“Our most optimistic would be to try and do it at the end of 2019, but certainly by spring of 2020 to have stuff really underway,” Bouchard said. “Once they get started, how soon can they finish? And I must say I don’t know. But it would be wonderful to get in there by 2020.”

While she has hope for opening up with an inaugural Christmas show in 2020, Bouchard said realistically summer 2021 is what to hope for.

Funding

A big factor in the timeline is the Downtown Revitalization Initiative. The state will award $9.7 million in reimbursement funds for a group of proposals a coalition of village government and local stakeholders submits to the state. The theater is asking for $2 million. According to the preliminary project list, the estimated cost for the theater is $6.5 million.

Awards for the DRI are usually announced sometime in the summer.

“We’re about halfway,” Bouchard said of the theater’s fundraising. “We still have some heavy lifting to do in terms of reaching out, looking for more grants and foundations. … So we’re looking forward to launching the next layer of capital campaign, where we’ll be soliciting more donors and patrons to help us.”

More space

But it’s not as simple as buying and moving into the former home improvement and grocery store at 56 Woodruff St. With the new construction and renovation, the new space will be a 15,000-square-foot building. The current space is around 7,500 square feet.

“The plan is to build a new theater space in the front of the existing building,” Bouchard said. “Some of it is thinking about renovating the existing building and also building a new portion of it which is going to hold the new theater.”

This will offer more shop space for scenery, costumes and props, more dressing rooms and bathrooms, and space for larger audiences.

“We’re just going to have much more space,” Bouchard said. The theater plans to grow into this space by increasing the technical ceiling on their productions.

“Right now, the space is pretty limited, and the ability for us to do technical, interesting anything kind of more technical side of theater is limited because we just don’t have the height or the depth of theater to be able to really be able to do more with scenery, lighting, even sound.”

The lobby of the new space is also planned to be a venue in its own right. There will be room for live music, tables, and food and drink offerings – hoping to look somewhat like what the Syracuse Stage in Syracuse offers in its lobby, Bouchard said.

She said the Pendragon’s current spot at 15 Brandy Brook Ave. will be kept as a rehearsal and teaching space, open to other users for educational events.

Education

Bouchard said she hopes that with this increased capability, more people interested in the technical side of theater will turn out to be involved as interns or students.

“One of the areas we really want to expand in is both the educational side,” Bouchard said. “So offering more educational opportunities. … Working with St. Joe’s (St. Joseph’s Addiction Treatment and Recovery Centers), particularly with their veterans program.”

In addition, Bouchard said she’d like to see a partnership with the Adirondack Center for Writing to involve local playwrights in the theater.

New leader

Location changes aren’t the only big changes coming to Pendragon.

Bouchard, also an associate professor at SUNY Potsdam in the department of theater and dance, will take over this summer as executive artistic director.

That position is currently held by Karen Lordi-Kirkham.

Lordi-Kirkham was named to a two-year directorship in Dickenson College’s Humanities Program, in Norwich, England, beginning in July. She previously spent summers in Saranac Lake while living during the school year in Pennsylvania, where she taught at Dickenson.

Bouchard has been in contact with Pendragon for the last 24 years.

“I first got to know Pendragon back in 1995 when I came here,” Bouchard said. “I thought, who is this theater company that does ‘Waiting for Gadot’ that’s up here in the Adirondacks? So at that time was when I met Bob Pettee and Susan Neal, who were the founders of Pendragon.”

Pendragon Theatre is now coming up on its 40th anniversary. Its first show under its current name was in 1980, “A Streetcar Named Desire” by Tennessee Williams.

“There are children right now who are participating in our productions, who are coming to see shows, who are going to be involved in the summer season in Camp Pendragon – those young people are going to be here in 2059,” Bouchard said. “So that sense of that we’re part of a long history of Saranac Lake, we’re part of the long history of the arts in Saranac Lake, is really – it just feels like a really good thing.”

Bouchard will direct the ice fishing musical “Guys On Ice” scheduled for Jan. 25 through Feb. 24.