The first thing you’ll notice is the comfortable seats – they are a night-and-day improvement from the old chairs – but listen closely: Even when nobody is miked up, ordinary speech seems to flow clearly.

Mary Mauck, a member of the executive board for the La Salle theater Stage 212, said theatergoers will really see where the money and elbow grease went when the lights go up and performers hit the stage.

“We paid attention to the comfort of our patrons,” Mauck said during a tour of the almost-finished auditorium. “I think the production quality is going to be very noticeably increased. Our sound system and the new lighting system are going to really enhance our productions.”

The Robert D. Manahan Theater in downtown La Salle is nearing 30 years old and needed enough work that Stage 212 had briefly considered pulling up the tent stakes and moving. But the board decided it was too heavily invested in La Salle to move and settled on a $170,000 renovation, starting with an overhaul of the heating, ventilation and air-conditioning system.

Fingers crossed, Stage 212 set aside summer for the overhaul and committed to “Puffs,” a Harry Potter spoof, to run in November. And it’s going to meet its self-imposed deadline.

“We are about 98% done,” said Natalie Smigel, fundraising chair and a member of Stage 212’s renovation committee, ticking off a short punch-list before the doors are opened for the Harry Potter spoof. “I think our audience will be much more comfortable as they’re seated. I think they’ll be able to hear more clearly.”

The project and fundraising efforts have checked all the boxes – except one.

“We are still about $40,000 short,” Smigel said. “We’re still accepting donations and still are looking for grants, but the shortfall will have to come out of our checkbook or our endowment.

“The project came in as budgeted, but we did not raise all the funds yet.”

Organizers haven’t given up hope that additional help will arrive, and they certainly are pleased with the results.

Mauck pointed out that the majority of improvements were made with the audience in mind, with one notable exception. Backstage now is fitted with monitors for the cast and crew to follow the action via closed-circuit TV, ensuring that actors won’t miss their cues.

All other improvements were done to boost the sensory experience of the audience, starting with the new folding chairs.

“We really wanted to increase the comfort level when getting and picking out the new seats,” Mauck said. “These seats have a higher back. The cushion in them is much more durable and strong. We have extra lumbar-type cushioning, and we definitely got wider seats.”

Thanks to a reduction in the size of the sound booth, Stage 212 was able to install wider chairs with a net loss of just one seat. Several more seats are now handicapped-accessible and can be readily adjusted for those using wheelchairs.

Audiences also will notice 14 fabric acoustic panels that have improved the overall sound quality, not merely when the microphones are activated.