John Canning Painting & Conservation Studios was chosen by architect Daniel R. Peloquin, RA of Woonsocket to restore the auditorium of the 1926 Stadium Theatre. When John Canning and Dave Riccio walked into the Stadium Theatre for the first time, they saw nothing but beige. All of the intricate decoration had been painted over, the plaster pilasters were disintegrating, and the once bright and lively auditorium was dingy and dull. This was the last -- and largest-- element of the theatre's restoration plan. The room is a classic stadium design measuring 120 feet long by 90 feet wide with a seating capacity of about 1500.
Canning Studios artists referred to the extensive historic documentation of the interior to piece together design, ornamentation and color palettes. Carefully uncovering evidence of the original designs, they painstakingly recreated each pattern, motif, and portrait, reinstating these elements using artists' oils and painting in the adamesque style of the originals. The plaster was consolidated and repaired, and the proscenium gilded to its glorious former appearance.
The adamesque style of painting is remarkably detailed and precise. And in order for all of the finely detailed images -- eyelashes, skintones, floral motifs and shading -- to be visible from the floor 30 to 50 feet beneath the ornate ceiling, these techniques were exaggerated.
Quoting from the National Register of Historic Places Inventory Nomination Form , ".the scheme is quite rich for a building of its size. The use of adamesque motifs was common to a number of theatres of the period where a taste for restraint rather than ostentation prevailed. In his [R.W. Sexton] American Theatres of Today (1927), one in a series of books on new building types which became standard reference works of the period, Sexton devoted several pages to illustrating the Stadium, presumably because he considered it exemplary for its size."
The auditorium restoration took five months to complete culminating in the 75th anniversary grand reopening event on September 28, 2001.
For more about the Stadium Theatre, visit their website: www.stadiumtheatre.com
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