Okay, here’s a quick list of all the changes made since my last post:

• The fire door going from backstage to the green room got installed.
• Furniture was moved into the green room and the reception room.
• The green room counter was painted and tiled on top.
• The makeup mirrors and tables were installed in the dressing room.
• The backstage tool room was cleaned out and reorganized.
• The backstage platform up to the stage was removed.
• A hole was put into the wall between backstage and the hallway to start the new stage left entrance.
• All the green carpet in the theatre and backstage hallway was torn out.
• The old stage was completely removed.
• A hole was put into the wall between the theatre and the bathroom hallway for the new entrance.
• The old entrance door was removed.
• Painting in the lobby was started.
• The rehearsal hall was painted.
• The new lowered stage was framed and surfaced.
• The new theatre chairs have been delivered.
• Construction has begun on the theatre risers.

Goodness, I hadn’t really realized how much had been done until I started typing that all out!  Kevin and I were down in Austin for last Saturday’s work call, so it was shocking to come in yesterday and see everything that had been accomplished in just one Saturday.  Actually seeing the chair risers was really exciting.  But now I’m behind on lobby stuff!  If we can get fabrics by this weekend, I may have to steal Patti to help me sew curtains and recover the bench cushions.

Don’t forget, if you’d like to get in on the action, we’re at the Lubbock Community Theatre at 4230 Boston Ave every Saturday starting at 9:00 am.  And don’t worry if you can’t come for the whole day: any time and help you can give is greatly appreciated.  And if you happen to have a particular talent with construction, plumbing or wiring, or know someone who does, we are definitely in need of those skills!

Okay, until next time . . .

Katie

So last Saturday was a HUGE day for us!  The purpose for the new office/annex space is starting to become a reality.  In order for us to use this new space as our backstage area (dressing, makeup, greenroom), it has to have access to the stage, am I right?  Well now it does!

But it wasn’t easy.  We think when they were building this strip mall (sometime in the ’60’s we guess), they built each building individually, adding them onto each other instead of doing it all at once.  Because the wall between the old backstage and the new was like 14 inches thick, made of brick, concrete and terra cotta blocks!  It took circular saws with diamond tipped blades, hammers, chisels and sledge hammers all day to open up a hole big enough for the new fire door to fit.  We hauled away like 6 wheelbarrows full of debris!  Richard, Stan, Justin and Russell, we are forever in your debt!  They did an amazing job cutting the hole, and only minor injuries were sustained!

But there’s more!  Jim and Nancy began fixing up the new bathrooms.  Jim and Chase got the counter in the green room faced and ready to paint.  Jonathan and Gabriel helped us out with painting and knocking out the wall.  Patti and Kadi worked on installing the baseboards.  And don’t forget our board members: Julie, Gloria, Kim, John, Jay, Jim and Kevin!  So much going on!

Saturday will be another big day.  We should finally be able to start on the actual theatre space.  Hopefully we’ll be able to get all the old green carpet torn out, start work on lowering the stage, and maybe even start painting the lobby.  We’ve got David, who’s an interior designer at Tech, helping us redesign our lobby and public facing areas; I don’t want to give anything away, but it’s going to look wonderful!

Check out all the pics below, and we’ll see you on Saturday!

Katie

And boy does it look great!  I guess I hadn’t realized what a difference nice new carpet and tile will make.  I’ll admit, when we painted the chocolate wall in the reception room, it didn’t look great with only the bare concrete next to it.  But I think with the nice light carpet, it really stands out!  Jay and John have got their offices all set up, and you can see in the pics the new vinyl baseboards (generously donated by Sutherlands!) laid out on the floor, getting straightened out so that we can get them installed at tomorrow’s work call.

Speaking of work calls, we’re gonna go ahead and have a standing 9:00 am Saturday work call until all of the renovations are finished.  Tomorrow, we will be touching up the tile and carpet, putting up the baseboards, and starting on the door in the back room that will connect the office/annex space to the actual backstage area.  I am so excited about this part!  Connecting the new and the old spaces is the whole point of the new backstage area, and it’s really gonna happen!

As always, thank you so much to all the wonderful volunteers who have been coming out and giving up their Saturday mornings to this enterprise.  And a special thank you to Stan, Kadi and Justin Robinson: with their knowledge and experience, we would not be able to make the progress we have to this point.

See you tomorrow!

Katie

Boy, Saturday sure was a long, HOT day!  We started early, but it was worth it to beat the heat (thanks Julie and Kim for the doughnuts!)  But everybody had lots of fun painting our new office/annex space.  I’m not gonna lie: the place was not in the best of shape.  There were tons of holes in the walls, and Lord knows what is was we were wiping off all the surfaces.  The bottom of the walls where we took off the old baseboards was pretty torn up.  I think we’re either looking to get vinyl baseboards donated, or we’ll either ask some home improvement stores for their scrap 1″ x 4″, and then paint it or seal it or something.

We were lucky though to pull together a bunch of scrap paint in similar colors, and then just dumped them into big plastic buckets and mixed it all up together.  The beige and green buckets we ended up with actually turned out to be really nice shades, despite the fact we put together like 5-7 different colors of each.  Thank goodness for Jim bringing the power drill with the paint mixer attachment!

We didn’t get quite as far along as we had hoped to, but the place already looks so much better!  Jay and John’s office are now blue!  And we have an actual green Green Room!  I personally feel better knowing there’s a fresh coat of paint on just about every surface.

We’ll finish up paint on Tuesday (I call dibs on the kitchen cabinets!), and then cut and lay the new (gently used actually) carpet and new tile for the entryway on Saturday (thank you so much Kim!)

Please be sure to check out the pics!  More to come on Wednesday!

Katie

We had our first work call this past Tuesday, and it didn’t take us long to start making a real difference.  We’ve aquired the office space area next to the theatre, and it will become Jay’s new office space, and eventually a new backstage area for our casts and crews.  But boy does it need some work to get to that point!  We started on Tuesday by taking out all of the carpet, padding and tackless strips.  We couldn’t take out some of the tiling because we think it’s asbestos tile :-S.  But with 8 volunteers helping out, it took about 2 hours total, including getting it all into the dumpsters.  And boy did it help with the smell!  Check out the pictures below to see what it looks like down to the bare floor.

Next up, we need to get some new (hopefully donated!) carpet into Jay’s new office areas so he can get moved in there.  Then we’ll start painting the entire space and getting some new floor coverings put down.  I know Jay has said this in his emails, but if you would be willing to donate anything towards remodeling, including carpet, tile, paint, lumber, money or even just your time, we would be so grateful!

Please feel free to contact Jay anytime at jaybrown@lubbockcommunitytheatre.org for info, and keep an eye on this blog and the LCT website for the latest info about work calls.

Have a great weekend!

Katie

Stay tuned!