By CORAL J. CASTANEDA

Of the Statesman-Journal

 

The first time Darrin Amico saw McNary High School’s just-completed auditorium, he stopped and jumped.

 

“Aaahhhlll right!” the McNary senior said.

 

Amico watched last year while construction workers shaped materials into a new auditorium.

 

“You could feel the energy circulating,” he said.

 

After a year of building, the new $1.6 million auditorium will open this month.

 

A formal, private dedication of the auditorium will be held Monday night for staff members, parents of the 185 students who are performing in the dedication and other members of the community involved in the school.

 

McNary Principal Kathleen Hanneman said the dedication was closed to the public because of the limited number of auditorium seats – 603. But she said anyone who wants to attend the dedication should telephone the school for tickets.

 

“Oklahoma!” the first theatrical production in the new auditorium, will open Nov. 14 with a special dedication to former theater arts student Sean Sadowski. Sean was killed in a traffic accident last summer. A plaque in his memory was placed on stage.

 

Brian Perkey, a second-year theater student who was building theater props for the show last week, gazed over at the stage.

 

“You can just picture people applauding,” the senior, who will perform the in the musical, said.

 

Hannerman and other administrators also are excited about their new auditorium.

 

Amico, who also was building stage props for “Oklahoma!” put it another way.

 

“They’re so hyped about it,” he said. “So, the kids just get all excited about it. I think it boosts the school morale.”

 

Amico, Perkey and other students are especially delighted with being able to work with advanced technical equipment.

 

“It’s more like working in a real world,” Julie Tayler, an 11th-grader and aspring actress, said. “We actually have dressing rooms.”

 

The school’s original theater, built in 1965, also is available. However, its use is limited by the size of the stage – 17 by 22 feet – and its audience capacity, 250 to 300 hardwood seats.

 

In contrast, the new theater’s stage is 45 feet wide and 35 feet deep. The royal blue auditorium has cushioned seats – at least twice as many as the old theater.

 

It has a make-up room adorned with 16 lighting stations, and two dressing rooms that come equipped with restrooms and a shower. Before this, the students would have to change in the public bathrooms.

 

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