SEATTLE - Three months after an arsonist set fire to the building, a Greenwood theater will reopen this week.
The Taproot Theatre had to be gutted, drywalled and re-carpeted.
Artistic Director Scott Nolte says the stage is set for the grand re-opening.
He says construction and set crews are working round the clock to get ready for a preview opening Wednesday, the official opening Friday.
"It was overwhelming to see the amount of damage that was done in a short amount of time," he said.
Even though the theater mostly escaped the actual flames, water was everywhere, and they spent months drying out the place, and tearing out the walls, replacing carpets, and throwing out 80 percent of their props.
Their basement flooded. The upstairs ceiling collapsed.
"Underneath the counter here is where the wall was actually bulging, it was just, looked like a bladder, it was full of water here," said Nolte.
But as he showed us the one area on the top floor where the flames almost got in, the optimism that's helped rebuild the theater comes through.
"We were darn close to the roof catching on fire let alone the structure here," he said.
Another sign of support is that Friday's show is sold out.
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