The Boston Globe du lieu suivant : Boston, Massachusetts • 73

Wl ONLINE TODAY boston.comregion fFx Co) Mostt PumpWatch Calendar Sports LocalJobs 5 7 10 12 Westword: Local news updates i West Talk: Message boards 4lT GlobeWatch: Got a problem? Let us help. Contacts: E-mail reporters and editors "he Boston Globe Thursday, August 3 2006 Tm thrilled. It's a dream come true. We really have been thinking about this and working toward it for such a long Kelly Grill, Enter Stage Left cofounder WATERTOWN For readers, I i limn j- ftgm fH somethim 4 i III MP' brand-new to check out Expanded library opens doors Sunday By Christina Pazzanese GLOBE CORRESPONDENT Don't bother asking Pat Farrell to reminisce about the good old days working inside Watertown's main library. You'll get better stories asking about the bad ones.

In her almost 42 years at the circulation desk, Farrell has seen it all. Such as the time the ceiling fell down. Or when half of the children's book collection was lost in a flood. Or that day in the '70s when construction workers funneled cement through a window to replace a floor that had been devoured by termites. Farrell and her colleagues have endured bathrooms that regularly flooded, electrical problems, and the giant puddle that seemed to form at the front entrance every time it rained.

Not that rain was such a bad thing, at least in the summer: It cooled things 'It Dig BILL POLOGLOEJt SIAt-F The cofoundersofEnter Stage Left, Paul Champlin, Mary Scarlata-Rowe, and Kelly Grill, who losttouch during college. A new stage in their lives Opening theater workshop fulfills dream for longtime friends oft in the building, which was not air-conditioned. "I can't remember anything good about that building," said Leone Cole, the library director, with a laugh. All that's about to change as the library prepares to unveil an $11.3 difference. I think people will be Pat Farrlll Watertown library employee ByLisaKocian GLOBE STAFF IT OPKLNTON It was a refuge from the angst and ennui of high school.

Three friends started a theater group in 1982 as a way to su rvive adolescence and maybe have a little fun. i him," she recalled. "I was very impressed; I thought he was the star." After going to college and starting careers, the three friends returned to the area and decided to revive the group in 1998. Despite their long history, Scarlata-Rowe had to really ponder the decision. "At first, I didn't really want to get involved in community THEE-a-tah" she said, rolling her eyes and doing her best snob imitation.

"I was so above that." Scarlata-Rowe had done the real thing, performing professionally, living in New York for a couple of years, and then starting the Boston Association of Cabaret Artists. But when she reunited with Grill and Champlin, it felt right, she said. "It was just so natural we all just went together so easily" she said, snapping her fingers several times quickly. In high school, the three were not quite part of the popular crowd, so theater was an escape. "It was just a place you could go and you felt very comfortable, and everybody was like you and accepted you, and you could be free to create," said Grill, who later earned a bachelor's degree in theater arts and performed professionally.

"Theater was it for me. Thank God we had it because it was just awesome," said Grill, who co-owns an administrative job placement firm in THEATER, Page 11 million renovation and ex- pansion on Sunday afternoon. Movers and staffers were busy unwrapping furniture and organizing books on shelves last week. "It's a big difference. I think people will be shell-shocked," said Farrell of the building twice the size of the old library.

"It's extremely gratifying" to cross the finish line on a project almost four years in the making, said Cole, who noted the renovation is on time and on budget. "It's a dream come true." Gone are the dark, cramped quarters and the shabby, mismatched furniture from the last addition in 1956. Instead, huge windows and skylights light up an airy atrium where a grand wood staircase to the second floor serves as the building's focal point. A spacious children's area features a glassed-in storytelling room. Teens now have a separate section of their own, with new study carrels, a study room, and a place for doing artwork.

Two rooms from the 1884 portion of the library have been completely restored to their former glory. Tall built-in bookshelves, decorative woodwork, and a number of large reading tables salvaged from the East Branch are now gleaming in the Hunnewell Room, which will house the local history collection and the genealogy department. Two old fireplaces (nonworking for safety reasons) decorate the Whitney Room, along with soaring wooden pillars, an antique wall clock, and a quirky spiral staircase. Another major improvement is that the library is now compliant with federal accessibility standards, incorporating ramps, automatic doors, and an elevator. Restrooms are handicapped-accessible, as are corridors, including those between bookshelves; even the library desks can accommodate wheelchairs.

Wall signs outside each room are written in braille. WATERTOWN, Page 4 Now, long after their Hopkinton High classmates put away their pom poms and cleats, these drama fanatics are still putting on shows. The Enter Stage Left Theater Workshop Inc. has been successful enough to open a downtown headquarters and small performance space. And the three founders hope eventually to present shows year-round and maybe have a theater of their own.

"I'm thrilled," cofounder Kelly Grill said in an interview at the new space at 30 Main St. 'It's a dream come true. We really have been thinking about this and working toward it for such a long time." The roots of the group go back. Way back. Grill, 41, and cofounders Mary Scarlata-Rowe, 40, and Paul Champlin, 42, all grew up in town.

Scarlata-Rowe recalls seeing her first theater production, "The Wizard of Oz," when she was in kindergarten, featuring none other than Champlin. "He was the scarecrow, and I didn't know I High school yearbook photos of Paul Champlin, Mary Scarlata-Rowe, and Kelly Grill. WESTBOROUGH Pedal-pushing for charity dollars Hard-core cyclists gear up for 27th annual cancer fund-raiser From afar, a candidate's kin anxiously await word By Jennifer Rosi nski GLOBE CORRESPONDENT His attorney was barred from the country, his security force arrested, his campaign materials taxed, and his planes grounded. But a Westborough oncologist continued his three-month campaign for change in his homeland the Democratic Republic of Congo that culminated in the war-torn African country's first democratic election in 40 years on Sunday. Oscar Kashala wants to be president of the country he left in 1987 to study at Harvard University.

The 51-year-old, a dual citizen, is considered among the top four of more than 30 candidates listed on the ballot. His family and supporters must now wait weeks to find out if they have a reason to celebrate. "We're just sitting back with clenched fists," KASHALA, Page 11 By Lauren K. Meade GLOBE CORRESPONDENT Long before the "athon" movement became a charity staple, Billy Starr and 35 buddies hopped on their bikes on a September day in 1980 in Springfield and pedaled 220 miles to Provincetown. They considered it a "hard-guy" challenge, but it was also a personal way for Starr to combat cancer, the disease that had killed his mother a fewyears before.

Starr's gang raised $10,200 for the Jimmy Fund and launched the Pan-Massachusetts Challenge. This weekend, more than 4,000 cyclists from 30 states and six countries will ride in the 27th challenge. The goal is to raise $24 million. The western suburbs are in the thick of the action, with one of the two major starting lines at Babson College in Wellesley; the other is in Sturbridge. Franklin W.

Olin College of Engineering, just over the Need-ham line from Babson, will provide additional parking. Among the 2,100 cylists wheeling out of Wellesley will be Carlton Cuse, the exec- ti in in i ij 1 1 1 1 ii i it ii i i ii 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 it 1 1 iitm iij 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 i ii 1 1 1 i 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 ii it ii 1 1 1 1 1 ti 1 1 Inside Changing landscape Beavers are busy in Lincoln, and the town i hires a specialist to deal with them. Page 3 3 In the swing .3 Kimberly Donovan, the Tri-Valley 1 League's top golf player, spends her summer on the greens. Sports, Page 10 i fV -v V' BILL POLOGLOBE STAFF George Spencer of Westborough is one of 200 cancer survivors who will be riding in the Pan-Mass. Challenge.

He has raised $22,000 for the Jimmy Fund. Story, Page 6..