The notion that “the show must go on” has sustained the Casino Theatre and its Tuesday Night Work Crew for more than 20 years, taking the historic venue from a rundown site ready for demolition to a sought-after performance venue full of Victorian-style charm.
Vandergrift resident Anthony Ferrante has been there nearly every step of the way.
While his profession is cars (he is the third generation of Ferrante Motors in Vandergrift), he always wanted to be a builder of some sort, Ferrante said.
He's found the opportunity to do that at the Casino serving as the crew's unofficial foreman.
From sketching out ideas on napkins to digging out the basement to make way for an elegant ladies room, he has been right there with the rest of the crew, taking the theater from the turn-of-the last century to the 21st.
He notes that a dedication to renovating the 500-seat theater and making it available for performance as soon as possible have kept theatergoers and volunteers dedicated.
Putting on shows while remodeling was the original intent, he said.
“I think that's what kept everybody coming back,” he said. “If it wasn't for the end result — the shows — you would get tired of just restoring a building. If we just tried to restore it for 10 years, everybody would get bored and go home.”
Brady Bottegal, who serves with Ferrante on the Casino Theatre Restoration and Management group's board of directors, says the Vandergrift resident has a magical way of making things happen at the Casino.
“Without Anthony, I doubt very many projects would get started or finished,” Bottegal said. “He has an amazing ability to think outside the box. If there's a way, he'll find it. He loves to solve problems.”
“He's a great leader and knows where to get the resources for any project. Anthony is the hardest-working guy I've ever met.”
Ferrante, in turn, credits the rest of the crew, which consists of about a dozen people from in and around Vandergrift. They still gather each Tuesday night, and more often when needed, to work on renovations and man the theater during shows.
“It's a lot more than Tuesday, but it's the Tuesday Night Crew,” he said.
“The dedication is unbelievable. Whatever it is, we do it, and it's just unbelievable how they respond, the core group. It doesn't matter what I ask.”
One recent success that Ferrante considers significant is online rather than on stage: the recent update of the Casino Theatre website to allow for purchase of tickets via the web.
“That is just ‘wow,' ” he said, noting how far the ticket-buying process has come from when the theater started up again and volunteers wrote them out by hand.
As he and the rest of the crew continue to restore and modernize the historic theater, Ferrante said the shows make their efforts worthwhile.
“That's the pay, seeing it operating and seeing it work.”
Julie Martin is a contributing writer for Trib Total Media.
