Performing arts facility envisioned at Roosevelt

By James Gonser
Advertiser Urban Honolulu Writer

Roosevelt High Principal Dennis Hokama says he is looking forward to renovations to the school's 70-year-old auditorium. Now limited to school assemblies, the auditorium is seen as a future home for theater, opera and public meetings. Jeff Widener • The Honolulu Advertiser

The improvements, paid for by the state Legislature, will include a new lobby and front of the auditorium, scene shop/costume shop/dressing rooms behind the stage, a side stage area, restrooms and mechanical rooms on the north side.

Although the size of the auditorium will nearly double from 11,400 square feet to 22,400 square feet, the number of seats will decrease from 983 to 750 seats to allow for extending and enlarging the stage.

"We are really looking forward to it," said Roosevelt principal Dennis Hokama. "It already has a commanding appearance from the outside; now the inside is going to be just as magnificent."

The state Department of Accounting and General Services filed a draft environmental assessment for the project with the Office of Environmental Control on Friday. Public comments are being accepted until July 8.

The George Robert Carter Auditorium was built in 1936 and named after the former governor of the Territory of Hawai'i from 1903 to 1907.

The auditorium is next to Building A at Roosevelt, which was built four years earlier. Both are on the State Register of Historic Places. Building A, with its domed tower painted in the school's colors of red and gold, and the theater were designed in the Spanish Revival style of architecture that included McKinley High School, Honolulu Hale and the Merchant Street police station.

The auditorium is currently used for school assemblies, with wrestling team practice and drama class held on the stage and the basement used for Polynesian and music classes. But the poor stage configuration, acoustics and lighting have limited its use.

The school's band has not performed in the auditorium for more than 10 years because the stage is not big enough for the members and their instruments. There are small dressing rooms and no restrooms. Storage space is limited, it is not air-conditioned and does not meet Americans with Disabilities Act requirements. All of that will change with the renovation.

The design phase will last through the first quarter of 2004, and construction is expected to be completed in 2005.

The improvements are part of a master plan developed by the school and larger community including alumni, elected representatives, students and residents during a series of meetings last year.

Hokama said the new auditorium will be great for students, allowing the band and drama programs to have a home on campus rather than traveling to other schools to perform, but also will be a great asset for the community.

"We are long past when school facilities could be really dedicated only for school activities," he said. "We need to provide opportunities so that the entire community can benefit from the cultural activities during non-school hours."

Hokama said community theater, opera and symphony performances and public meetings are likely uses for the new facility.

"Community theater groups need places to showcase their art, and there are not enough of those kinds of venues," he said. "There are people willing to do their share of maintenance and we are looking for opportunities to develop more partnerships."

Roosevelt already has a partnership with the Hawai'i Opera Theater through the Opera for Everyone program. Students are allowed to help in different aspects of opera productions including makeup, costuming and stage production, and some even become supernumeraries, or crowd scene extras, on stage.

Gordon Svec, technical director of the Hawai'i Opera Theater, attended the planning session for the Roosevelt auditorium and said the new facility is going to expand the educational opportunities for students and provide a much-needed venue.

"The opera is thinking about expanding the program we already have with Roosevelt and using that space," Svec said. "We have a lot of people we train through our opera studio program who could work with the Roosevelt students in a different way if we had a place we could actually perform."

Svec said the opera could also help with the scheduling of the new theater.

"Management of this facility is going to be important once it is finished," Svec said. "The opera has made an offer and we are willing to do that. Not opening the doors and turning on the lights, but scheduling and how this can show and dovetail into the next show. The transitions between uses are the difficult parts."

John Steelquist, chairman of the Makiki/Lower Punchbowl/Tantalus Neighborhood Board, attended the planning meetings and said the venue is perfect because a lot of people live within walking distance of the theater in Makiki that could attend events and meetings.

"It would be a great service for the community," Steelquist said. "There is a lot of hope along those lines."

Send comments on the project to the Department of Accounting and General Services, Division of Public Works, P.O. Box 119, Honolulu HI 96810-0119. Attention: Gregory Tanaka. Include copies for the consultant and the OEQC.