The Chilkat Center stage area looked like a Christmas-morning living room Monday, stacked with empty boxes containing about $200,000 in electronic equipment for the center.
The improvements replace light equipment that dates to the 1960s and sound gear from the early 1980s. They were purchased largely with grants from the Rasmuson Foundation and Murdoch Charitable Trust secured by the Foundation for the Chilkat Center, said Tod Sebens, director of the project.
“I’m so jazzed to see this stuff. So much of what was here was falling apart,” Sebens said. He is looking for volunteers to help with getting the improvements in place.
New items for the cemter auditorium include a projector, smoke machine, LED stage lights, speakers, microphones, infrared headsets, as well as two gyrating “Shakira” lights similar to ones used by the pop singer during her performances.
Improvements will add a permanent, 12-channel control board for performances in the center’s lobby stage and a mobile sound system for the dance studio.
The new control board in the light booth comes with a phone remote jack. “You can be on the phone in China and run the lights,” Sebens said.
The need for the improvements at the center probably wasn’t obvious to those who came to shows there, but were becoming glaring behind the scenes, Sebens said. For example, curtains were so aged they easily tore and activation of a lobby chime to end intermission would turn off the theater’s house lights. “It was ridiculous,” Sebens said.
The improvements will replace about 75 percent of stage lighting and upgrade light and sound quality for shows, he said.
Sebens said he expects new lights to be in place in two weeks and other improvements completed for the Lynn Canal Community Players’ performance of “Dancing at Lughnasa” in late February.
Lee Heinmiller, who has operated lights and sound at the center for almost 50 years, said he’s excited about the changes. New wiring that is being extended between system components also is a critical improvement.
“If the wiring’s exposed for more than 30 years, that’s a reason for hums and bad connections,” Heinmiller said.
The center’s new 134-decibel speakers “pretty much could jump off the floor and fly out the room if they wanted to… You don’t have to turn them up very much for a real good, clear sound.”
The equipment will create more balanced stage lighting and allow for a show’s lighting and sound to be programmed in advance and played with the flip of a switch, Heinmiller said.
Rasmuson and Murdoch donated about $172,000 toward the project. Remaining funds were raised by the center foundation, including through an “adopt a seat” program and several special events.