Jim Morrison reported in today’s Newton Tab (sorry no link yet) about a plan to restore the Turtle Lane Playhouse in Auburndale.

Close to 100 residents turned up for a meeting last Thursday where local resident Stephen Vona unveiled a plan to build a mixed use development on the 1 acre site.  The project would include a restaurant and 26 one and two units apartments which would pay for the restoration of the historic theater into a “state of the art performance theatre and function hall.

It sounds like this is just the first step since the project will definitely require a Special Permit from the Board of Alderman so there’s likely to be a lengthy public process involved before any of this could come to fruition.

While I wasn’t at the meeting and haven’t seen the details of the project, I’m thrilled to hear that someone’s looking to restore the theater.  Much as I love Newton, one of it’s shortcomings is a dearth of good performance spaces.  The more options for performance spaces we have, the more likely we’ll have more and better live theatrical and musical performances in the city.