The Missouri Theater is set to reopen for the first time since fire damaged the historic facility in February.   Bill France, the Assistant Director of Parks, Recreation and Civic Facilities for the City of St Joseph, tells us the first event in the newly-cleaned theater will be the Mrs Missouri and Mrs Kansas pageant on Sunday May 22.

France says the final preparations involved stage hardware and properties.

“All the sound and light equipment came back, ” France said.  “It had been cleaned.  So we were busy reinstalling all of that equipment. ”

Draperies arrived Wednesday and workers were reinstalling those Thursday.

“So, Friday’ll just be making sure everyting’s all spiffed up and ready to go.”

On February 19th fire broke out in the building adjacent to the theater, shutting down about half a dozen arts groups and businesses that shared the theater complex.  Some cleanup and renovation continues at those businesses.  The theater itself sustained extensive smoke damage in the fire.