Mill Mountain Theatre just got a little more comfortable.

The theater's Trinkle Main Stage auditorium now has new, firmer, wider and altogether more accommodating seats. The seats were installed last month, along with new carpeting and fresh paint on the walls and railings.

Artistic director Patrick Benton noted the old seats had lost their spring.

"The seats that we replaced were the original seats, so they've been around for 25 years now, and they were due for a replacement," he said.

The new, wider seats take up more space, meaning the number of seats in the theater has been reduced to 339 from 350 (or 370, depending on the stage configuration). But the auditorium is seldom sold out, Benton noted, and they thought they could dispense with a few seats in the name of comfort. "It made sense to scale back a bit."

The seats came from J.H. Pence and the carpet from Surfaces -- both local companies. The $100,000-plus renovation was paid for by state and local government funding. Theater backers can also endow a seat for $1,000 -- a potential $339,000 boost that theater officials hope will go a long way toward paying down its debts. The theater has struggled in recent years, with debt loads exceeding $500,000.

"I don't think it would get us totally out of debt" if they endowed every seat, Benton said, but "we'd be in much better shape." So far, 89 seats have been endowed.

The theater's new seats will be unveiled for "The Foreigner," the main stage play by Larry Shue that opens Feb. 27. The play's two-story set, along with the new seats, carpeting and paint, will pack "a visual wallop," Benton pledged.

To endow a new seat, call development director Daria Goode at 224-1219 or e-mail dgoode@millmountain.org.

And speaking of Larry Shue, the New Orleans-born playwright died in a plane crash in the Shenandoah Valley in 1985 at age 39. His comic plays "The Foreigner" and "The Nerd" are still performed, and "The Nerd" once had a run on Broadway.

"The Foreigner" is a farce about a man at a Georgia country lodge who pretends he doesn't speak English to avoid the other guests.

"It's a play I've liked a long time," said Benton, who is directing the Mill Mountain Theatre production. 342-5740; www.millmountain.org.

More writing time for Hollins grad

Prolific novelist Madison Smartt Bell, a 1981 graduate of Hollins University's graduate writing program, can quit his day job for a while.

The Goucher College English professor has won a $250,000 Strauss Living Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Distributed in $50,000 installments over five years, the award recognizes authors who demonstrate literary excellence and enables them to devote their time exclusively to writing, according to a Hollins release. Bell has written 12 novels, including "Waiting for the End of the World" and "Soldier's Joy."

He joins Natasha Trethewey (Pulitzer Prize) and Kiran Desai (Man Booker Prize) on the list of Hollins writing program graduates who have won major literary prizes in recent years.

Firefighter by day

Opera singer Andrew Greenwood still has his day job -- and it's a doozy.

The Canadian baritone, who will perform works by Donizetti and Bellini in Opera Roanoke's "Gala Fantasy Concert" at Shaftman Performance Hall on Saturday, is a full-time firefighter in Vancouver. He performs as his work schedule allows.

Mezzo-soprano Emily Langford Johnson, who appeared here last fall in "Hansel and Gretel," Talise Trevigne, Bryan Hymel, Randall Jakobsh, Christopher Korfmann and the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra and Chorus conducted by Steven White round out the bill.

Tickets are $15 to $80. A limited number of students will be admitted free, after which students may sit where they want for half price, opera executive director Judith Clark said. A dinner and dessert package is available as well. Call 982-2742; visit www.operaroanoke.org.

Young Spielbergs needed

Young filmmakers ages 7 to 13 can win a $250 prize by submitting a video interview of the most interesting person they know to "Meet Me at the Corner."

"Meet Me at the Corner" is a series of educational podcasts for kids, sometimes hosted by 12-year-old Emma Sala, a veteran of several Mill Mountain Theatre productions. Visit www.meetmeatthecorner.org for a video-making guide, submission guidelines and mailing info.