January 29, 2003
St. Francis prepares for Kohler Auditorium facelift
Estimated $180,000 project would replace seats, sound and lighting systems, stage curtains
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
Time for a facelift at the Kohler Auditorium.
The venue for drama, band and choral productions at St. Francis High School, Kohler Auditorium dates to the school's construction in the early 1960s. A glance at the fiberglass eggshell-shaped plastic chairs will confirm the era, as will the ancient sound and lighting system. A new paint job plus newer stage curtains will complete the update.
The project has been in the planning stages for a year and is estimated to cost $180,000. A $35,000 grant last June from the Rotary Charities seeded the effort financially. Turning to the community for the rest of the funding, the Grand Traverse Area Catholic Schools just launched a Buy-A-Chair campaign. This opportunity was offered to parents of current students late last year and is now being opened to the public.
"So far, just through word of mouth, we are at $15,000, mostly from parents of students buying chairs," said Chet Janik, executive director of development and foundation, who is spearheading the renovation and fundraising efforts. "Each chair will have a name plate on it to honor someone or as a memorial."
The Kohler Auditorium renovation will take place in phases, with the first push to replace the chairs. Janik is hopeful that they can be replaced either during the spring break or just after the school year finishes. He recently listed the old chairs online through eBay - a bargain at 475 for $1 - hoping to avoid tossing them in a landfill.
"You never know who might want them for their facility," he noted.
Besides being more comfortable and welcoming to the audience, the replacement cloth chairs will help the acoustics of the space. The current plastic chairs bounce the sound around, said Robert Sagan, director of bands for the system.
"You need to have a mix of bouncing and absorption and I could hardly think of anything that would be worse than fiberglass," he said.
The changes on the horizon are welcome by staff and students in the music and drama departments. Sagan, who has taught students in grades 5-12 for ten years, is eager to have his students perform in the updated auditorium.
"When you have a nicer place, it just brings energy into the performance, whether it is band, choir or drama," said Sagan, who provided input to the proposed renovations. "Then the audience comes in they pick up on that even before the performance starts, before the first word is spoken or the first note is played or sung."
T.J. Berden has been involved in drama productions at the school since ninth-grade. Now a graduating senior, Berden is thrilled that plans are underway to upgrade the facility, something he has been promoting for four years. He believes that the new sound system, lighting and curtain will greatly benefit performers.
"We have at St. Francis a really good reputation for our shows we've been doing over the past couple of years," said Berden, who is president of the student body and director of the school's spring play. "It is time to take it to a new level."
"To do anything of size, there's no room to put on anything," he noted. "The renovation will open up a lot of other activities."
Sagan noted that the Kohler Auditorium is used by students at all levels in the Grand Traverse Area Catholic Schools system for school assemblies, parent meetings, Christmas pageants given by students at Holy Angels Elementary School and other special programs. Programs for the community are also staged there.
"We have guests in from the Traverse Symphony Orchestra to teach master classes and other professional musicians have performed here," Sagan said. "It gets used by the whole gamut."
"It has been over 40 years and it has been used full time," he noted. "The time has come."