Imperial Theatre has started running its popular 50/50 lottery on a monthly basis again, with plans to complete renovations and upgrades over the next couple of years.
Executive Director Brian Austin Jr. said the goal is to have projects completed by the theatre's centennial anniversary in 2027.
"Some of the big [projects] are replacing all of the curtains and rigging -- they're all about 25 years old, so they're in need of replacement; we need to add an HVAC to our workshop and our youth space," he said. "We are looking at renovating our rehearsal halls and our production facility on Campbell Street. We're looking at adding some new equipment to those so that our construction crews and set painters have the same state-of-the-art facilities that our performers have."
Austin Jr. said they're also planning to replace the lighting and sound boards, redesign the concession area, and have an accessibility study done to explore potential improvements.
There's no estimate available for the cost of these projects.
"We're still putting proposals and things together," he said. "We wanted to start to build up a base of capital funds so that once we had a plan in place, we could just hit the ground running."
The original 50/50 campaign ran during the pandemic on a monthly basis but later transitioned to a quarterly draw when shows started ramping up again.
Tickets for the monthly draw can be purchased online.
"We've reintroduced a $10 ticket, which hopefully removes any barriers to people participating," Austin Jr. said. "We're really excited because the jackpot for this first month is guaranteed to be $10,000."
The grand prize jackpot will be drawn on November 28.
Early bird prizes of $1,000 will be drawn on November 14 and 21.
Sheri Baccari won the campaign's first early bird $1,000 prize, drawn on November 7.
