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Our History The audience rose, applauding wildly as America's First Lady of the Theater took her bows at the tiny Royal movie theater. Always a lover of the intimate playhouse, Helen Hayes performed that evening in June of 1985 at the invitation of producer David Skinner (Smoke Signals), at the time a resident of San Juan, and a man fully involved in the creation of a community theater; an arena in which creative ghosts from Shakespeare to Hammerstein could infuse their talents wide and tread the boards again. That night, Miss Hayes was part of a fundraising gala - a gala orchestrated in part by the Straights of Juan de Fuca, the nucleus of a talented team, behind and in front of the curtain who, too, envisioned a full theatrical experience. The common goal was to build and maintain a legitimate theater. A stage not shared with the movie house or the Grange Hall or the firehouse on a slow night. A permanent arena in which to showcase extraordinary talents. At the end of the evening, Miss Hayes returned to the stage and addressed the cheering audience…“With talents like these on this island, the least you can do is put a roof over their heads.” Philanthropist Paul Whittier and his wife Lucy, long–time residents, had already purchased and donated the site for the new theater, so the planning and commitment rested on the shoulders of San Juan's residents. Three years and one month later the groundbreaking ceremony brought the Grand Ideé closer to reality. And during the ensuing year, experts in their fields donated everything from labor and plumbing to lumber and landscaping. A marketing campaign was begun to attract patrons. A theater auxiliary was founded. And although another “once in a hundred years” storm ripped the island apart in February, the show indeed went on. The San Juan Community Theatre and Arts Center opened its doors as scheduled, playing to a full and exuberant house on June 30, 1989. This daunting undertaking, rife with challenges and successes, has produced an extraordinary body of work, unthinkable for most legitimate theaters. For us, it's simply the beginning. - Quoted from “Talents Like These” by Henry Curtis
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