Spirit of Newfoundland's Kathie Hicks laments lost summer over delays

This was meant to be a big summer for the Spirit of Newfoundland theatre company.

The organization's brass were planning to move into a new location at Gower Street United Church's lecture hall in St. John's and, just down the road, re-open their Screech museum — a venue dedicated to the famous Newfoundland rum.

But CEO and co-founder Kathie Hicks said the city has pressed pause on those plans.

For the last decade the theatre company called the Masonic Temple home, and it was supposed to move into the church's lecture hall for this season. But Hicks said they were told by the city that upgrades needed to happen before they could fully open there. As it stands, Hicks said they can only operate their much smaller kitchen party and screech-in events.

"It is a 130-year-old building. So these are old buildings downtown and that is the point of these gorgeous, beautiful jewels downtown. They're older and they went by different codes," Hicks told CBC News.

The city wants them to make structural changes, like installing a new exit by punching through a wall, she explained.

But Hicks says that shouldn't be an issue, because there will never be a service in the church while the theatre is performing due to the noise, meaning they wouldn't need additional exits. All told the renovations will cost an estimated $190,000.

Rather than operating out of the church, they've been hosting the latest musical The Show Must G'wan B'y at venues around town like Bella Vista, and the Elks Club Lodge and the Classic Cafe, she said.

This is the theatre company's 27th year in business, and it's their fifth location, said Hicks.

"We want to try to help save one of these great structures downtown at the same time as we're doing business. The same thing we did at the Masonic Temple."

Down the road from the church, Hicks said their plans to reinstall their Screech museum have also stalled at 21-23 Queens Road.

Hicks said the city has told the company they need to apply for rezoning and then apply for a restaurant or lounge license to serve alcohol. However, she stressed they don't want to serve food.

It's something that Hicks finds frustrating, pointing out that there have been three restaurants serving alcohol over the years out of the building and they didn't have to apply for rezoning.

They want to carry on performing screech-ins at the Queens Road location, too. It's also a family-friendly event, as the rum can be swapped for Purity syrup, she said.