HB High completes renovation of auditorium, tower

Huntington Beach High School has completed the main construction of a $9.6-million renovation of its historic 83-year-old auditorium and bell tower.

The overhaul of the Darrel Stillwagon Auditorium and Bell Tower started in July 2007 and is part of the high school’s performing arts project that includes a new 9,200-square-foot art building. The construction ended in April and the finishing touches are being put on, said Joe Batte, the Academy for the Performing Arts’ technical theater director.

“It’s an amazing building,” Batte said. “How fortunate these kids are to have a facility like this.”

The project is funded out of the Huntington Beach Union High School District’s Measure C funds, a bond measure passed by voters.

The school’s auditorium and bell tower were built in 1926 and are an Orange County historic site. The auditorium was one of the first building on the campus.

“You know what, I wish these walls could talk,” Batte said. “The stories they could tell.”

During the renovation, the theater’s original 1926 archway was discovered as crews were digging into it, Batte said. The archway and ceiling were restored to their original state. The 600-seat auditorium was fitted with new seats, and its 10 cast-iron chandeliers were restored. Ramps and passenger lifts were also added, and two rooms in the front lobby were fixed up to use as a classroom.

The school is still waiting for the new sound and lighting systems, which are expected to be installed next month, Batte said.

The auditorium is mainly used by the Academy for the Performing Arts, a Huntington Beach Union High School District magnet school. The academy has about 600 students who put on 12 main stage performances in the theater yearly, Batte said.

While the theater has been out of commission for the last two years, students have been using the Westminster Rose Center, but 17-year-old Carly Manno, a technical theater student with the academy, said she is excited to finally get to work in the theater and use the performing arts classrooms.

“It’s a lot bigger. There is a lot more room,” Carly said.

The new performing arts facility gives the school a new black-box theater, two additional dance rooms and new dressing rooms. The black-box theater provides the students with a more intimate space to do any kind of performance and features a tension-wire grid ceiling, Batte said.

“It’s the latest technology,” Batte said. “It’s basically what’s being put into theaters now.”

The construction, which also includes a courtyard and an outdoor amphitheater, was done by McCarthy Building Companies, Inc.

The reopening celebration is planned for Oct. 17 and will coincide with the academy’s debut of a musical about the Titanic, Batte said.