Benefit concert at River Park Square, tours planned for Rees in June

By: Shawn McGrath, Staff Writer
Thursday, March 7, 2019

(PLYMOUTH) The Plymouth Park Board on Monday approved a request from the Rees Committee to use River Park Square for a fundraising concert early this summer.

Jack Davis, a member of the committee spearheading efforts to repurpose Plymouth’s Rees Theater, said that while the concert’s exact date has not been set, organizers hope to have the show on Saturday, June 22.

The board gave its conditional approval with the expectation that Davis return once the performance date is known.

“There are a lot of moving parts there that have to be worked out,” Dave Morrow, parks board president said.

Initially, Rees Committee members hoped to have the event inside the Rees, but city officials denied that request because the venue doesn’t have a working sprinkler system, Davis said.

He said organizers are working with the entertainer, musician Andy Davis, to set the performance date. Davis said Andy Davis will soon embark on an European tour. However, he said organizers should have a firm date by the end of this week.

Despite not being able to have the event inside the theater, there will be tours offered of the Rees, Davis said.

“Just so people can come see where we are now that it’s all torn up inside,” he said.

Organizers hope to re-open the Rees in 2020, the venue’s 80th anniversary.

You can help

Donations for the Rees Theater can still be made online through the Marshall County Community Foundation at www.marshallcountygives.org or, for project details and specific donor levels, visit www.reesproject.com, according to organizers.

Pledge forms are available at the Marshall County Community Foundation, Marshall County Historical Museum, Bowen Printing or by calling 574-286-2391.

The overall goal is to raise a total of $3.46 million to rehabilitate the theater. Of that amount, $600,000 will go into an endowment to support the theater’s continued operation.

Organizers hope to have all work completed by spring or early summer 2020 to coincide with the theater’s 80th anniversary.

The next community fundraising event, The Rees Screen Test, in quiz bowl format, will be a night of trivia and fun, to be held Thursday, April 25, at the Knights of Columbus Hall.

Organizers said more details will be released soon.