Jefferson Forest High School students take to new stage

By Christa Desrets

Published: April 18, 2008

Jefferson Forest High School’s new auditorium opened this week and has already become a new home for the school’s drama classes.

Dana Tickle directed her theater students Wednesday as they moved stage materials from the school’s old auditorium to the new one.

“Let’s send this to the Dumpster,” she called to one student.

“Put the wigs in with the hats,” she yelled to another.

The auditorium was the last piece of new construction in the school’s $38.5 million project, and now construction workers will focus on renovations, Principal Tony Francis said.

If all continues as planned, the project is set to finish in October — under budget and about six months ahead of schedule, Francis said.

Completed construction includes a new gymnasium and math and science building, school offices, locker rooms, a wrestling room, and an updated multi-purpose room that used to be the old gym.

Over the summer, workers will update the cafeteria, put finishing touches on four halls that connect to the main building, and turn the old auditorium into spaces for band, chorale and drama classes.

“This summer is going to be very busy,” Francis said.

Currently, some classes are housed in mobile classrooms and other temporary areas of the school, Francis said, but work over the summer will allow for the removal of all mobiles.

When the project is completed, the school will be an entirely connected, four-level structure with one main entrance on the third level and a capacity for 1,600 students.

The new auditorium has 852 seats, Francis said, allowing the school to hold functions in two assemblies instead of three.

Everything is larger and grander — the stage, prop and costume storage rooms, a ticket booth, dressing rooms, vanity areas, the audio and visual control room and a 24-by-17-foot screen with an LCD projector.

“When it comes down, it’s like a movie screen,” Francis said.

JF holds its first assembly in the new auditorium next week.

Friday was the final day the old auditorium will be in use, Francis said. On Monday, construction workers will begin tearing out the current structures and preparing it for its new use.

Tickle said the transition has been bittersweet for her students, who are excited about the new space but also will miss the old one that they have loved through the years.

“I’m just glad that I can do my last senior performance in it,” said Amanda Miller, who plays the lead role in the school’s upcoming production of “Thoroughly Modern Millie,” a musical set in the 1920s.

It will make a good graduation gift, she said.

The students had their first play practice on the new stage Tuesday and worked on choreography while adjusting to having more dance space.

“Just to see the looks on their faces when they walked into the new auditorium,” Tickle said. “It’s like having a new home.”

Members of the JF drama production ‘Thoroughly Modern Millie’ make their way down the aisles of the school’s new auditorium. The space has better acoustics and more comfortable seating. CHET WHITE/THE NEWS & ADVANCE