by Wes Bedsworth

Hello readers! Wes Bedsworth here, filling in for Jeff this month. Jeff is busily preparing for the opening of A Few Good Men and requested that someone else write October’s blog so he could focus on directing our next production. I thought I’d take the opportunity to discuss our summer renovation project, the rationale behind it, the planning that went into it, and how it will benefit our organization as we move forward and expand our capabilities.

For years, many patrons and members have commented to me on the lack of adequate lighting over the seating areas in our theater. Our former “House Lights” were initially installed and later expanded by volunteers and were comprised of what were essentially exterior flood light fixtures controlled by an undersized wall switch dimmer. That wall switch dimmer was eventually replaced, for safety reasons, with a large autotransformer (photo right). While these fixtures were a good start at seating light at the time they were installed, they were not quite bright enough in many areas which created tripping hazards in our unique arena. The fixtures had also aged significantly creating a few safety hazards (e.g., some fixtures were broken and dangling from their wires).

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