New Community Theatre at ADSS under construction

I believe it was in the fall of 2007 when I first heard that the decision to replace Alberni District Secondary School with a new facility had been finalized. Having been a student when the building opened in the early 1950’s and having spent the last 20 years of my teaching career as the school’s music director, the news gave me quite a jolt. 

During my teaching years two elected school boards had previously over a span of two decades, set in motion investigative plans for the school’s replacement. For lack of available funds the Ministry of Education in Victoria had shelved both requests. However, this announcement was different. The School Board had not only been successful in their appeal to the government to rebuild, the school was going to be built elsewhere in the community, namely the Echo Centre area adjacent to the Bob Dailey Stadium. 

For those of us in the arts community the announcement was as distressful as the Tsunami that had rolled thru the valley in 1964. The question on all our minds was - would the community’s premier performance venue, the 1000-seat ADSS Auditorium fall victim to the wrecking-ball when the old building was razed?   

An emergency meeting of Auditorium user groups was called. Also in attendance were members of the school board and district staff along with interested members of the public. The non-confrontational meeting’s goal was to “determine community interest in the preservation of a large performance facility” for the Alberni Valley. I gave a brief dissertation on the history of the Auditorium and Erica Watson as organizing chair of the special meeting spoke passionately about how having access to strong arts programs in a community can often be a deciding factor on whether or not young families or retirees choose to move to a particular area. 

The most important result coming out of the meeting was the formation of a committee to decide if the old Auditorium could somehow be saved as a stand alone facility, or as an alternative, lobby hard for a theatre to be included in the new high school, something provincial governments no longer provided funding for. 

As a member of the committee representing the Port Alberni Orchestra & Chorus Society, I became quite excited when the school board offered the $1-million expected from the sale of the ADSS property on Burde Street to be earmarked towards a theatre in the new school. Although a few citizens urged me in letters-to-the-editor to the AV Times not to abandon my original hopes that the Auditorium be saved, I’d come to the conclusion that the costs of preserving the old building were prohibitive and there was no way local arts groups could afford to run the theatre independently. There was much hand-ringing in the community as to what the seating capacity of a new theatre should be. Taking into account available funds and some creative planning by the architect, the committee eventually supported a 500-seat configuration to be considered. The school district agreed and the government supported it.

My belief is the committee’s expertise and resulting support went a long way towards acquiring the new theatre. Supporting a 500-seater under the circumstances was not only the right choice, but the only choice. Port Alberni will have a state-of-the-art theatre which will serve the artistic community and their audiences for years to come. We owe the committee our tremendous gratitude for a job well done. 

Since many readers of my blog are past students and others ex-citizens living around the world, I thought you might be interested in viewing the attached video link of the new ADSS. The video doesn’t show the theatre chamber itself but does show the theatre lobby area. 

         

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqma_ZgX6vI

Until my next blog...........

Cheers

PHOTO:

The photo below is a scene from the 1956 Alberni District High School Music & Drama Society’s production of Pirates of Penzance. The newly built Auditorium had seating for 1035 and has been for over 50-years the Alberni Valley’s premier performance venue. (photo courtesy of Sharen (Russel) Scheurich)