Anthony Wayne Theater Finds Saviors In Local Business Figures

WAYNE, PA — After about half a decade of languishing, there is new hope for the future of an iconic Main Line theater.

The Anthony Wayne Theatre, located at 109 Lancaster Ave. in Wayne, has sat in disrepair for several years.

Having opened nearly 100 years ago as a "show palace" — a theater that shows not only movies but stage productions such as plays and vaudeville acts — the once glorious and glamorous theater has been pivotal in many Main Liners lives.

More recently, it changed management hands, with Reel Cinema and other theater management chains taking the reins. Then about six years ago, it closed and has not reopened.

Around that same time, Todd Scott, owner of Platoon Fitness, began wondering what could be done with the derelict theater.

"What can we do with this to make it, not a movie theater, but to make it the center of Wayne, where it benefits everyone," he told Patch.

Scott used to visit the theater when he attended Valley Forge Military Academy for high school and college.

Initially, he said, it was a place to enjoy some air conditioning in the 1980s.

"It's an easy walk and it allowed me to get something to eat very quickly," he said.

Then he began to learn to love the cinema.

"It was really an amazing escape," he said.

His passion for the theater, the memories it created, and the memories it could potentially create was not his alone.

Scott has since found a group of like-minded people in the local business community who share the nostalgia for the theater, but who also want to give the next generations the same space to create their own lifelong memories.

"It's sort of like meeting your spouse," he said of assembling what is now the board for the Anthony Wayne Theater Organization, a 501(c)3 nonprofit group aimed at bringing the theater back to life. "It just organically came together, and it blew up."

At first, he just started asking for help, asking others in the community, "how do I do this, what happens with that?"

All members are volunteers and live within about a mile from the theater, he said.

The board consists of Scott, the president; Treasurer Wade McDevitt, founder and CEO of real estate firm The McDevitt Company; Secretary Rory McNeil, arts patron and venture capitalist; Wayne Art Center Executive Director Nancy Campbell; Sydney Grims, a principal at Fearless Restaurants, which owns and operates favorite such as White Dog, Autograph, and Rosalie; Main Line School Night Executive Director Rebecca Cain; filmmaker Ishana Night Shyamalan, daughter of Willistown’s M. Night Shyamalan; entrepreneur and investment firm executive Jay Weber; Wayne Fine Art & Custom Framing and LAA Art Collective owner Lauren Addis; and Gryphon Café owner Rich Mattis.

"Each one has an expertise, and they're really just an amazing group," Scott said. "I show up and listen. That's what happens at a lot of our board meetings, because these guys are really good at what they do."

Scott said he and the board know bringing the theater back to life is a bit of a Herculean feat.

"It's going to take a lot of money to do it," he said. "It's not an easy endeavor. You need government, both state and local, and you need everyone else behind it."

Donations will be crucial to reaching the goal of providing a much-coveted "third space," a location that's not a home or workplace where people can gather and connect as a community.

While no official donation methods have been established, Scott said with a laugh that anyone who wants to send the organization a check should contact them. Despite the levity, Scott is serious about donations.

"Anyone who wants to give, I want them to have the ability to do that," he said. "There's no limit on the upper amount [of donations]."

The neophyte group is still working to determine how much money would be needed to make the theater a destination for the community.

"I don't know enough to know enough yet," he said.

What they do know is they want movies, live performances, a potential event space that could host birthday parties or educational programming, beer and wine offerings, and popcorn. Like, good popcorn with real butter, he said.

"I've looked at many, many theaters, and I've never seen a plan like what we have to do here," he said. "I just can't wait to see what the architects, builders, electrical engineers, structural engineers, and the team of people we have come up with."

Scott said the revamped theater will have state-of-the-art projection, screens, and sound.

With the group focused on the theater's future, they have tapped into the community to see what they might want out of the space. Among those people who chimed in was a local 12-year-old boy who contacted the group.

McKenna Young, who is handling media relations for the group, said he offered up a slew of suggestions for the theater and provided insight to what kids in his age range would want out of a new theater.

"We took him through the questions we asked everyone else because we wanted to hear his perspective," she said.

"This kid is the next generation of Wayne," Scott said. "He has been thinking about this since he was 7 years old. He has written and drawn plans of what he wants to do with the theater. He was treated like a seasoned businessperson, like our board members. The same respect was given to him and should have been given to him, because we need him."

And he's not the only person whose ideas have been folded into the group's discussions.

"Other people have come to me and said 'I had plans to do this,' 'I wanted to do that,'" he said.

At this point, it's unclear what in, and outside, the theater will remain in the final iteration of the theater, which features an art deco design.

"I think it's going to be interesting to see what is revealed in the demolition," he said. "The companies that were there before were for profit. They weren't interested in anything but making money. And I'm interested in making money. But, nothing was carefully preserved, a lot of it is gone."

A large factor in what could be saved or demolished will be based on cost.

"If you start going into things that aren't really your expertise, or go into things that aren't going to really be beneficial to the end result, you could waste a lot of money and a lot of time," he said.

With that being said, Scott said he's incredibly luck to be a part of the team that is leading the new push to revive the theater at which countless memories were made.

"We want to respect the history and give this place new life," he said. "We have to open it where it's going to be something forever,"

And the main goal is to create a place where community members can gather for culture, and ensure that opportunity exists for generations to come.

"People want to share experiences together," he said. "We're so separated. We're on our phones. When you see someone's shoulders going up and down, and they're watching a movie, you know they're crying or laughing. And that shared emotion is so important I think to our growth as humans and our way of life."

Stay up to date on the Anthony Wayne Theater Organization's progress on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, and their website.