PROCTOR'S ENCOURAGED BY FUND DRIVE.(Entertainment)

Byline: Martin P. Kelly Times Union critic

A strong community response is answering the appeals of the financially strapped Proctor's Theatre in Schenectady.

Staff at Proctor's Theatre, which is carrying an estimated $1 million deficit, is encouraged by early returns from a patron fund drive.

Approximately $110,000 has been sent in by patrons since the fund drive began April 1. In the first 30 days, $104,403 was received and since then another $6,000 has arrived in the mail.

Alan Bryce, director of development for Proctor's, says this figure is the best in the theater's history. It represents a 77 percent increase over the 1987 effort and …