Twice in the last few years, local high schools have had “massive” renovations where they’ve redesigned their auditoriums. Both times, I was asked my opinion as an outside bystander. Both times, the architects had beautiful drawings and sold the school on potential but had no real insight into the performing arts.
One school had zero
wing space on
stage right, the wall was three feet off
stage. I pointed this out immediately, and the people made copious notes. When I asked where the sound equipment was going to be located, would it be
dead hung or flown or will it sit on the
deck, they made copious notes. When I asked were they getting new lighting or reusing the old
system as much as possible, they made copious notes. Then after they met with the architect, they were assured all of that would be taken care of. And they were sold a bill of
goods.
The problem is that the people making the decisions have no idea what they need, and too often the people advocating from inside also don’t know what they need. A band director called because in his renovation, they gave him a “thingie to get rid of
feedback” that wasn’t working. After hearing the horrible
feedback, I found the very expensive, unnecessary
feedback elimination
unit that wasn’t even connected, just powered on. No one explained to him what it was or how to operate it, and he said that he had to choose between that
unit or new shells for the
auditorium, and he knew the shells were still useful, so...
There’s also a lot of salesmen who still operate in the chrony world. The architect gets the job, slaps some half-assed drawings together, hires in his buddies to do the install on sound and lights and they all walk out with a fat check and leave the people using the
venue trying to figure out if the renovation was actually worth it.
I have reached out, unfortunately, to a few people to ask questions and pick their brains on some issues, and I’ve been met with resistance. A lot of people, and I understand it is their business so their money, aren’t willing to share their knowledge with you unless they see a dollar sign attached. Others won’t even speak if the project isn’t over a certain figure (one consultant asked if the basic price tag would be over 2 million, because if it wasn’t he was hanging up the phone. I hung up on him.). I’m not asking anyone to donate their time, but if I asked someone who I could have do a
safety inspection or rate the floor of the
venue for weight additions in renovations, I’d appreciate them saying, “I can do that” or “I’ll
point you in the right direction.” If they want me to hire them for a 3 minute phone
call, they aren’t advocates for the arts, they’re
lining their pockets with cash we could be using to provide the arts to people.