Oliver Dow | Managing director, Sandra Feinstein-Gamm Theatre
1. The theater company last year signed a lease to occupy the former Ocean State Theatre in Warwick. How did that deal come about? I was hired in 2014 and charged with the task of finding a permanent home for The Gamm. … We could no longer afford to remain at the Pawtucket Armory. Our performance space was originally built as a stopgap solution while the armory drill hall was to be turned into a permanent theater. The funding for the drill hall conversion never came through.
2. Was the company considering an expansion when the closure of OST was announced? Over three years, I vetted numerous locations in Pawtucket with a goal to identify a space that could improve the conditions for our artists and our audience. … We decided to collaborate with a local developer at the Pawtucket Times building a few blocks from the armory. Sadly, the deal at the Times building fell apart when the developer lost his financing. A short time later, the Ocean State Theatre went dark. I went to see the space … and knew immediately we had found our home.
3. How many more seats and square footage does this move provide? The building is 21,000 square feet and houses a 400-seat theater, compared to the 10,000 square feet we currently occupy and our 135-seat black box. The renovation goal is to create a flexible space that can seat 175 to 350 guests.
4. What are your plans – programmatically and in terms of community awareness – to grow into this space? We are doing and will continue to do a ton of community engagement. We are partnering with other Warwick nonprofit organizations and businesses. This effort is funded in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts through the “Our Town” initiative.
We will program the theater about 30 weeks per year, the rest of the time the building will be available for rentals and special events.
5. Do you plan to keep up a presence in Pawtucket and how will this move impact the performing arts community there? Yes, we will still have a presence in Pawtucket through our education program and in-school residencies. We serve approximately 5,000 Pawtucket students a year through our Pawtucket Literacy and Arts for Youth program and the move to Warwick will enable us to expand this programming to more communities throughout Rhode Island.
