Nineteenth century banter wafted through the dressing rooms and
other backstage areas at Live Oak High School’s Little Theater
during a recent rehearsal.
Nineteenth century banter wafted through the dressing rooms and other backstage areas at Live Oak High School’s Little Theater during a recent rehearsal.
Students were happily practicing for their first stage production at the newly renovated theater. “Alice in Wonderland” opens at 7 p.m. Thursday.
As thespians ooh’ed and ahh’ed over the renovated lighting and sound, Bill Klipstine marveled that the Live Oak Little Theater he opened more than 30 years ago is a brand new theater today. Klipstine, who retired from his teaching career at Live Oak High School in 2007, was hired back on to direct the student-produced “Alice in Wonderland.” He opened the theater in 1974 with a Community Adult School production of the “Ten Little Indians.”
“The lighting and sound is phenomenal,” Klipstine gushed. He said the Little Theater was one of the first venues in South County and had state-of-the-art equipment – then and now.
The students are appreciative.
“It’s really cool working with the equipment,” Live Oak junior Kyla Lamontagne said. For nearly three years, the theater students were nomads, rehearsing in classrooms around campus and putting on productions in El Toro Elementary School’s cafeteria.
The $5.3 million renovation project began about April 2008, and was expected to take about a year. But delays abounded in the project, and it was completed with a grand opening celebration in December.
The Live Oak Little Theater now features classrooms for theater and band students, a lobby and a ticket booth, updated dressing rooms and a workshop for building set pieces. In front of the theater is the amphitheater with a leveled concrete and grass seating area.
“The things about theater that are really, really cool about theater, we can do now,” Lamontagne said. “Finally, we’re home, we’re back, we’re ready to rock.”
“Alice in Wonderland” was chosen as a good first play because of the fanciful settings that allowed the students to go all out in the new venue, said senior Addien Wray, the stage manager and technical director.
“Having no lighting or sound does limit what you can do,” Wray said.
The set pieces, dominated by a tree with netted leaves that extend above the stage, are an example of the grander scale the students can work from now.
Before, the set pieces were made in one building and carried to the performance venue, Wray said. Now, they can build the sets in the work room and wheel them onto the stage, he said.
