The Strand Theatre on Marietta Square is coming right up on the first anniversary of its reopening last year after its renovation and restoration, and so far, it seems to be exceeding just about everybody's expectations.

The Strand first opened as a movie theater in 1935, was closed in 1976, was used as a concert hall, a church, a teen club and for other things through the years before finally being the target of an ongoing, joint city-county/public-private restoration to the tune of $4 million. It has stayed busy since its reopening.

"It has been a challenging journey," director Earl Reece told members of the Marietta Rotary Club last week. "We were told we needed to be financially successful in our first year. When I came aboard two years ago, we were told where we are now is where we need to be after five years. But then, because of the economy, it became the target for the first year. I also was told we needed to have 100 events in the Strand in the first year we were open.

"So if there's nothing in the theater, we have to put our minds together on what to put in there. I'm really proud, that by the end of this year, we will have had 362 events in the Strand our first year. And we're proud of that. It shows how Marietta and our community have embraced the reopening of the Strand."

No question about that.

Among the events there have been the 70th anniversary grand re-premiere of "Gone With the Wind," a number of productions by the Atlanta Lyric Theatre and this weekend's concert by jazz musician Freddy Cole, brother of Nat King Cole. Among the upcoming Lyric Theatre productions are "Little Shop of Horrors," "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" and "Hairspray."

Reece sees no conflict with the longstanding Theatre on the Square.

"I'd love to see a cabaret theater and children's theater near us. I'd hate to think when they opened the first theater on Broadway that they were afraid to open a second and third and fourth. Because it allows us to support one another and bring even more people in. The more cultural attractions there are, the more people are going to flock to your city. The amount of money to spend on the arts is really astronomical nationally.

We're not splitting audiences, we're building audiences."

Reece is a native of Cobb County and visited the Strand many times as a youth.

"People have asked me 'What made you go into the arts?' So I tried to go way back and think of why I was so obsessed with the arts and arts education. I'm one of those people who thinks that an education without the arts is not an education. You're not completely educated if you can't appreciate those things.

"When I was a kid, I decided to write a play. It was the worst thing anyone has ever written. I guess because I only had one sibling, I chose as my subject a large family. It had five brothers - Ed, Ned, Fred, Ted and Jed. And they had five sisters - Arlene, Carlene, Charlene, Marlene and Darlene. If I look back, it was sort of like the Osmonds, a performing family."

He entered the play in the high school talent show, but it didn't win. But his mother let him and his brother perform it in their garage, and they sold tickets to their neighbors.

"And I remember my Mom letting me and my brother off at the Strand to see a movie, and me telling her, 'Maybe one day I'll get to do the show at the Strand.'"

Reece had a long career in education before coming to the Strand. He taught at Awtrey Middle School then spent the rest of his career heading the performing arts magnet program at Pebblebrook High School. Pebblebrook just this week saw a 27th alumni of the program perform on Broadway, this time in the cast of the musical "Memphis."

Reece then spent six years in retirement.

"I loved it," he said. "When I retired, I felt like every day of my life was a 'snow day.' I could do whatever I wanted.

The former Cobb Commission Chairman Earl Smith, who was heading the effort to raise money to restore the Strand, invited Reece to breakfast and asked him to chair a task force for a performing arts center, which Reece did for three years. Then Earl invited him to breakfast again and out of the blue asked him to be director of the theater.

"I was completely unprepared for that, but it was a no-brainer. I grew up in that theater, I love the arts, and it was the opportunity to possibly bring something to Marietta that it needed very badly on the Square. So that's where I have lived. Not worked. Lived. And it's been a wonderful residence to have," he said.

"The economic development opportunities that the Strand provides are overwhelming," he said.

So far, so good.

Bill Kinney is associate editor of The Marietta Daily Journal.