Emporia State is currently working on plans to do renovations in King Hall’s Karl C. Bruder Theatre this summer.
“The proposal that has been put forward is to renovate the house,” said Chris Lohkamp, the scene shop manager and technical director for ESU Theatre. “Kind of giving this whole space a bit of a makeover.”
The Bruder Theatre was constructed in 1967, and is the primary home for theatre productions at ESU, according to emporia.edu.
The details of what exactly will be renovated are yet to be decided, according to Lohkamp. Due to this, the specific dates for the renovation have not been set at this time.
“We had a report done about a year ago on the status of the rigging in Bruder Theatre, and there were some things that needed to be brought up to date,” said Mark Runge, director of the university facilities. “We’re expecting to spend around $80,000.”
The funding for the rigging project came from the state under the repair and rehabilitation, or R&R funds, according to Runge.
“This is exactly what (R&R) is made for, it’s to update mechanical systems, electrical systems, roofs,” Runge said. “We earmark those funds towards taking care of this, and we kind of emphasize on life safety projects and this is a life safety, because you don’t want to get the rigging to the point where there may be a danger of something falling.”
For summer theater they plan to work the shows around the renovations if necessary, even if that means they will be doing their work in a different building or theatre on campus than was initially planned on, according to Lohkamp.
“We’ve put in requests for new masking, new soft goods, new legs and borders to get those up to date, new LED lighting fixtures, intelligent lights.” Lohkamp said. “There’s a lot that’s been proposed, how much is actually going to be fulfilled during the renovation is still kind of up in the air.”
However, aside from the proposal to remodel the seating area and aesthetics of the theatre, there are also plans to repair the rigging in Bruder Theatre over the summer as well, according to Lohkamp. This will most likely take place during the month of May.
