Return engagement for Hanover theater?

By PATRICK ABDALLA , For The Evening Sun, October 11, 2007

     Entertainment at the Hanover theater went out with the 1980s.
     In a year featuring The Police as the top musical tour and "Die Hard" and "Transformers" holding top spots at the box office, maybe it shouldn't be a surprise a group is trying to bring entertainment back to the Frederick Street location.
     David Leske, a 39-year-old from Richmond, Va., confirmed he is part of a group, Historic Hanover Theater LLC, that is in the process of restoring the theater for a December 2008 opening.
     Leske explained he's been in the entertainment business - on and behind the stage - since he was 14 and works to maintain theaters in the Richmond area. Over the years, he's met several other entertainers and many have had one thought in common.
     "We've seen the management problems and the maintenance problems," he said. "It's one of those things where you sit around and say, 'Gosh, we could really do this.'"
     So for three years, Leske and his wife, Stacy Johnson-Leske, had that idea bouncing around the back of their heads. 
     Then came one of the biggest weekends of their lives.
     The couple were married in June at the Catoctin Mountain Park in Thurmont, Md. Before returning to Richmond, they stopped in Taneytown to visit friends. The friends told them Hanover would be a nice place to visit.
     So they made the day trip.
     When they saw the theater the couple had a quick reaction. "Oh my God, this is what we've been looking for for three years," Leske said on Wednesday.
     Leske wouldn't get into specifics on Wednesday, but did say, "The building has changed hands."
     He also admitted he knew there had been deed restrictions placed on the theater, including one declaring movies could not be shown. When the Fox Theaters sold the building to Robert and Tanya Nagangast in 1986, there was a stipulation that the theater could not be used to show movies since Fox was moving to north Hanover, it didn't want any competition.
     "As part of purchase process, we contacted those entities and new deeds are about to be recorded," he added.
     John Huston, Hanover Borough's zoning officer, said the group has a large, but not crippling amount of paperwork in front of it.
     "They have an awful lot of work to do," he said about the process of bringing the building up to code. "It shouldn't be hard, really."
     During his career with the borough and life in Hanover, Huston can recall when movies were shown at the theater. 
     Since then, the theater has been home to flea markets and antique stores. The building was even hit by lightning in 1989 or 1990, losing a chimney, Huston said. And people have always been inspired about restoring the theater.
     "We've gotten a lot of inquiries about it," he said. "But everybody who seemed to have a great idea didn't have any money."
     With more than a dozen other individuals, Leske's prepared to do the work needed to make the theater a hot spot in downtown Hanover again.
     "It is our intent to bring it back to full operation," he said. Entertainment could include dramas, musicals, improv and comedy, he said, adding the building could be used by local groups and show classic movies.

 Contact Patrick Abdalla at pabdalla@eveningsun.com.

 ON THE WEB:  The group behind the restoration of the Hanover Theater has established a Web site, which is currently online.  It is located at http://www.hanovertheater.info, and includes information about their plans, the building and its history.