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As a live entertainment venue, the Reg Lenna Center for the Arts is unique in that it can host many types of events.

Attention has been paid to ensure that every detail is perfect, with performers on stage behind the scenes ready to welcome customers.

That’s what happened in May 2022 when 10,000 Maniacs performed at the Reg to celebrate the band’s 40th anniversary.

10,000 Maniacs bassist Steve Gustafson says the city of Jamestown and the Reg have been a big part of the band’s success. Before the show, the band played a short video titled Jamestown My Home Town, which proved that the band paid homage to its roots.

From left, 10,000 Maniacs vocalist and violinist Mary Ramsey, bassist Steve Gustafson and keyboardist Dennis Drew. PJ Photo by Michael Zabrodsky

Gustafson said the band was excited to perform at The Reg.

“Theatre holds a special place in our hearts. It has played a big role in my life,” Gustafson said.

It was formerly known as the Palace Theatre, before being known as the Reg Lenna Arts Centre. Gustafson recalls seeing movies there as a child, serving on the center’s board of directors, writing and recording songs there, filming the band’s first MTV video on that stage, and owning the Stage Left restaurant where he and Drew When making them (the center) the host, it’s located next door.

That concert was postponed for a year, but 2021 marks the 40th anniversary of 10,000 Maniacs, according to the brochure the band provided at the show. Formed in Jamestown in 1981, the band has undergone some personnel changes and is still dominated by four of the six original members: Gustafson, keyboardist Dennis Drew, guitarist John Lombardo and drummer Jerry Augustiniak. Founding vocalist Natalie Merchant left the band in 1993 to pursue a solo career, replaced by backing vocalist Mary Ramsey who proved to be a natural fit for vocals and added another dimension to the band with her prowess in violin and viola , the brochure said. Guitarist and founding member Robert Buck died in 2000 and was replaced by Jeff Erickson, a close friend of Buck’s and a member of the improv band Zeta Cauliflower.

“We’ve written songs for almost every album on that stage,” Drew said in the brochure. “We shot the first MTV video there in 1985. We recorded our time in Eden there in 1992.”

On 5 February, The Reg, as the area is known, kicked off its year-long celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Palace Theatre.

“So it’s all about building anticipation for what you’re going to see. And whether it’s a movie or a live event, you know, it’s not going to start until it starts. We get people used to waiting — waiting for an audio cue, or coming out the person introducing the show, or the first picture you see on the screen,” Marketing Director Len Barry said.

The Palace Theater opened on 5 February 1923 with live music, public officials and a screening of Lionel Barrymore’s film Faces in the Fog. Originally operating as a vaudeville hall, Nikitas Dipson purchased it in 1926, adding more film screenings. It showcases films and live events from before 1956. That year, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz returned to Jamestown for the theater premiere of their film “Dear Forever.”

After 25 years dedicated to showing films, the palace fell into disrepair. After Harry Chapin gave a famous recital in 1981, community members began raising funds to restore the theater. Performing live performances for nearly a decade, the Palace Civic Center fully reopened in 1990 following a restoration. It was renamed the Reg Lenna Civic Center in honor of Reginald and Elizabeth Lenna, who provided a generous financial gift to complete the renovation. The theater remains a focal point of programming at the Reg Lenna Center for the Arts, showing more than 60 films and 30 live events each year.