Capitol Theatre prepares to open

By Iva Butler
of The Daily Times Staff

A renovated Capitol Theatre, which is to open Aug. 31 in downtown Maryville, will be a way to turn back time but with all the modern electronic conveniences.

The venue, which can be a total elegant “dinner theater” setting or look like a Miami club with colored lights that strobe or pulse to the music, is the vision of Maryville artist Heath Claiborne.

He says the Capitol will be versatile enough to host weddings, receptions, reunions, birthday parties, fundraisers, concerts, school events, corporate power point presentations and movies, all with their own unique attributes.

The W.A. Dunlap Building, which houses the Capitol, was built in 1923. It was a furniture store, then a department store before becoming the Capitol Theatre in 1934 when purchased by the Crescent Amusement Co.

The theater, with its large marquee, helped light up Maryville in the 1930s through the 1950s when the downtown was the retail center for the county. As it lost ground to then more modern, multi-screen theaters, it ceased being a movie venue. It was a record store, wedding shop and disco, before closing in the 1970s.

Claiborne purchased the building in 2002 for $200,000, with the plan to turn it into the Heath Claiborne Gallery and studio. Later he added jewelry made by his wife and opened the Capitol Coffee shop.

He envisioned bringing the theater back and, after booking 10 events to test the water, decided the idea would fly and took the big step of getting financing for his vision.

To help him make his dream come true, Claiborne hired Debbie Wilbourn of Maryville as event director.

“He (Claiborne) is the entrepreneur and the vision on this,” said Wilborn. “Hopefully, I will be able to add management skills and keep up with scheduling events.”

Seating area transformed

The building has 18,000 square feet of space but looks larger due to the high ceilings.

The old theater seating area, which traditionally started high in the back and went down row by row to the screen, has been transformed.

“The room is designed to do any special event,” Claiborne said. The selling point to the public is “roll out the red carpet for your next event.”

There is now a stage, with a 30-foot retractable movie screen, in front of three separate tiers. The motif will be in silver, red and black, but can appear any color imaginable with lights that are all LED, which can be moved around and can strobe or beat to the music, Claiborne said. It will have a state of the art sound system with fiber optics.

A ramp comes down the side where brides can walk down red carpet to join grooms on the stage, with silver tables seating as many as 250 guests on the three different tiers. After the wedding the reception can be held in the same place where guests are already seated.

It will be a one-stop wedding shop. Available will be caterer, flowers, photographer, music and the red carpet, Wilbourn said.

The name of the bride and groom can be flashed on the $60,000 marquee out front which is larger, but done in the same pattern, as the original marquee.

It is 44 feet wide and extends eight feet over the sidewalk, which makes it larger than the marquee of the Tennessee Theatre in downtown Knoxville.

Claiborne has already booked almost 30 private events, but is also booking performers for public concerts on the open dates.

The tables can be removed and chairs placed in rows for performances, providing seating for 400 people.

Smaller venue available

The first public performance will be the Streamliners, a swing band from Knoxville, on Sept. 26.

There will be seating on the top two levels and the bottom tier will be a dance floor. Some of the band followers dress in 1920s styles while dancing to the swing music.
The band will also perform shows throughout Foothills Fall Festival, Oct. 10-12 and at a Halloween party Oct. 31.

After that, Claiborne is looking at rotating artists on the dates private events are not booked.

Claiborne also plans to show some type of family movie during the fall festival.

Also booked is the United Way victory celebration and a Hearing and Speech Foundation fundraiser, both in November.

In addition to the theater, a second smaller venue can be booked.

The former balcony has been transformed into a VIP private theater room, with all the electronic perks. “The Balcony” will have a private theater and screen for events drawing up to 40 people.

Done in red and black, the room has a 19½-foot screen on which guests can play Xbox 360, surround sound or view DVDs,

“There’s nothing like this in surrounding counties. I believe the Knoxville market will come to see what’s going on in Maryville. It’s so unique,” he said.