The Performing Arts department here at Wilsonville is one of the pride and joys of our school. With an increased budget, the program has been constructing a new auditorium for the past year. As of May of this year, the new area is done with construction and several events have occurred in the space.

The previous auditorium has been rendered outdated by modern standards. For various reasons and over the years, our district thought it best to build a new auditorium and altogether scrap the old one. After getting greenlit for the multi-million dollar project, the construction began in October of 2021.

Two years later, construction was finished and Wilsonville was transferred authority of the facility from the construction company. Now in full control of the auditorium, the music department was briefed on the new features of the auditorium. Some of the new features include a pit, RGBW-led lighting systems, a fly system, blinder lights, and a sound-absorbent design to reduce echoing.

On June first, the music department got the honor of holding the new facilities’ first event. It was a joint band and orchestra concert that featured the jazz band as well. Despite the auditorium being built with attendance in mind. The 600 seats were filled up almost entirely even before the start of the event.

Of course, the concert was a huge success and both the band and orchestra played well and the crowds were well pleased with the music choice and performance. To get an inside understanding of what the new auditorium we asked band and orchestra Conductor Chad Davies as well as concert attendee/tech-theater student Joel Theison some questions regarding the new building. First, we asked Mr.Davies about some of the favorite new features he has in the auditorium. He responded, “We have a fully LED light system, a fully digital sound system with a full fly system, rather than the 3/4 fly system that was in the old one.”

We also asked tech-theater student Joel Theison, who attended the recent concert about the capacity of the new auditorium, as it was completely filled on the first day, despite being built with attendance in mind. When asked if the new theater would experience the same reoccurring issue of filling up all the way in the future, Joel said, “Yes, because even though it seems like there are a lot of seats, it’s not a lot. Even though it goes upstairs and we have a lot of people who go the orchestra [and band] concerts.”

Overall, the new auditorium is one of the newfound pride of this school. Between the new features and improved design, it will be exciting to see what kind of events we hold in the space within the next year.