Historic theatre gets new owners and new potential

As the city of Perry continues to grow, more and more projects to establish new businesses and revitalize the community have been brought forth to the city council for approval. One of the most notable current projects is the renovation of the beloved Muse Theatre located on Commerce Street in downtown Perry. 

The plan for the former theater is to transform the building into an event space that could host a variety of events from weddings, dinner parties, fundraisers, concerts and more. More specifically, the building will be fashioned to be even more enticing to the community and should be seen more as an “assembly space,” that can host family movie nights, a functional green space, office events, etc., according to new owner, Chad Bryant.

Younger brother, Tyler Bryant, stressed that the new space is also conducive to hosting the cultural arts. He has been writing and directing murder mystery dinner theater shows for seven years. “If you love theater, you’re going to love our shows,” claimed Tyler. “If you hate theater, you’re going to really love our shows because it’s so different than anything you’ve probably ever seen.” After a successful run, he hopes to have his tenth production be shown in the newly renovated Muse Theatre.

“I don’t want it to be seen as just an event venue,” Chad Bryant revealed. “We want it to be a space where we self-host events. It’s not just a space for short-term lease. Our intention is for it to be an active space that we, ourselves, are actively involved in. We want to create a live space that we ourselves host to really get that community involvement.” Such a space opens the door for partnership opportunities between a plethora of businesses.

James Anderson, an on staff designer for Bryant Engineering, is working directly with Chad, the company’s owner and president, on the design of the new space. Having been with the company for several months, Anderson was tasked with working through the details. “He knew I had some experience with renovations and architectural visualizations, so he basically gave me the reigns to flesh out the design,” Anderson shared. “As of right now, we are working through the details of the case work—how the windows and doors are going to work, how the outside is going to function, what kind of finishes, what are some special details; things of that nature.”

The plans for the renovation of the close to 4,000-square-foot space are to have an art deco theme throughout the entire building with an added warming kitchen for caterer opportunities. There will be an addition of windows and doors, but they want to keep the feel of the original 1950s architecture of the building.

“What we try to do is come up with an idea that preserves the history and the architecture of the buildings and repurpose it rather than go in and ‘reinvent the wheel,’” Chad revealed. Wanting to utilize what is already in existence such as the half second story mezzanine and stage, the new owners envision bringing the space to its full potential and to make it conducive to all kinds of events.

“A lot of times, what we do is we’ll start a demolition phase to peel back, like an onion, the layers of time until you get back to its original facade and you try to enhance and capitalize on some of those attributes that each facility possesses,” described Chad. “We want to preserve the historic look of the place.”

The Muse Theatre is filled with history dating back to its creation 71 years ago. Named after the original family that built the building, it celebrated its dedication in April of 1950. Movies were played once a day throughout the week with an additional matinee on the weekend showings. The theater has been described with red vinyl seating, segregated entrances, and employees would serve Red Hot’s, Whoppers and Raisinettes at the concession stand. The building switched several hands throughout its history of owners. In recent years, it was purchased for storage and then switched hands again as an antique mall until the current owners, Chad and Courtney Bryant, took the reins on renovating the space to access its full potential.

“Its size, age and history is something that can’t be duplicated,” stressed Chad. “I think Houston County is starving for an event space such as this. It kind of gives that downtown lifestyle that can’t be recreated. It will create an experience that can’t be duplicated anywhere else.”

People have a lot of sentiment for the character of the building and the Bryant’s have garnered much excitement and interest from the community. Anderson observed, “It’s hard for people to get excited about a new building. However, they really get worked up over renovations.”

According to Anderson, there are many plans and plots for construction in downtown, especially surrounding the theater. “From a real estate and urban planning perspective, it has the opportunity to drastically change this block. This really has the potential to be a catalyst for neighborhood/community revitalization in this area…and can build on the economic growth that’s been happening in recent years. It has the potential to be a true, functioning landmark for downtown.”

The new owners of the Muse Theatre have received a lot of support and cooperation by various agencies. “It’s been a long process,” began Chad. “We had to get it acquired and get it under contract. Projects like these require assistance to make it economically feasible.” They worked with the Downtown Development Authority, Georgia Cities, Department of Community Affairs and the city of Perry. “They have incentives to help with the finances because it’s hard to do financing for some of these buildings. Banks see it as a risky investment at times. But, we were able to navigate through that and present plans that were appealing and interesting to investors and to the bank.”

Chad has been making a name with previous projects from downtown Perry and Forsyth in the past five years. Owning the engineering firm, Bryant Engineering, Chad has partnered with Marty McLeod, owner of McLeod Surveying and a neighboring business, on several joint ventures. “It’s a hobby and an interest to revitalize downtown Perry. Some of these buildings are underutilized,” Chad speculated.

Vouching for Chad’s work, Anderson explained, “He’s always been around the area, he’s always seen the theater. It’s always been on his radar. And there’s been a lot of revitalization and growth in Perry. He was attracted to the history of the theater. He’s an entrepreneur and he was inspired by the opportunity to turn it into a space that the community can utilize instead of it being kind of an eye sore. It’s been run down and vacant off and on since the 70s.”

Tyler Bryant also attested to his older brother’s work with previous projects. “Chad has an eye like no one else I’ve ever seen. He can see the big picture before anyone else can.” Other people might say it’s too much work, but Chad sees the challenge instead. “He’s a proven leader and a proven visionary from past projects. He’s so good at restoring buildings to their former glory and also keeping some of their best elements of the building. He wants to preserve Perry as much as possible.”

Between repairs and remodeling of the building and a courtyard to the side (with a large bay door), the completion and grand opening is tentatively scheduled for fall of 2021. Courtney Bryant will be in charge of booking events and hopes to start booking in the next few months for the use of possible Christmas parties and various event opportunities.

“With us bringing in more people, hopefully it will really help the surrounding businesses and the revitalization of the downtown district,” she said. “Chad is the best person to take over this project with his background and vision. I think it’s in really, really good hands and I’m really excited for what we can do with it.”

The Bryant’s intend on sharing the process of the renovations on social media to help the community feel a part of the process. Tyler will be handling all of the social media channels for the theater. “We want the community to almost feel like they own it, too. That it’s theirs and they can really take advantage of it,” Courtney shared.

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