Stage 212 in La Salle in the final stages of fundraising

Stage 212 in La Salle has been raising funds to revamp its auditorium and they group is more than halfway toward its goal.

Now, the La Salle theater company will use direct appeals to reach the finish line.

Natalie Smigel, fundraising chairman and a member of Stage 212’s renovation committee, announced recently that local businesses and benefactors should expect mailers seeking help raising the final $62,000 needed to rehab the Robert D. Manahan Theater in downtown La Salle.

Stage 212 has planned a rehab of its physical plant to make productions more enjoyable for audiences. New seats are going in. HVAC issues will be fixed. Acoustic improvements, including a new sound booth and speakers, will make the audio sparkle.

It won’t be cheap, Smigel said, but Stage 212 paid off its mortgage last spring and has $100,000 in hand for the rehabilitation. The company is looking for the remaining $62,000 in donations to avoid taking out a loan.

“The community has always been very supportive,” she said, “so we are hopeful that they’ll come through for us now.”

And while the construction is several months away, Stage 212 has a tight timeline and hopes to be fully funded well before the work begins in mid-August.

The children’s production closes Aug. 10 and then volunteers will go into the theater and remove the seats. Anyone interested in acquiring the old seats – “We really would like to keep them out of the landfill,” Smigel said – is asked to call the box office number, 815-224-3025.

After the seats come out, contractors will swoop in to overhaul the interior both visually and acoustically. Stage 212 is upgrading its audio controls which in turn means a smaller sound booth. So while larger, more comfortable seats are going in, the auditorium will have a net loss of just one seat.

“Aesthetically, it’s going to look a lot better than the old acoustic fabric that’s on the wall, but it will improve the quality of the sound,” Smigel said. “We’re upgrading some of the equipment and getting some new speakers.”

Fingers crossed, work will be completed in October; but Smigel said Stage 212 has given itself a cushion in case the work schedule stretches into late fall. Off-site rehearsal space has been identified for the autumn production, “Puffs,” a Harry Potter spoof, in case contractors need more time.

“But I’m confident we’re going to get it done on time,” Smigel said.

Reid Tomaason, production manager of the theater, said Stage 212 has made improvements before. During the pandemic, for example, the theater got a thorough cleaning, and volunteers reorganized the costumes and props.

Nevertheless, this is the first major fundraiser since 2011, when Stage 212 addressed the theater’s failing roof. Tomaason said Stage 212 decided to address the needs of spectators rather than tackle backstage issues and the needs of the performers.

“At the end of the day, we decided the renovation had to be about the audience experience,” Tomaason said, “because they’re the ones who are kind of suffering with our seats and the sound quality.”

The Robert D. Manahan Theater was opened in 1997 and is showing its age. Stage 212 briefly considered moving to a new venue, but ultimately decided to remain in downtown La Salle where patrons could pair their theater experience with dinner.

Improvements have been made since then but a major overhaul was planned in the late 2010s. The pandemic, however, sent planners back to the drawing board. The current plans, Smigel said, are “more feasible and more reasonable.”

“The original plan involved changing the layout. We’re not changing the footprint. Most of what we’re doing is cosmetic. We’re focusing on the comfort of our audience with a lot of the improvements.”