Jefferson High School has secured a nearly $80,000 state grant to upgrade its theater lighting, following last month’s installation of a new sound system.
The money, awarded by Governor Greg Gianforte on Jan. 27, is part of the Montana Main Street Grant program that supports downtown revitalization and community development. The school will contribute an additional $28,065 in matching funds.
Superintendent Erik Wilkerson said the school’s strong community ties helped secure the funding.
“The school kind of works with the community. In Boulder, the school is the center of the community, and that’s a big deal,” Wilkerson said. “Being that it was our drama department, and we put on so many productions and get so many community members and people that live throughout the county coming to those productions, it was a good match.”
The $78,515 grant will cover new LED stage lighting, a digital lighting board and a new lighting grid in the theater classroom. The school may also upgrade some curtain rigging and replace the back stage curtains if funds allow.
Some of the new lighting will be controlled remotely through the digital board, a change from the school’s current system which requires manually moving each light and changing filters individually – often requiring a lift and hours of work.
“The lighting is really old. It’s well past its prime,” said drama teacher Mike Hesford. “Everything had to be done manually, every light had to be moved, every filter had to be changed. Really old school.”
The aging equipment limits Hesford’s production choices, leaving some areas of the stage in darkness. Plus, the time-consuming setup leaves little opportunity for scene-specific lighting.
“Because you spend so much time setting things up – light and sound for every show – it’s really difficult to program scenes,” Hesford explained. “Now with this setup, we’re going to be able to spend a lot of time doing that instead of just setting up.”
Sunshine Productions, the Great Falls-based company that installed the sound system in January, will return to complete the lighting installation after basketball season ends in mid-March.
The sound system has already made a difference. The new speakers, power amps, digital signal processors and mixing console replaced equipment that was difficult to work with and prone to cable damage from repeated setup.
“It’s pretty exciting. It’s definitely a game changer,” Hesford said. “We went from three hours plus setup on the sound to three minutes. It’s going to save us a lot of time and give us a lot more options.”
“The speakers are incredible,” he added, explaining that the real test will come when students use head microphones with the new system.
Hesford said the new equipment will allow him to finally consider lighting and sound when choosing which shows to produce – something he’s never been able to do before.
“Before I retire, whenever that happens, I want to leave the theater in great hands and in a great place where you can do almost any show and not have to reinvent the wheel to do it,” Hesford said.
