Театр «We The People» в Огайо празднует 80-летие работы

We The People: Maumee Indoor Theater celebrates 80 years since first opening Mayor and theater supervisor say historic building keeps drawing crowds MAUMEE, Ohio (WTVG) - The Maumee Indoor Theater is marking 80 years since it first opened. “It is iconic. It is memorable. And that’s why we love it,” said Maumee Mayor Chelsea Ziss. History of the theater The Maumee Indoor Theater opened in 1947. For the next 50 years, it operated as a single-screen discount movie theater, but closed in 1996. Four years later, the city purchased and renovated the building. “It reopened in 2004 where it opened with a second auditorium as well as a community room in the basement level,” said Sara Eiden, the theater’s supervisor. Since then, the theater has been consistently showing new releases, even weeks after they leave major theaters. Personal connections to the theater Eiden says the job means a lot to her. “My grandmother grew up in Maumee. I didn’t have the chance to, but it’s amazing to be so close to her upbringing,” she said. Ziss also has ties to the theater. “It was actually my husband’s family who built it. So that was the young family that built a lot of the theaters in the area,” Ziss said. The mayor said she performed at the theater with her high school choir 22 years ago. She now brings her children there to see movies. “They think it’s very cool and it’s also great because we have a lot of the old stories that have been told by the families. The bathrooms being upstairs or the hiding in the basement or how the facade used to look,” Ziss said. Timeless design Ziss and Eiden both say the sense of timelessness makes the space special. “From the tile floor to the neon to the murals, even just to the wallpaper,” Ziss said. “It’s amazing to hear their stories of, oh, this part of the building used to be this and that was never here. We’ve got a lot of folks who come by just to take a look and see what’s changed,” Eiden said. Upcoming film festival Film crews will be in Maumee at the end of September for the theater’s 48-hour film challenge. Those films will be part of 70 screenings during the theater’s eighth annual film festival. Latest Local News | First Alert Weather | Crime | National | 13abc Originals Copyright 2026 WTVG. All rights reserved.