The 600 seat Elma Theater, (home of the Elma Children's Theater Association), was built in 1927 and opened in November of 1928. It was considered a state of the art performance hall and movie theater, with a fresco art ceiling, five dressing rooms with hot and cold running water, an orchestra pit, and a fly space capable of over stage suspension of up to 16 scenes that can be dropped during production scene changes. Mr. Kingsley Hall purchased the building on May 1, 1991. He reopened the theater after some renovation & restoration on June 1, 1991 with Chicken Fried Diner Produced by Mr. Patrick Dennis Hart
The Elma Theater has featured more imported live venues from all over the world, for many more seasons, than the Washington State Center for the Performing Arts, The Raymond Theater, The Hoquiam 7th St Theater and The Bishop Center combined, even though by choice there are no government or large corporate funds. Exceptions are some Hotel-Motel tax advertising (less than $400/year) , and 5 or 6 donations of less than $1,000.00 within the last twelve years in funds or materials. The help of The Washington State Arts Commission (funded by The National Endowment for the Arts) in arranging for Mr Hall's attendance to booking conferences is appreciated. Booking conference attendance resulted in our presentations of "The Duttons, (Provo Utah), A Fine & Pleasant Misery, McManus In Love w/Pat McManus, (Spokane WA) Ain't Misbehavin, (New York NY) Gray's Harbor County helps us with our annual quest by train to book ourselves out and other shows in. Many volunteers and small contributions keep us going. We try to pay our performers. Our Elma Children's Theater Assn children do not pay tuition but in fact are paid a small amount for their performance
