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SUBMITTED PHOTO
Main photo: Pictured is a stage left view of the Coaster Theatre’s interior this year after the remodel. The new theater seats are dark brown and black with gold tones. Gold velvet curtains
replaced the red, water-stained stage and side curtains, and carpeting in shades of tan and chocolate has been installed.
Insert: Pictured are seats in the Coaster Theatre in 2016, before the remodel. These 180 seats installed in the theater 45 years ago came from Lincoln Hall at Portland State University.
AUDIENCES AT THE COASTER THEATRE WILL BE TREATED TO A REMODEL
AND THE POPULAR AGATHA CHRISTIE MURDER MYSTERY ‘THE MOUSETRAP’
By NANCY MCCARTHY
hen the Coaster Theatre Play-
house begins its season March
3, the audience will see more
than the opening of a new play.
It will see a newly remodeled
space.
With new seats, curtains,
carpeting and paint, the Coaster
is celebrating its 45th anniversary this
year. The theater was a dream realized
by early Cannon Beach builder Maurie
Clark, who purchased the Waves Roller
Rink and remodeled it in 1972.
The 180 seats installed in the theater
45 years ago came from Lincoln Hall at
Portland State University. Although they
were refurbished at least once during
the past four decades, the seats needed
repairs, and parts were no longer avail-
able, said Patrick Lathrop, the theater’s
executive director. The new seats are
dark brown and black with gold tones.
Gold velvet curtains replaced the red,
water-stained stage and side curtains,
and carpeting in shades of tan and choc-
olate has been installed.
“We tried to take the natural wood in
the walls of the theater and bring out its
warmth,” Lathrop said.
Lathrop also is excited about the
mural that will be painted on the the-
ater’s back wall. Against a dark green
background will be a menagerie of gold
animals familiar to the North Coast —
elk, deer, salmon and even a bunny or
two romping in leaves.
The theater’s 45th anniversary also is
being celebrated by bringing back some
of the plays that proved popular in pre-
vious years. They include “Barefoot in
the Park,” “Steel Magnolias,” “Clue: the
Musical,” “Blithe Spirit” and, what was
the Coaster’s tradition for many years,
“A Christmas Carol.”
Continued on Pg. 9
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