A gift from The Friends of the Bowlus has Iola’s fine arts center singing a happy tune.
The Bowlus Fine Arts Center recently received about $135,000 from its top funders to replace and upgrade the stage curtains and install a state-of-the-art sound system in the performance auditorium.
“It really is a blessing,” said Susan Raines, executive director at the Bowlus. “Thank God for The Friends. Without them, this wouldn’t happen.”
The massive stage curtains hanging in the auditorium since the mid-1970s are nearing their life expectancy and were atop the center’s priority to-do list even before The Friends stepped in with its $50,000 gift, said Jeff Jordan, facility manager and technical director for the Bowlus.
All theater curtains must be flame-retardant and meet annual inspections to insure safety standards.
“We haven’t run out of flame retardancy on the curtains we have yet, but it’s getting to that age where we might start having some problems with it,” he said.
Because state inspectors don’t allot a theater or center a grace period to replace curtains that fail flame retardancy standards, the Bowlus didn’t really have a choice in what its next major purchase would be.
“(The inspectors) will come in and just say ‘You can’t use this. It doesn’t meet the fire code,’” he said. “They’re getting so dry rotted and worn that anything that touched them are causing rips and tears. It was getting to be a big issue.”
In addition to replacing the stage curtains, a midstage curtain will be included to “allow us to truly cut the stage in half,” Jordan said. This will be especially effective when the auditorium has smaller-sized performances and presentations like the annual D.A.R.E. ceremony and year-end holiday concerts.
Just as the new curtains will modernize the auditorium while adding to its overall safety, upgrading the sound system has multiple benefits.
Nearly every piece of audio equipment will be replaced — from the front-house sound board and the auditorium speakers to the overhead intercoms used for communication during stage setups and strikes.
“We’ve had a few issues with (the intercom system) over the years during certain shows,” Jordan said. “If you lose your calm and nobody can talk to each other and you have people all over the place, it can get to be a real problem. So, (installing a new intercom) is a preventive thing.”
An exact figure of how many speakers and sound producing pieces will be brought in during the upgrade won’t be calculated until an outside company can analyze the auditorium nooks and crannies, Jordan said.
“We’ll give them a layout of the auditorium and they’ll do an acoustical study and figure out the angle of flow for each speaker and what angle they need to be positioned in to get the maximum amount of coverage for the hall,” he said.
The study will dictate where new speakers will be placed and how many new speakers will be needed.
