The newly renovated Strand Theater in Zelienople will celebrate its grand opening later this month with a host of festivities culminating with a weekend of live performances by actress and singer Debbie Reynolds.

"I can't tell you how excited we are," said Ron Carter, executive director of The Strand Theater Initiative.

The nonprofit group has been working since 2001 to restore the 95-year-old theater and turn it into a regional performing arts, education and community outreach center.

The varying types of events lined up for this month are indicative of the type of place the Initiative always wanted the Strand to become, Mr. Carter said.

Starting July 16 and running through that weekend, the theater will host a children's interactive play, a concert by the Joe Negri Quartet and a free concert by the Pop Rocks, a local band of middle school students who impressed Steelers fans this year with their fight song, "Heartbreakers," which can be viewed on YouTube.

"The whole point is it's virtually limitless the types of performances we'll be able to provide," said Mr. Carter.

From July 20-26 performances will include an orchestra and fashion show, a silent film festival and Debbie Reynolds' three shows on July 24-26.

There was no doubt, said Mr. Carter, that booking a star like Ms. Reynolds, who in the mid-1950s was one of Hollywood's most sought after stars, had to be a part of the theater's grand opening.

"It made perfect sense to us," he said. "We wanted to get a nationally recognized act."

The Strand, built in 1914, was initially used as a silent film house and vaudeville center. It was later used as an old-fashioned cinema and it eventually closed in 1984.

The Initiative formed in the fall of 2001 and bought the building in the summer of 2002. The group has spent the past seven years raising $1.4 million in donations and grants to pay for the theater's complete makeover.

Ultimately, the Initiative would like to build a stage house, and a parking lot with an upper deck where a multipurpose center could be located. Those two phases are projected to cost $1.4 and $1.9 million respectively, Mr. Carter said.

While those projects are still on the Initiative's wish list, the grand opening is first and foremost on everyone's minds.

Even though there are minor details such as special railings that must be added, people who attend the upcoming events at the Strand will see a new building from the bottom up.

"When people walk in, they will see a completed theater," he said.

Construction delays have pushed the grand opening back several times, but the word is out now and there is no turning back.

"The community is counting on us to deliver and we're going to make sure it happens," Mr. Carter said.