Ken Mammarella

Special to The News Journal

WILMINGTON – When "Peter Pan" is presented this month at the Cab Calloway School of the Arts, the title star will soar above the stage – along with the spirits of the cast, crew, band and audience.

The show – 11 performances on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays through Nov. 23 – marks the grand opening of a new auditorium.

"At last we have a facility up to the standards of our students," said James Mikijanic, technical director of the classic musical and a drama teacher.

The work was funded in a 2012 Red Clay referendum, and the space was gutted down to the bedrock. Craig Henry, field manager of EDiS, which managed the $9.8 million project, said he expects other updates at the building, shared with the Charter School of Wilmington, to take through December.

The space showed its age, with seats that were broken, ripped and housing critters, said Marji Eldreth, a drama teacher who is the show's director and music director. About 300 seats were unusable.

"At some point it was in good shape," added Mikijanic, who is 30. "But that was before I was born."

Cab isn't the only school investing in its auditoriums and theaters.

The Sanford School near Hockessin is renovating and enlarging its Geipel Center, which, for the first time, will unite all of its performing arts programs – classes, practices, individual and group lessons, rehearsals, concerts, performances and productions – under one roof.

The 400-seat auditorium will be used for performances, meetings and events, with state-of-the-art technology for lighting, sound and climate control. There will be dedicated spaces for an orchestra pit, set construction, costume storage, dressing rooms, ticket and concessions spaces and a lobby gallery. The work also includes two large classrooms, band and chorus rooms, as many as five practice/instructional rooms, a music technology classroom and faculty office space.

Wilmington Friends School in Alapocas is having its first school performance this month in its renovated auditorium, rebuilt after a 2012 fire. "Once Upon a Mattress" runs Friday through Sunday. Renovations include upgrades in lighting, sound and other theatrical systems; more seats (to 500); work on the middle-school gymnasium; a new atrium; and a green roof.

Highlights of the work at Cab:

• The theater is decorated in Cab's colors – purple upholstery, a white ceiling and a black curtain. "It's a stark difference," said Julie Rumschlag, dean of the school. "Wow, it's a transformation."

• Most seats are on a floor sloping to the stage, with some as stadium seating in the back, creating the auditorium's first mezzanine. Capacity stays just above 920, but with more legroom and space for wheelchairs and additional portable seats. The hearing-impaired can use an assisted listening system.

• The house has been reconfigured from four aisles to two and four entrances to two. The entrances now have two sets of doors to block annoying light and sound. And a ticket booth now exists.

• On the ceiling are rows of tilted white forms called clouds that absorb and reflect sound, with more acoustical elements on the walls. Between them is a safe catwalk for servicing equipment. It replaces one made of plywood and angle iron that meandered up and down, Mikijanic said.

• The stage itself is a 45-foot cube of opportunity, measured from floor to ceiling, stage left to stage right and from the back wall to an extension that thrusts toward the audience. "There's a huge difference in the amount of space," said Amanda DeFilippis, one of two students playing Peter Pan. "The audience will feel so much more involved."

• Underneath this thrust is an orchestra pit, and the flooring also can be removed to create several rows of gently arcing risers for choral events.

• Behind the stage are more areas reworked to be more efficient, such as dressing rooms, lockers, a paint storage room and a shop with more open space for construction of larger sets.

• State-of-the art technology powers lighting (five times as many fixtures), sound (digital, of course) and ancillary equipment, controlled from a large booth at the back of the house. Monitors in the booth, backstage, in the orchestra pit and in the lobby (for parents with fussy kids) improve communication. There are a projector and screen for movies and other video presentations. "The best part is all the cool stuff we can do quicker and more efficiently," said Derek Pinchot, the show's lighting designer.

For the year-plus the auditorium was being renovated, Cab held assemblies in the gym and cafeteria. Other facilities shared their space, Rumschlag said, including A.I. du Pont Middle School, Conrad Schools of Science, Dickinson and McKean high schools and Brandywine Valley Baptist Church.

Now Cab is ready to pay back to the community. Rumschlag said she has had three queries in the last three weeks about renting the space, and The Grand is talking about having shows there, too.