of Concord and Concord Dance Academy.
Correction: The Walker Lecture Series concert with Conner Lorre as Neil Diamond will take place Aug. 19 outdoors as part of Market Days, not in September at the Concord City Auditorium as stated in Wednesday’s Monitor. The city’s booking calendar for the Audi had not been updated to reflect the changed date.