The Strand theater's new colorful neon marquee is kind of like carefully applied makeup on an old actor's face.

It might look good on the outside, but it's just a facade.

And that's why the marquee will be lighted only on weekends.

"We wanted to light it up every night, but we don't want to deceive anyone," said Ron Carter, president of the volunteer group that is turning the abandoned 90-year-old movie house in Zelienople into a performing arts center.

"Everyone might think it's done," he said. "But we're far from that."

In fact, The Strand Theater Initiative needs to raise about $400,000 by June if it wants to collect a $250,000 anonymous grant it was awarded last summer and two other grants it was awarded last year, Carter said.

The group was awarded $250,000 from the Richard King Mellon Foundation and $100,000 from the Buhl Foundation last year, Carter said.

The three grants plus the $400,000 in matching funds will give the initiative nearly half of the projected $2.1 million it needs to renovate the entire theater and build a new stage house for live performances, he added.

"We have every intention of raising that money," Carter said.

Volunteers who wanted to save the old theater organized in 2001 and bought the building in the summer of 2002.

Since then, they have held a steady stream of fund-raisers, pursued state and federal grants, and sought donations from individual and corporate sponsors, Carter said.

As a result, they were able to turn the concession stand into a small gift shop and fix the theater's crumbling facade above the marquee.

Rather than start on the inside of the 300-seat theater, the group's priority was to fix the outside of the building because that's what people see first, Carter said.

Last year, workers took apart the theater's front outside wall brick by brick. They stabilized the concrete underneath and rebuilt the wall using the original bricks, Carter said.

That left the old, peeling and chipping marquee.

"You would walk past and there would be chips on the sidewalk," Carter said.

It took four workers from Signinnovation, a graphics and sign company in Harmony, most of the day last Wednesday to install the 6-foot-tall, 15-foot-long sign.

Carter said his group began working with the sign company in September. They chose the colors and design and removed the old marquee and rebuilt its support frame.

The new triangular marquee juts nearly 15 feet over the sidewalk toward the street and will have running lights, like theaters of old, underneath.

"They're the glitz," Ed Melberg, owner and president of the sign company, said of the running lights.

Melberg and his crew handled the Strand's marquee from concept to installation.

Carter said The Strand group was more than happy to award the $33,000 marquee contract to a company with local ties.

"As much as possible, we want to keep this local," Carter said. "Signinnovation knew what we were trying to do. Ed's group donated signs when we first started."

With the repaired brick work and new marquee, the outside of The Strand Theater looks nothing like the dilapidated building Carter's group bought nearly three years ago.

"It's such an exciting part of this because it's so visible," Carter said, pausing to snap a picture of workers hoisting a section of the marquee above the sidewalk. "I can't even describe the joy you feel when you can see the progress you're making."

If the group raises the $400,000 it needs to collect the grants it's been awarded, the inside of the theater might get as dramatic a face-lift as the outside.

More fund-raisers will be held, and a walking tour of The Strand is scheduled for 7 to 9 p.m. March 15.

"We think 2005 is going to be a very good year," Carter said.

To volunteer, make a donation or learn more about The Strand Theater Initiative, visit the group's Web site at www.thestrandtheater.org.