First stage of Academy of Music Theatre’s renovation nears completion

By Casey Gillis

Published: December 4, 2008

The first stage of the Academy of Music Theatre’s renovation is nearing completion.

The final steel beam of the fly tower’s frame will be installed during a “topping out” ceremony scheduled for 10 a.m. next Friday.

Organizers are inviting the public to sign the steel beam from 9 to 10 a.m.

“It is a nice way for the community to have an opportunity to be tangibly connected to the building,” said Ron Kastner, director of development at the Academy of Fine Arts. “There’s also this wonderful idea of these names being there forever.”

The fly tower is the large space above a stage, where a system of ropes, counterweights, pulleys and other tools allow technical crews to quickly move set pieces, lights and microphones on and off the stage.

To meet modern theatrical requirements, the Academy’s fly tower is 110 feet tall — 12 feet taller and 14 feet deeper than the original, which was damaged in a wind storm 15 years ago.

“We can see the beams going up (from) our offices, and it is so exciting,” said Kastner. “It is now well above the height of my office, which is on the second floor.”

The 900-seat historic Academy of Music Theatre, one of the first buildings in Lynchburg to be placed on the National Register of Historic Places, was built in 1905. It served as a performance venue for everything from opera to vaudeville and was later converted into a movie theater before closing in the 1950s.

The theater’s renovation is being overseen by the Cornerstone Campaign. So far, it’s raised more than $15 million for the fly tower and stage house construction, as well as the theater’s complete interior refurbishment and a new lobby.

The “topping out” tradition, which traces its roots back to Scandinavia, involves putting an evergreen tree atop a new building to symbolize that the job went up without loss of life. Some also believe that the tree represented a good luck charm for future occupants.

The tradition of placing an American flag atop the beam dates back to the 1920s, and the custom of inscribing the final beam is also common.