Smith on House Floor: Celebrating 80 Years of Scottsbluff’s Midwest Theater

This week, Congressman Adrian Smith (NE-03) took to the House Floor to congratulate Scottsbluff's Midwest Theater on 80 years of business. During his remarks, Smith highlighted the theater's significance to Scottsbluff and surrounding communities while recognizing the countless number of volunteers who have made the theater a place to gather for the past eight decades.

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Following is a transcript of Smith's remarks as prepared for delivery:

M. Speaker,

Today I rise to celebrate 80 years of the Midwest Theater-a place that has meant so much to Scottsbluff and the surrounding communities.

For eight decades, this theater has been more than just a building. It has been a gathering place, a community hub, and a doorway to worlds far beyond our own. Children, parents, grandparents, and friends have come through these doors to laugh, to cry, to wonder, and to be transported into stories from every corner of the globe.

The Midwest Theater has given us the gift of escape-the chance to set aside the worries of everyday life and lose ourselves in imagination, creativity, and shared experiences.

And while it began as a movie house, it has grown into something even greater: a thriving performing arts center that enriches the cultural life of western Nebraska through film, music, theater, and live performance.

As we celebrate 80 remarkable years, we also celebrate the countless number of volunteers who have sustained this institution and the generations still to come who will create new memories here.

Happy 80th anniversary, Midwest Theater. May your lights continue to shine brightly for many years to come.