When Middlebury’s Town Hall Theater hosts a celebration this weekend to formally unveil its new wing, performing arts center and public plaza, the activities and entertainment will mark more than the completion of a major physical expansion. They will also herald the 141-year-old theater’s growing role in Addison County as a community center, education hub and special events venue.
Having broken ground in December 2023, Town Hall Theater wrapped construction of the $8.5 million expansion just weeks ago. The new, still-unnamed wing added 9,000 square feet of space, effectively doubling the theater’s original size. The wing includes a stage; a studio; the Seligmann Center for Learning & Engagement; dressing rooms; a kitchen, bar and lounge; a workshop space; and several multipurpose rooms.
The Maloney Performing Arts Plaza, a new outdoor courtyard, adds another 5,000 square feet and features a seasonal stage and two designated spots for food trucks.
Vermonters can explore the spaces at free, family-friendly festivities kicking off at 5 p.m. on Friday. The Rock & Roll String Quartet performs on the theater’s steps, followed by Twiddle cofounder Mihali on the outdoor Tilly Stage. Drumming group Green Mountain Samulnori and fire performances by Jericho Center’s Cirque de Fuego are also in the lineup.
With a section of Merchants Row closed to traffic, the Friday night party will offer Ethiopian and Eritrean food prepared by James Beard Award semifinalist chef Alganesh Michael of A Taste of Abyssinia, classic down-home fare from Pratt’s Classic American Grilling, and an outdoor bar.
Saturday’s festivities kick off at 1 p.m. with a formal ribbon cutting in Maloney Plaza, followed by The Real McCoy Stunt Show, by Greensboro comic and international street busker Brent McCoy. Indoors, meanwhile, the Jazz Collective and Vanessa Dunleavy will perform in the Doug and Debby Anderson Studio on the new wing’s second floor, overlooking Otter Creek and downtown Middlebury.
At 2:30, the Center for Learning & Engagement will host a magic show by Magicians Without Borders founder Tom Verner of Lincoln. The Middlebury Community Players will put on a pop-up costume, props and photo booth event, allowing the young and young at heart to dress up as their favorite stage characters and snap a few pics. Little ones will be invited to rove the building for a scavenger hunt with a “ghost light” theme, based on the old theater tradition of keeping a single bulb burning onstage whenever the theater is shuttered, to ward off evil spirits.
The celebration’s grand finale starts that night at 7:30 with the weekend’s only ticketed event: the sold-out Rodney Marsalis Philadelphia Big Brass. Marsalis, a New Orleans native and classically trained trumpet prodigy who studied under his older cousin Wynton Marsalis, has performed with such world-renowned conductors as Leonard Bernstein and John Williams. He and his ensemble of brass virtuosos will play on the theater’s original Rothrock Main Stage — recently outfitted with new seats — with prosecco and desserts to follow.
Before the renovation, the theater couldn’t host multiple shows at the same time. “In the last month and half, it’s been a beautiful experiment in simultaneous events happening,” Town Hall Theater executive and artistic director Lisa Mitchell said about the book club meetings, opera rehearsals, ballroom dance classes and lectures that can all take place at once in the new building. “It’s been an absolute blast … to see the plan come to fruition.”
On a recent visit, Seven Days observed the Doug and Debby Anderson Studio outfitted for performances of Giacomo Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi by the Opera Company of Middlebury’s Young Artist Program. The same week, the adult company was putting on Puccini’s La Bohème on the main stage. Meanwhile, the Addison Repertory Theatre was using the new scene shop downstairs to teach high school students about set design and construction.
“Theaters are more than just theaters. ‘They are community hubs.'” Lisa Mitchell
This weekend’s festivities will highlight the theater’s new capacity to host even more ambitious events in the future, Mitchell said. After traveling with other theater staffers to the Edinburgh International Children’s Festival in Scotland last month, Mitchell plans to pilot a similar festival in May 2026. New England currently has no children’s theater and dance festival of this kind, and she hopes Middlebury’s will eventually become a destination event.
“In the UK, theaters are more than just theaters. They are community hubs,” Mitchell added, about her visit to Scotland. “It’s a place where you have weddings, meetings [and] celebrations of life.”
Maria Verduzco, 50, of Salisbury, witnessed that kind of community activity when she stopped by Town Hall Theater on a recent weekday. “There were a bunch of kids running here and there,” she said. “It’s a beautiful place for people to hang out. Vermont needs places like this for people to get together.”
The original print version of this article was headlined “Living Space | Middlebury’s Town Hall Theater celebrates the opening of its new wing”
This article appears in Jun 25 – Jul 1, 2025.
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