LOCALadk Magazine

LOCALadk 49 As an English teacher and writer by trade, countless books have swept me away through my many years as an avid read- er. However, there is something so uniquely special about the Harr y Potter series that has stayed with me from ado- lescence through my adult life. You're a person who kindly marches to their own beat? You're my Luna Lovegood. That person in your life who sucks the energy out of a room? They are definitely a Dementor. Have you carefully shared your secrets with different people in your life? Congratulations — you have Horcruxes. Which is why I was delighted when I asked Jay, NY locals, Norman Jabaut and Jason Andrew, to describe the AuSable Theater — a restorative project they have under- taken to replace AuSable Fork's Hollywood Theater, which closed in 2018 — and was met with an answer involving 12 Grimmauld Place. "The building has a commanding presence on Main Street, but not in an obvious way," Jabaut said. "It kind of reminds me of Harr y Potter and the little house that has a spell on it so that nobody can see it, but it exists, and it spreads open once you know it exists." For those of you less familiar with Harr y Potter (trust me — you are missing out), the books explain 12 Grimmauld Place as a mission headquarters of sorts for those who need it. A spell makes it invisible to passer-byers, but for those the building aims to ser ve, the building explodes to life with a grand flourish, its doors open and welcoming. A lesser-dis- cussed detail by fans of the series is that 12 Grimmauld Place, according to the owner's will, is to be handed over to Harr y Potter upon the owner's death, giving Potter his first ever space to call home. It is the perfect metaphor for the AuSable Theater. It is first a building that will soon ser ve as headquarters to fulfill an artistic mission created by its new owners, and it's secondly — and arguably more importantly — a new home for those who wish to experience the arts in AuSable Forks. Andrew and Jabaut are unique in their dedication to artis- tic spaces, their lives filled with countless stories of turning the most unassuming locations into opportunities to display art: A dance performance on an ice rink… Moving their furniture on the lawn and turning their home into an art galler y… A ballet performed in a Walmart parking lot in front of the lawnmower display.... These are only a few of the seemingly endless examples of Andrew and Jabaut's creative minds for creative spaces. Once the theater became a viable option for restoration, they knew they had discovered their next grand stage. " We've talked about times where we had a tent in our yard, put up art in the tent, and called it a 'show,'" Jabaut said. "It would just be a weekend-long art show. We would incorpo- rate dance, incorporate poetr y, incorporate a fundraiser for somewhere like the Ausable River at the same time. So now, we have a space. We are hoping to make this an extension of our home. Our home has always been expressive with art, and we've always done art events. So for us, it's like moving what we do in our home to this more public venue." Upon its completion, the theater's renovation will have a large performance stage and screen space, a coffee shop, and galler y space. Andrew and Jabaut are eager for the space to support both artists and the community, alike. "You think about how important this type of place can be for the com- munity," Andrew said. "The fact is that all of our neighbors, us included, would have to drive to Lake Placid to see a show or we'd have to drive to Plattsburgh to see a show." "We are trying to make this an extension of our home."

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