By Dolores E. Pike

When the restoration of the Mar-Va Theater is completed it will be a show place that all of Delmarva can be proud of. It will be a fine theater where people from everywhere on the peninsula, not just Pocomoke City, can enjoy plays, concerts, movies, dinner theater, community events and everything in between. George Staubs emphasizes these points when he shows visitors around the "work in progress" inside the theater.

A member of the board of directors of the Mar-Va Theater Performing Arts Center, he is also in charge of overseeing the day-to-day restoration details of the interior by a small crew.

Operating within the guidelines of the National Register of Historic Places, the Mar-Va is being faithfully restored in the style of its art deco period. The theater was originally designed in the Gothic style and completed in 1926-27. Later, in 1937, the theater was redesigned in the art deco mode. In fact, under the layer of art deco brocade panels on the walls was a layer of heavy Gothic style wallpaper. To restore the theater in its original Gothic period, according to Mr. Staubs, would be cost prohibitive.

So far he says that approximately $700,000 of the $1 million needed to fund the renovation has been raised. All work completed to date, as well as all material costs, have been paid for, including the $100,000 purchase price of the building.

Many fundraisers and individual gifts have brought the renovations to this point. An ongoing fundraiser has been the sale of individual theater seats and out of approximately 500 seats there are 87 still available for purchase. It is expected that these remaining seats will sell for $300 apiece. The price will include a five year membership (at $25 a year for a family) to the Mar-Va Theater. The list of seat donors will be displayed on a plaque planned for the lobby.

Of the more than 500 theater seats, 114 are portable, allowing for flexibility in staging a variety of events. These sturdy but movable seats are built to the same comfort standards and style as the permanent seats. The engraved metal ends of the Mar-Va's seats of the 1920s were removed and affixed by the current manufacturer to the ends of the new seats.

What makes the come-back tale of the Mar-Va Theatre unique are the many stories that are part of its interesting 80-year history.

For instance there is the journey of the 48 light, spotlight bar now installed and stretching across the proscenium of the stage. Following the construction of the light bar in Italy at a cost of $145,000, no one was able to locate an airplane large enough to transport it to the U.S. and the light bar was trucked to Germany. Once in Germany someone located a Russian plane large enough to handle the shipping task and the bar was flown to Newark, DE. In the U.S. a series of trucking routes had to be mapped out to once again accommodate the length of the bar in conjunction with roadway and bridge limitations before it finally reached its Pocomoke destination.

Most of the surfaces and trims of the original Mar-Va were painted in a variety of colors. A company from Virginia came in and their people gathered chips of paint from all over the theater's interior. They provided a detailed report analyzing all the paint according to colors and number codes.

There are several aspects to the restoration story of the 12 side wall pilasters (building supports) where the original surface was decorated in a rainbow of colors. The company that provided the paint analyses will be back shortly to paint these columns at a cost of $1,000 apiece. Also on these pilasters are panels which will be covered with gold brocade that is currently being cut and stitched.

And finally, the search for the green, red, yellow and blue individual light bulbs to go in the light fixtures on the pilasters were located after some sleuthing by the staff at General Electric in Cleveland. Up to that point it had been thought these bulbs were not replaceable.

All in all the restoration is proceeding well. The theater has a new roof where six, five-ton air conditioning units will be installed. Almost all of the floor has been replaced. Holes in the roof had caused standing water to pool up and remain over an extended period of time causing the floor boards to rot.

The insulation is scheduled to be blown in. There is all new wiring and a "state of the art," sound system is ready for installation, according to Mr. Staubs. Dressing rooms in the basement and rest rooms off the lobby are under construction.