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When audiences enter the National Arts Centre‘s Southam Hall at the end of September, things will look — and sound — a lot different.

The sea of unbroken aisles, forcing latecomers to shuffle past dozens of seated patrons, will be gone. So will the plush red seats and matching carpeting.

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In their place, wood flooring and fresh new seats with wooden backs. And, praise be to the deity of the arts, a new cross aisle and two new aisles running from the back of the hall to the stage.

“It’s going to be a lovely present in the fall when people come to the NAC, because they’ll see Southam Hall renewed,” spokeswoman Rosemary Thompson said Wednesday.

“It’s going to be so much easier to get into the hall, to move through the hall. There’ll be many more accessible spaces for people with mobility challenges.”

Replacing the carpeting and plush seats with wooden floors and seatbacks should also noticeably improve the hall’s acoustics, Thompson said. “Wood is very good in a performing arts venue, because it reflects sound very well.”