Lebanon Opera House: Please take a seat, any seat

Oct. 14—People are always looking to nab seats for fun shows, but the Lebanon Opera House is going one step further: Take home a seat. Or a row of them. Or all 800 of them, for that matter.

The entertainment venue, located inside City Hall, took its "Final bow — for now" in early August, when patrons took tours of the theater, snapped some selfies on stage and added a memory for two to a time capsule.

Then the doors were shut for a major renovation, to take place over five months.

But the initial problem was what to do with all the 20-year-old theater seats, which needed replacing.

Brian Cook, the opera house's operations manager, said logistics were tough since they didn't have any place to store them all. Takers would have had to have the means to pick up seats as quickly as possible.

"It's a challenge," Cook conceded. Two-thirds of the chairs were custom made to fill the slope of the floor, and while some were in good shape, others were falling apart.

"We're making a good-faith effort to find them a home," Cook said when he put out a call on social media in late summer.

Maybe someone wanted one or two for a porch, a man cave or home theater?

After all, people who sat in those seats over the past two decades have been witness to nationally known performers of all kinds, including Stephen Stills and Judy Collins, Weird Al Yankovic, Paula Poundstone, Shawn Colvin, Savion Glover, Neville Brothers, Suzanne Vega, Rosanne Cash, Keb' Mo,' David Crosby & Sky Trails Band, Pat Metheny, Lindsey Buckingham, Cyndi Lauper, Indigo Girls, Jason Mraz, Chris Isaak, Clint Black, Kenny Wayne Shepherd and David Sedaris.

The first to accept the chair challenge were Nanci and Al Cirone, who sponsored two of the theater seats two decades ago and have been taking in shows at the opera house since the mid-1970s.

Their two chairs — with blue fabric on the seat pads, wooden arms and metal legs — temporarily sit in their TV room, but they soon will make the move to a new home in Portland, Maine, in memory of a close friend, well-known lawyer and fellow Lebanon Opera House supporter, the late Deborah Cooper, who died in 2004.

The chairs will reside with Cooper's son, Tom, and his wife Alexa, who are parents to daughters Siena and Caroline.

Cooper "died before she could meet her twin granddaughters, who are five years old and are like grandchildren to us," Al Cirone said. "We got engraved name plaques for the two girls and I attached them to the chair arms."

One seat has the name "Cirone" on it and the other the name of the law firm where their grandmother worked for many years. Cooper also served as state assistant attorney general and deputy attorney general.

Cooper's daughter Elizabeth is the Cirones' goddaughter, and it's all an extended family of sorts.

Looking ahead, the couple plans to sponsor one new seat in time for the opera house's 100th anniversary in 2024.

Dedicating only one seat doesn't mean the two will have to sit apart. Neither Cirone actually sat in the chairs they sponsored 20 years ago; they had another vantage point that they preferred in the theater.

There's no word yet on where they'll sit in the new setup, but it's a given they will be back in the audience soon.

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