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Published 8:13 pm Saturday, June 13, 2026<\/p>\n
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CARTHAGE, Ill. \u2014 The Legacy Theater\u2019s vision for the future calls for a building addition \u2014 with help from the Tri-State community.<\/p>\n
The theater launched a $2 million capital campaign Saturday night with plans to add a new covered entrance, an expanded lobby and a multipurpose room.<\/p>\n
\u201cI kind of call it the next level for us doing entertainment and being a community hub,\u201d Legacy Theater Foundation Board President Doug Groth said. \u201cWe\u2019ve done a great job of shows. This will help fulfill making it a theater experience.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some $500,000 already has been raised in the quiet phase of the campaign, and board members hope the public phase over the next three years generates investments, donations, pledges and grants to support the project billed as a reimagining of the theater.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe theater itself, the auditorium proper will not be changed. The capacity will remain the same. What we are going for is an addition that will completely reimagine the entryway,\u201d Legacy Theater Executive Director Larissa McShane said. \u201cIt\u2019s just reimagining how we utilize the space in general. There will just be so many more opportunities, endless opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n
The multipurpose room, for example, could be used as a dining room for groups, as meeting space and potentially as a venue for packages featuring dinner and a show.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis addition will make our theater more accessible, more inclusive and more responsive to the needs of our audience and community members,\u201d McShane said. <\/p>\n
A drive-through drop-off entrance, protected from the weather, provides easier access for patrons, boosting safety and convenience.<\/p>\n
The larger lobby space offers an expanded concession area to cater to patrons.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf a show starts at 7, doors open at 6, and people can come in, have a snack, have a drink and visit with their friends and their neighbors \u2014 make it a nice conversational evening instead of just come in, sitting down and leaving,\u201d McShane said. \u201cWe want it to be more of an experience.\u201d<\/p>\n
The project marks the next step for the theater which over the past decade has added a full-time executive director, a part-time box office and intern opportunities along with efforts to lower operating costs with improvements to the stage floor, sound equipment, light equipment and solar panels to offset electricity costs. <\/p>\n
Groth said construction could begin when the campaign reaches the $1.5 million mark.<\/p>\n
\u201cConstruction will take nine to 12 months,\u201d he said. \u201cThat will give us the rest of the push to finish out the dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n
Plans call for the theater to remain open during the construction and renovation work. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to keep bringing better and better shows as we go,\u201d McShane said.<\/p>\n
McShane said getting involved in the campaign offers a way for community members to make the Legacy part of their legacy.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s an investment not only in the community, but the future of the community,\u201d she said. \u201cWe want our community to grow and be welcoming to more and more people in the area. If we have this central place to invite them to, it would be good for all of the businesses in the community.\u201d<\/p>\n
More Information<\/p>\n
A series of community meetings will provide more information about the Legacy Theater\u2019s capital campaign.<\/p>\n
Executive Director Larissa McShane and theater board members will explain the building project and answer questions.<\/p>\n
Meetings are scheduled:<\/p>\n
6 to 7 p.m. Thursday, June 25 at the Warsaw Library community room.<\/p>\n
6 to 7 p.m. Monday, June 29 at the Keokuk, Iowa, Public Library Round Room.<\/p>\n
6 to 7 p.m. Thursday, July 23 at the Hamilton Community Center<\/p>\n
6 to 7 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 20 at the Nauvoo Community Center.<\/p>\n
More information also is available by contacting McShane at 217-357-9479 or director@thelegacytheater.com or Legacy Theater Foundation Board President Doug Groth at groth@hogvet.com.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source whig.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Legacy Theater building project offers \u201cendless opportunities\u201d\u00a0 Published 8:13 pm Saturday, June 13, 2026 CARTHAGE, Ill. \u2014 The Legacy Theater\u2019s vision for the future calls for a building addition \u2014 with help from the Tri-State community. The theater launched a $2 million capital campaign Saturday night with plans to add a new covered entrance, an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2458762,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2458761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Legacy-Theater-building-project-offers-endless-opportunities.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2458761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2458761"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2458761\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2458763,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2458761\/revisions\/2458763"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2458762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2458761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2458761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2458761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}