UTICA — The Players of Utica unveiled their theatre’s mural which pays homage to current and former theatres that once dominated downtown Utica.

The theatre, located at 1108 State St., produces a variety of shows for the community and features local talent. According to officials with the theatre, Players of Utica is the longest running community theatre in New York state and is one of the longest running community theatres in the country.

The theatre’s mural, “A Tribute to Downtown Utica Theatres Past and Present,” features former downtown theatre marquees like the Majestic, Hippodrome, Avon, Colonial, Olympic, Orpheum, Utica and Oneida theatres, as well as the current downtown theatre marquee of the Stanley Theatre. The mural is also a tribute to Utica Monday Nite’s 25th anniversary.

“We started with a really broad range, we wanted to do all of the neighborhood theatres, then we scaled back to just the downtown theatres,” said Maria Vallese, painter of the mural and owner of Retro Sorrento. “They were pretty much the most regionally known during vaudeville and early film, so we scaled back just to those downtown theatres and by that point, we were able to figure out the scale of the wall and the logistics of it and I started as soon as I could get a lift in the summer.”

The conception for the mural came from the founder of Utica Monday Nite and board member of the Players of Utica Lynne Mishalanie. Vallese was commissioned to work on the mural, which began in August and was completed in early October. The mural stands 30 feet high and 50 feet wide, for a total of 1500 square feet.