Katie Johnson

These are the first new lights the theater program has received in at least 35 years.

In late July, the theater program had new lights installed after using the old ones for over three decades.

“The lights we had were from the old junior high,” theater director Greta Peterson said, “[They were] at least 35 years old or more.”

Returning theater students  have had to learn how to use the new light board.

 “I have been adjusting to them pretty well,” sophomore Talan Clements said. “The new lights are definitely different from the old ones, though. The new light board has a lot more features and capabilities than the old one, but thinking in terms of the old light board I quickly adjusted to the new one.”

These newer lights also have many new features, compared to the old ones. 

“They are all LED so the lamp (or light bulb) is longer lasting,” Peterson said. “They all also have the ability to change colors instead of using the old colored gels over the light fixture itself.  It’s programmable for individual cues and can record shows on a flash drive instead of the old floppy disk that our old system had.”

Overall, the new lights will help production levels rise.

“The new lights will improve the quality of our shows because we have more colors and brighter lights,” Clements said. “The more modernized light board compared to the old light board and lights makes the lights also function better, which then helps the show run smoother.”