Renovations of 1995

The main goal of the renovation of Tower Fine Arts Mainstage Theatre in 1995 was to remove and replace the drop ceiling over the seats which contain tons of asbestos.

Also done at that time was the instillation of a new lighting catwalk and two access ladders up to the cove.

The original fire curtain, also full of asbestos, was replaced.

During the renovation all of the seats were removed and the original purple fabric was updated to a nice boring grey.

Now almost twenty-five years later it might be time to replace the seating fabric.

Scaffold in the Mainstage over the frames for the seats.

One day during the renovation work several of my tech students working in the shop practicing their welding skills.

One of the construction workers who was passing through the space stopped to see what the students were doing.

He gave them an impromptu ten minute master class in welding; showing how to adjust the welder, hold the MIG gun and what sound to listen for when making a good weld.

Frying eggs.

In just a short time the students learned more than I could have ever taught them as welding is not one of my strongest skills.

The students thanked the man and continued practicing and making much better welds.

When we got the Mainstage back in January of 1996 we had to explore the space and see what changes were made and to see what we had to do to get ready for another semester of plays and music concerts..

The first thing we found is that the stage floor was ruined.

During the asbestos removal they had built a clean-up shower right in the middle of the stage and a good deal of water had leaked out.

The original stage floor was covered with ¾ inch particle board and the water had swelled the floor panels so much that it was almost 18 inches off the sub-floor in spots.

The worst panels had to be removed and replaced but still much of the rest of the floor was in bad shape.

Somehow and someplace money was found and we replaced the whole stage floor during one of the next free summers.

Soon we all had to see the new lighting catwalk and found that the floor was steel diamond plate with raised texture bumps.

Not good on the knees when working on the lights.

New Catwalk

It did not take too long for us to find and put as much scrap carpet as we could to cover the floor.

My students worked hard to replace the lights to the cove and learn how to work with the new lighting catwalk and the extra pipe added to allow the lights to be focused on the stage.  

    

The first event of 1996 was a music concert at the end of the second week of classes which did not take too much effort but the real test would be the first play a few weeks later.  

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