CARBONDALE - Officials with the Jackson County Stage Company say they expect the marquee will be flashing and the curtain will be lifted on the Varsity Theater's newly refurbished east stage beginning this October.

But the question of how the theater's remaining space will be developed took the spotlight Wednesday evening as about 70 people gathered at the Civic Center to offer their suggestions.

Aside from the 140-seat east theater, the Varsity houses space including another performance area that will offer twice the seating and a bigger stage.

Suggestions were varied but the common thread among them was a notion of flexibility. They included an art gallery, a studio, rehearsal space and classrooms.

"Ultimately it needs (to) be a teaching space as well as a production space," said one woman.

"We might want to consider not having fixed seating to allow for different productions that might need more space," offered one man.

Nancy Stemper, the Director for Carbondale Community Arts, said these suggestions will be part of the decision-making process as renovations on the Varsity move into the third of four construction phases.

"All these suggestions will be collated with the information we've already collected and presented to the architects and the Varsity Center for the Arts board to include as many of them as possible," Stemper said.

The Varsity has been vacant since 2003.

The Kerasotes family gave the space to the city last November, and it was quickly announced it would be the new home for The Stage Co.

All told, the renovation is expected to cost about $3 million and be completed in 2012.

Jack Langowski, who chairs the development board for the Varsity Center for the Arts, said the renovations could also be considered a restoration.

"We are going to try to integrate anything that was old in the building into the new," he said, before noting that public feedback is necessary in the process.

"We can't tell the architects what to do with the building until the community tells us what they'd like to see done with it."

blackwell.thomas@thesouthern.com

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