Bingen Theater upgrades seating

BINGEN — The Bingen Theater will look slightly different when the musical “String” opens on July 31, now sporting an upgraded seating arrangement installed by community volunteers on June 10-11.

April and Joe Garoutte, co-owners of Big Britches Productions, are always striving to improve the theater whenever possible. Thus, when a guest shared notice of a seating upgrade taking place at the Lakewood Center for the Arts in Lake Oswego, the Garouttes leapt at the opportunity to assume the theater’s outgoing seats.

After retrieving 220 total chairs on June 9, a team of over 20 volunteers — generous audiences, casts, and crews, past and present — worked to install a little over 170 of them (the previous seat count), increasing the length of rows, modifying positioning for better sight lines, while also painting, adjusting stairs, and making other general improvements. 

“The support has meant the world to us,” Joe Garoutte said. “The fact that not only former cast and crew members came to help, but audience members who just wanted to do something for their community, proved to us that our impact is real, and that our shared desire to connect with one another and do great things for our community has merit.”

The upgrade will have an immediate impact, offering a more comfortable experience and making the space feel bigger than it actually is. “This is the theater we want to have our community love as though it is theirs,” Joe added. “We beautified their theater home…and will send them home happier than when they came in.”

The theater is holding on to the extra seats for the time being, with plans for additional installations later on. The old seats, meanwhile, found new homes elsewhere in the Gorge: some in Goldendale and The Dalles, and others in private residences.