Muscatine Community School District has invested around $2.5M into project, another $1.5M needed for it to reach completion
Lights have been dimmed. Cameras have been turned off. And there has been no action.
For more than a year, the Muscatine Community School District’s Central Auditorium has been dormant.
School musical programs are held in gymnasiums. Dance recitals have been relocated, some even out of Muscatine. The Muscatine Symphony Orchestra has moved to Wesley United Methodist Church. Community theatre has staged productions at the Muscatine Community College.
While all of those facilities have been accommodating, none can offer the almost 1,100 seats Central’s Auditorium provides when its doors are open.
“For a town this size, we absolutely need an auditorium of that size,” said Bill Turner, longtime president of the Muscatine Masquers and Pearl City Players. “From the size of the stage and number of seats, no other place in town can match that.”
Besides allocating funds to replace the roof, boiler and additional parking, the MCSD has made a $2.5 million investment through facility bonds to renovate the Central Auditorium. However, it needs an additional $1.5 million for the entire project to reach the finish line.
When you were performing in that auditorium, it was like making the big time in a little town.”
Bill Turner, longtime president of Muscatine Masquers and Pearl City Players
Among the renovations are replacing the existing stage floor, infilling the orchestra pit with a concrete floor, adding a control booth and ADA seating, replacing carpet and seating in the lower level and balcony.
It would also include cleaning and tuckpointing the exterior of the auditorium, painting the inside and ceiling repairs. The dressing rooms and lobby restrooms also are getting remodeled.
If the additional $1.5 million can be furnished, there would be stage lighting and stage rigging upgrades along with a new audio and video system.
“It would be nice to tackle it in one swoop,” said Rene Mauck, a member of the auditorium committee and Muscatine High School’s drama director. “You can have it nicely done and then you’re not looking five years from now having to deal with this again.”
Central Auditorium hasn’t undergone any significant repairs in almost 40 years.
“It is really due,” Mauck said. “For as much use that has been through there, yeah, it is due.
“The fly rack, which is nice to have, isn’t safe anymore. The sound is problematic and needs to be improved.”
When the MCSD decided to tear down Central Middle School, it kept the gymnasium and auditorium.
“Saving that auditorium as well as the gym was a positive across the board,” said Rich Dwyer, a member of the auditorium committee and Senior Vice President of Corporate Affairs and Enterprise Risk Management at Kent Corporation. “(That auditorium) is unique in that it is best for holding large, indoor events in the community.”
There is a slew of history in Central’s Auditorium, often referred to as the Muscatine Center for the Performing Arts.
Turner remembers the Muscatine Elks Chanters, a male chorus group, selling the building out three times in a given weekend. He was part of the “Oliver” production the Masquers did there in the 1990s. “The Music Man” and “The King and I” were other popular shows done inside Central’s Auditorium.
Then in 2007, “Muscatine! The Musical” was there, which included a horse on stage during production.
“When you were performing in that auditorium, it was like making the big time in a little town,” Turner said.
The stage is 40-feet wide, offers dressing rooms and has the capability, when fully operational, to fly in set pieces for productions.
“It is just a lot more versatile and professional than any other place that is in town for a theatre production,” Turner said. “MCC has been very nice to us, but it is much more limited in what you can do in that small space.”
It isn’t just community theatre.
Elementary and middle school students hosted concerts frequently in the auditorium. The old West Middle School performed “Peter Pan” there in the early 1990s. Dance recitals and pageants were held there, too.
“It would just be so much roomier for those kids to be back in Central instead of using their school gyms for concerts,” Mauck said.
The Muscatine High School Auditorium has about half of the seating capacity as Central. With Central closed, the high school has seen the number of requests soar to use its facility.
Mauck said the high school auditorium can’t accommodate everyone.
Between band, choir, show choir, orchestra and drama, along with class activities and staff meetings, the high school auditorium is in use daily.
“It works great for our high school needs, and it is convenient for us to be right there on campus, but we have that place busy all year with high school events,” Mauck said. “Another reason Central is so necessary is that the high school is overwhelmed right now trying to pick up the slack. It has been difficult for everybody.
“The sooner we can get Central open for people to use, the better. It will make everybody happier.”
Mauck believes there is more of a community vibe with Central.
“A lot of times when people see something at the high school auditorium, they associate it as a high school event,” Mauck said. “People associate Central with community events. Even if the school district owns that land and space, there is a thought that that is the community venue.”
In late January, The Chinese Lunar New Year Celebration concert was held at the high school auditorium – an event usually held at Central.
The accommodations were difficult for a traveling party of approximately 100 people.
“The backstage at the high school was crazy,” Mauck said. “You had to split them up into classrooms and band rooms. At Central, you would have been able to set them up in the gym with a huge green room by tarping that floor. Stage access is easy from there.
“Plus, a one-time event like that, you would have been able to seat a lot more people.”
That’s why Mauck said it is paramount to raise the funds and begin construction soon.
“The longer it is closed, the more people will forget that it is there,” she stated.
The MCSD is pursuing additional grants and private donations to complete the funding for the remainder of the project.
For anyone interested in donating, visit the Friends of Muscatine Facilities Improvement Fund: https://cfgm.fcsuite.com/erp/donate/create/fund?funit_id=1330 on the Community Foundation of Greater Muscatine’s website. You can also contact them at (563) 264-3863.
The Community Foundation of Greater Muscatine accepts cash or checks. They can be mailed or dropped off at 215 West Mississippi Drive, Muscatine, IA 52761.
They also take online donations, via debit or credit card, or they can handle complex gifts such as donating stocks, real estate, land, life insurance or IRA distributions. Please contact the Community Foundation of Greater Muscatine to help facilitate those donations.
Construction is scheduled to begin on the Central Auditorium this spring, with a completion date by fall.
With the upgrades, and ample parking, Turner is confident the lights can shine bright, the cameras can be turned on and plenty of action can take place again.
“Fully renovated, you could probably bring in touring shows and musical acts,” Turner said. “If they can make that a state of the art facility, it would improve the quality of life in town and help attract people to want to live here instead of just working here.”
