DAYSLAND PALACE THEATRE (DaysArts)
The Palace Theatre was built in 1952 by the Tury’s; Mom and Dad even lived upstairs. The inaugural show was “Snow White” and all the ticket receipts were donated back to The Town of Daysland. Their son Steve apprenticed to become a licensed projectionist and in 1962, Steve and his wife Olga took over the theatre. They showed movies every night of the week (plus a
Saturday matinee) and ran it successfully for the next 34 years. In 1999 the Daysland and District Cultural Arts Society (DaysArts) took over the theatre and the renovations began…….. After many hours of volunteering and with generous financial support from organizations, businesses and individuals, the society opened the doors in December of that year. The theatre has been showing movies every weekend, staffed by volunteers. The theatre moved a step forward in terms of entertainment a couple of years later. In March 2001 an expanded 24 foot staging area for a concert series and dinner theatre was completed. In 2013, over $100,000 was raised by DaysArts to install a new digital projector and an updated audio system. In 2014/15 another $120,000 was raised to replace the floor with 4” of new concrete and purchase 232 new seats. This non-profit society is entirely volunteer run — from concession workers to projectionists. DaysArts has a series of 6 concerts between November and April featuring a variety of live performances which may include many different genres of music as well as drama, dance or comedy. Reel Alternatives are Indie, documentaries, foreign or Canadian films. Historically we have had amateur drama performances with the Daysland Little Theatre, Daysland Little Little Theatre (a community children’s drama group), the Camrose Churchmice, Sifton School, the Daysland School Drama Company and the Missoula Children’s Theatre. Schools attend live concerts as well as movies that are bought in especially for them. We have had concerts for up and coming local musicians including Elise Epp, Ben Christenson, Jan Matthews and Karl Schwonik. In the past we have provided a venue for dance lessons and currently host Kamotion, a non competitive all inclusive dance school for local children. We rent out the theater for self presenting artists, fundraising concerts and even weddings.