SPAC President Christopher Shiley leads a hardhat tour of the Spa Little Theater, which is currently in the midst of a year-long renovation and restoration project. A massive, floor-to-ceiling scaffolding system fills the theater space.
Photos by Super Source Media
for Saratoga TODAY
SARATOGA SPRINGS — The Spa Little Theater looked a little different on Tuesday.
Where there had once been 500 90-year-old seats now stood a massive scaffolding system that reached all the way to the chandeliered ceiling.
It took a month just to build the scaffolds, which were necessary because it was too difficult to use lifts on the theater’s uneven floor.
The radical change in the theater’s appearance is part of an ongoing $12 million renovation project that began in January. The theater, originally built in 1935 and designed to be a lecture hall, was taken over by the Saratoga Performing Arts Center (SPAC) in 2022.
“Would you like to see the ceiling?,” asked SPAC President Christopher Shiley when Saratoga TODAY took a hardhat tour of the theater. “This may be the only time you’ll get to [be this close to] the ceiling of the Spa Little Theater.”
The answer was “yes.”
Roughly five flights of scaffold stairs up, a team of plasterers were patching and recoating the ceiling’s many cracks accrued over nearly a century. The chandeliers, original to the building, will be cleaned and restored.
The construction team will start with the ceiling and work their way down, eliminating layers of scaffolding as they descend to the floor. At the floor level, new seats will be installed. Those seats will be “more comfortable” replicas of the 90-year-old originals, Shiley said.
The theater will also get a major color overhaul, with the current weathered walls receiving a coat of deep red burgundy. The walls will also be partly covered with large, newly-created, Spa State Park-inspired woodland murals. Underneath the murals will be cove lighting that will “add a little bit of elegance,” Shiley said.
But the theater itself isn’t the only space undergoing big changes. A family restroom, patio, bar/cafe, and community room are all being created. The men’s room is also being expanded.
The cafe, formerly an artists’ room, will include windows overlooking the park, a bar, seating for about 50 people, and a total standing capacity of around 75 or 80.
“It’ll be a place where you can come in, get a drink, have a bite to eat, get ready for the show, and have more of a reason to get here early and experience the park and experience the theater,” Shiley said.
The community room will be a flex space, potentially used for artist meet and greets, special events, and overflow when additional concession space is needed. It’ll also lead out to the new patio.
The cafe and community room will allow community members to rent out space at the theater for events and meetings. Both rooms will be A/V equipped with speakers and monitors.
The greenroom and backstage space is being dramatically expanded, thanks in part to SPAC obtaining an area that used to be a breakroom for state park employees. The new greenroom will include a kitchenette, restroom and shower, an office, washer-dryer (no more midnight laundry runs), and two large dressing rooms that will have a total of 20 makeup stations ideal for theater and dance companies. A new loading entrance is also being created to make it easier for artists to bring their gear in and out.
All of this means that Spa Little Theater will be able to host larger and more frequent productions.
“When we presented dance companies in the past, I would spend a lot of time with them talking them through the space, getting them to think about how to adapt their shows, which is tricky [because] not every company is willing to do that,” Shiley said. “Their show is their show and not every company is able to take it and customize it for a space… Now, we’re much more readily available to accommodate their existing show as it is. That helps us do more programming as well because we can go from one show to the next much easier.”
The exterior entrance of the Spa Little Theater is also getting a facelift, though that project is being handled by the park, not SPAC. Work is expected to begin in June. Cracked infrastructure will be repaired and a permanent ADA ramp will be added. The ramp is one of several changes that will make the theater more ADA friendly to both guests and artists.
“The whole project is equal parts restoration and renovation,” Shiley said. “Everywhere we can, inside and out, [we’ll] keep original architecture, original fixtures, and elements. There are some places, as you can imagine with a 90-year-old building, where that just simply wasn’t possible. But certainly and particularly on the outside, our goal was to keep it as true to the original design and aesthetic as possible.”
The theater is on schedule for a planned December 2026 ribbon cutting.
