Olympus High School, Theatre

Auerbach Pollock Friedlander was the theatre consultant for the Main Theatre at Olympus High School.  The venue accommodates 1,530 in an auditorium with 950 seats in the core orchestra/parterre seating and another 580 in flanking calipers that enclose the orchestra and connect the front orchestra seating with the balcony.  This connection provides full access to the stage from all areas of the audience chamber.  A mid-house audio mix and control ‘pod’ is directly off of the cross-aisle separating orchestra and parterre seating.

Further control of theatrical lighting and pre-recorded audio is managed from the control booth at the rear of the parterre level.  The Main Theatre has 192 dimmers dedicated to theatrical lighting use at catwalks, torms, stage galleries, battens and floor pockets.

Upstage of the fixed apron and 12’ deep orchestra pit (served by a pit filler system), a 50’ wide x 25’ tall proscenium opening is oriented to provide excellent sightlines for all.  The stage itself is 98’ wide x 45’ deep, with 31 counterweight linesets and 2 counter-weighted lighting ladder sets.  General purpose battens are 66’ long.  The rigged stage area is 36’ deep, allowing the upstage 9’ to be used as an internal crossover, or storage for the orchestra shell towers.  An internal cross-over is also provided directly behind the rear stage wall as well.

Beyond the relatively spacious wings, stage right, a 3,000-square-foot storage/run-off space is directly open to the stage, with a vertical clear height equal to the orchestra shell towers.  A roll-up door to the west of the storage room connects directly to a 1,675-square-foot scene shop.  At the opposite end of the shop, roll-up doors provide direct access to a Black Box Theatre seating 95 audience members in a variety of configurations enabled by a comprehensive portable platforming system.

An elevated ‘ring’ catwalk, broken only by the tall doors to the shop, provide lower level lighting positions, as well as acting locations in the Black Box.  A tension grid, centered within the catwalk surround provides all overhead lighting positions.  The space is provided with (120) 20a dimmers distributed along walls, catwalks and the tension grid.

Architect: FFKR Architects
Acoustics:  Spectrum Engineers, Inc.
Size:  400,000 SF
Cost:  $75,000,000
Completion:  2013