After a six-month hiatus, Magik Theater reopens Saturday with a show based on what author Eric Carle called his “book of hope.”
The curtains open on “The Very Hungry Caterpillar Show” — with a long hoped-for metamorphosis of the 132-year-old venue at 420 S. Alamo St. that began in January now complete.
Crews and theater staff were racing the clock in recent days to put the finishing touches on the $2.2 million project, funded through the city’s 2022 bond program, a capital campaign and three local foundations.
On Tuesday morning, the last of the theater’s 514 new seats were being installed.
“Tonight we are going to start moving all of our stuff in,” said Mel Zarb-Cousin, CEO of Magik Theater. “We have to hang lights. We have to set up our lighting and sound booth that we had to take down for construction.”
Dress rehearsals for the three cast members and 75 puppets began Wednesday and continued through Friday, and a ribbon-cutting on Saturday at noon precedes opening day for the show.
“Caterpillar” continues through August 2, with information and tickets available on the theater’s website.
For months, Magik went on the road, taking its plays and shows to audiences in other venues, including the Carver Community Cultural Center, Texas A&M-San Antonio, San Pedro Playhouse, and various libraries and schools.
“This is an added component that I think we can continue forever,” Zarb-Cousin said. “We made these new friends, and we’ll be able to continue that. We have the infrastructure now.”
Next week, the theater will host the Bexar County Juvenile Justice Center Choir, which has a long-standing partnership with Magik. “They’ll be doing their final performance for their family and hopefully some elected officials,” Zarb-Cousin said. “So they’ll be able to see the new space as well.”
Summer camps that began last week were hosted across the street from the theater in a building owned by Hilton Hotels. With the project complete, 300 campers also will migrate back to the renovated theater.
The first change theater-goers might notice following the remodel is the entrance from the lobby into the auditorium. Stairs at one entry have been replaced with an accessible ramp.
In addition to all-new custom seats and new carpeting, in a “starry night” color palette that matches the purple stage drapes, is an extended accessibility platform with removable seats that will provide more space for wheelchairs.
The theater’s previous seating came from the Lila Cockrell Theater after a renovation of that venue.
The original wrought-iron railing system along the elevated balcony, one of the few elements that remained after a devastating fire on Halloween night in 1913, has been painted black.
New heating and air conditioning and fire safety systems have been installed. Exterior scaffolding will remain until the utilities screening wall is completed on the roof.
San Antonio-based contractor Jamail & Smith is overseeing the project with the architecture firm Architexas. Charcoalblue served as the theater design consultant.
Founded by Richard Rosen, Magik Theater got its start in 1994 before moving from its Commerce Street location downtown to the city-owned Beethoven Hall in 1997.
The historic German men’s choir, Beethoven Mäennerchor, built the hall which was later used during HemisFair ’68 to feature a Czech dance troupe.
The recent improvements are the first major renovation of the building since Magik began leasing the space, said Shannon Bishop, vice president of strategy and operations for Magik. Bishop began working at the theater in 2017.
Magik named Zarb-Cousins CEO in February and hired Artistic Director Collin Pittmann in March.
But the new CEO has a history with the theater that stretches to her high school years. As a student at the Northeast School of the Arts, she participated in the school’s all-female-cast musical about St. Joan of Arc, and later helped to establish the theater’s internship program.
“We just made room for ourselves, just to be here all summer,” Zarb-Cousin said. Some years after college, she returned to Magik, helping answer phones, and was asked to step in for an injured actor. “Then that turned into working here professionally for five years.”
Zarb-Cousin earned a master’s degree in nonprofit management and worked alongside Rosen for a time when she was able to witness the early days of Hemisfair’s redevelopment.
She said Magik’s location today in Yanaguana Garden at Hemisfair, which is designed around children and play, is special.
“When I talk to other theaters for young audiences nationally, we are the envy of this movement,” Zarb-Cousin said. “We have our own space and because we are situated in a park in the center of the city, it is really, really incredible. We’re so lucky.”
It’s an exciting time for Magik, she added, especially since the past couple of years have been challenging.
Prolonged construction on South Alamo Street led to reduced ticket sales for a theater that depends on such revenue. That work is mostly complete.
“I think now there’s a path clearing and a path forward, and it is no different now than it was then in terms of the need for programming like this,” Zarb-Cousin said. “We have a responsibility to serve San Antonio and all of South Texas. It’s an honor.”
Pittmann said auditions for Magik’s upcoming performance of the story, “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie,” start July 16, and the theater will present “The Grinch Who Stole Christmas” for audiences in December.
