The Playhouse: Town Approves Contract for Delivery of New Theater Seats

Town officials on Tuesday approved a purchase order with a Stamford-based company for the delivery of new theater seats for the Playhouse.

The Board of Selectmen voted unanimously during its regular meeting to approve the $6,000 contract with Kaster Moving for the delivery. The new seats are currently being stored at Kaster in Norwalk, and will be brought to the Playhouse on May 31, according to Department of Public Works Director Tiger Mann.

Mann presented to the selectmen the cost and process of delivering the chairs, which includes “storing the old seats in case we didn’t get the new seats.”

“Now they’re storing the new seats and they’ll bring them to the theater,” he said during the regular meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference. “So we’ll be bringing in the chairs for each theater separately, and then we’ll go to the installation on May 31st.”

It isn’t clear how many seats there are or what they look like. DPW did not immediately respond to requests for the information.

Mann said at the meeting that moving the seats into the theater would take at least a day, possibly more.

Selectman Steve Karl asked whether the moving of the chairs would also include the placement into the theater. 

First Selectman Dionna Carlson said although Kaster Moving would be bringing in the seats, they will likely be installed by a contractor. Mann added that there will be a specialist from the manufacturer who makes the theater chairs present to help with the placement. 

The cost of the chairs fall within budget for the Playhouse. “This number is already within the budget for the project,” Selectman Amy Murphy Carroll said. “This is not an additional cost associated with it.”

Town officials have said the Playhouse is to reopen June 21 under new management. 

Closed at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020 and available to a new tenant since later that year, when Bow Tie Cinemas terminated its lease, the Playhouse will remain a two-screen “twin” theater when it opens. Originally estimated at about $4 million, the long-awaited project at the Playhouse came in at nearly double that figure last year, and is finishing at about $8.6 million. Municipal funding bodies in March approved a final $284,000 for the renovation.