During a recent NarniaFans LIVE broadcast artistic director Nichole Stratton from Academy of the Arts has announced an intent for their ministry to expand and build The C.S. Lewis Memorial Theatre. This announcement comes after a series of spectacular Narnia plays including an internationally acclaimed play of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, the first ever production of Prince Caspian now playing at the Logos Theatre until April 23, and The Horse and His Boy opening March 2019.
“When Gresham came over he did a masters class with me and then he did an interview with me and he sat down and said,’I would really like for you to go through the rest of the books if you could.'”
“There seems to be an open door into building what we will be calling the C.S. Lewis Memorial Theatre…It will be dedicated to doing the books full scale. It will be double the size of the theatre we have right now, fully equipped with every effect we will need to take it all the way through to the final book and to be able to bring every book to life on the stage.”Nichole Stratton in NarniaFans LIVE
The new theatre will be part of the new Bridgeway Station development in Mauldin, South Carolina. This is located along I-385 near Greenville and will have easy highway access for fans as far as Atlanta, Charlotte, or Columbia. The plan is to open the theatre with an all new production of The Magician’s Nephew and then go through all seven books in chronological order.
The Academy of the Arts is a non-profit ministry founded in 1971 that focus on creating theatre from a Christian world view and training young people in film and drama. To develop a state of the art professional theatre of this size they will need to raise 12.5 million dollars. Other friends of Narnia are coming together to make this a unique destination for fans a reality. Josh Baker from Living Like Lucy will be providing authentic Chronicles of Narnia movie props to outfit the lobby and there will be a Tumnus’s Tea House restaurant.
“When you really believe in the books and that is inside of you, you really don’t want to cut corners, you want to do what it takes.” Nichole Stratton
You can support this project and other Academy of Arts Narnia productions by donating at: https://www.theacademyofarts.org/
YES! This is what we’ve all been dreaming of!