From the outside, it looks like a slightly bigger version of the auditorium that has been a part of the former Edmonds High School since 1939.
Stepping inside last week, Edmonds Public Facilities District representatives urged a tour of officials and potential donors to look past the bare concrete and maze of scaffolding and metal framing that is the guts of the Edmonds Center for the Arts, set for completion this fall.
Center executive director Joe McIalwain and Stephen Clifton, Edmonds community services director, described the exposed fir ceiling from the original facility, how the color scheme of the lobby would glow warmly through the west-facing panes of what used to be office windows and just where the two loaned Dale Chihuly glass pieces will grace the landings of the twin staircases.
And then, McIalwain asked for money.
“I am honored to be coming on board at this moment,” said McIalwaine said at a post-tour presentation conducted at the Point Edwards condominiums clubhouse. Besides getting the $18 million project finished and start booking dates for the refurbished and expanded performance space, McIalwain’s moment includes a campaign to raise $4 million in private donations.
“I’m going to be here this year and 10 years from now, this is what I want for my career,” said McIalwain, who came to the Edmonds project from the Kirkland Performance Center where he was development director. A University of Washington undergraduate in drama, he has a master’s degree from the University of Alabama where he also served as an assistant professor of theater management.
“I hope that you’re here because each of you want to continue to support this project,” he said. McIalwain said the funding drive will take a year or two to complete.
The work on the center is meeting the construction schedule and budget, McIalwain said, despite changes and additions approved by the facilities district board.
For example, he said, the south side of the stage butted up against an existing concrete staircase, limiting the off-stage area. “(Moving) that wasn’t planned for this first phase, but we decided to do it now,” he said. The decision was also made to extend the orchestra pit and add a cover that will extend another 3 feet toward the audience.
So far, the changes haven’t added to the overall cost, Clifton said. “We shuffled some deck chairs, but there is no budget impact,” he said. “Waiting even a year would’ve added another 50 percent (to the cost).”
On the March 16 tour were Ed Aliverti and his wife, Shirley.
“I put on my first show here in 1955,” said Aliverti, a longtime Edmonds School District teacher and a fixture in school and amateur wrestling. “Those chairs were hard. You had to be devoted to sit in those chairs.”
With the renovations now underway, the center won’t ask that level of devotion from future audiences.
It will seat about 700, and performances could begin as soon as Oct. 23 with a christening by the Cascade Orchestra, McIalwain said.
McIalwain says his plans as of now call for a Nov. 3 performance, “then through the holidays with rentals.” He wants a gala opening on Jan. 6, followed by a week of open-house events and then a jamboree-like event on Jan. 13 with local performance groups in a series of 20-30 minute performances.
“We want the community to be involved,” he said.
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