Community Theater Center Planned in Lilburn

To the naked eye, it looks like 18,400 square feet of open space with an uncertain future in an aging shopping center.

To Lois Chisolm, it's where the performing arts will live and prosper in the middle of Lilburn.

All you have to do is see it.

"If you can imagine, there’s a wall right here and a big room behind it. And there's a stage right there, and 450 seats," Chisolm said Tuesday, pointing out spots inside the cleared-out space that used to be the old Textile Warehouse in the Lilburn Crossing shopping center located at 4230 Lawrenceville Hwy. "The sound booth is here. I see offices over there. And a music studio. ...

"I see all of that. Can you see it?"

Chisolm sees the potential of the old retail space located next to Gwinnett College to be a theater and creative arts center for the non-profit Melanie Thornton Youth Arts Foundation, for which she is the founder and president. The Foundation has signed a 15-year lease.

“Right now, it’s just a large room,” Chisolm said. “But there’s so much we can do here.”

In it are planned community play productions for adults and kids—“Alice in Wonderland” is planned at the end of the summer, “Annie” in the fall, and “High School Musical” next spring. Adult plays in the plans are “The Odd Couple,” “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever,” and “A Raisin In The Sun.”

The Foundation, which also runs a 4,000-square-foot center in Duluth, is a growing organization that uses art-enrichment programs to develop leadership skills in youth. Its first full musical production, “The Wiz,” runs Thursday though Saturday this week in the Berkmar High School theater.

The Lilburn location, which is still in the process of being cleaned out, will provide space for the Foundation’s youth programs in dance, music, drama, arts and martial arts, as well as in photography, video development and editing and more. Chisolm said some of the space could be subleased for groups looking for large space, such as classes, parties or a new church.

Chisolm said choosing Lilburn for expansion was easy. It was about the people.

When she toured the space with a real estate broker, she was approached by people from the surrounding shopping area wondering what was up.

“They would ask, ‘Are you doing something here?’ and I’d tell them we’re wanting to start a theater and creative arts center. And I got [responses like] ‘Oh my God, I would definitely bring my kids here. I would take classes, see plays,’” Chisolm said. “Their excitement made it very easy to get excited about this place.”

Include Lilburn Mayor Diana Preston among those excited about the theater, which seems to be a good fit in the ongoing plans to revitalize Greater Lilburn in general, and the Lawrenceville Highway corridor in particular. Plans such as those by the Lilburn Downtown Development Authority and the Lilburn Community Improvement District are geared toward establishing Lilburn as a destination.

“A community theater is just what we need to be a city where we live, work, shop and play,” Preston said. “I am especially pleased that the theater foundation is purposing a large empty space for productions that will appeal to patrons of all ages.

“I understand that there are plans to bring regional theater to Lilburn as well. We have so many exciting things happening in Lilburn and this theater addition is certainly one of them.”

Chisolm said architectural plans are due next week and work will start to have the facility open—though not completely built out—by the end of May. A summer performing arts camp for ages 5-14 will run weekly May 31 to Aug. 5, after which “Alice in Wonderful” is scheduled Aug. 5, 6 and 7.

Continued building out of the center will take place in the fall.