NEW RENOVATIONS TO THE AUDITORIUM

BY LYLA CHRISTAKES Editor and Co-Broadcast Manager

The Kaneland High School performing arts department has needed to be flexible due to recent auditorium renovations. The delayed construction process has caused many complications for programs who use the space.

Director of Buildings and Grounds

Mark Payton has been in charge of handling the auditorium project, and the delays have been out of his hands. Although the auditorium closed at the beginning of 2023, the project has been in the works for quite some time.

“We started engineering and talking about the project probably two years before we actually started, and then there was a whole bid process,” Payton said.

The arts community has been waiting in anticipation for this project, as it will bring much-needed updates to the space.

“They are replacing the dimmer rack system and all the house lighting. They are future-proofing [the auditorium], you could say,” Payton said. “They are also running communication lines so we can start switching from old to new technology and lights and [adding] new LED theatrical lighting that has control for dimming. You can [now] change light colors with keystrokes on a computer.”

The project will grant Kaneland access to a new age of technology in the theater.

“What’s going on is a lighting system upgrade. The [older technology] was probably 18 or 19 years old, and the manufacturers of the old lighting systems don’t exist anymore,” Payton said.

This project, just like the earlier project involving the doors outside of the East Gym, has been repeatedly delayed.

“It was supposed to be done at the end of February, but [because of] global supply chain issues, we haven’t gotten all the parts we need for it. Our new target is May 1,” Payton said.

Other factors have come into play, making the project more difficult for Payton’s team to finish.

“Cost was a big issue at the beginning of it because we had a price range for the project, and it came in at about double what we were expecting. [This was] largely because of supply chain issues,” Payton said.

Those complications have caused some issues for the theater program. This year’s spring musical, The Wizard of Oz, has been impacted, and theater director Rachel Giles has been forced story on stage.

“We are going to do our shows out of the Egyptian Theatre in DeKalb, which is a really cool opportunity. Obviously, we would really love to do it in our space, but it’s cool we get to go out there,” Giles said.

Rehearsals have been particularly difficult for those involved with the musical.

“All of the rehearsal time and prep time [has to be done] in the black box theater, which is a little challenging because it is a way smaller space, but we make it work,” Giles said.

Other programs that are affected include the band program and pit members who play during the spring musical.

As a student in choir, band and theater, senior Levi Kovach has used the auditorium his whole high school career and is now, just like his director and peers, experiencing the need to be flexible and creative.

“Because of the construction, we were not able to have the auditorium space as our performing space, which means we’ve had to outsource. So the choir and the band have used the Northern Illinois University School of Music’s auditorium,” Kovach said.