The Wright Auditorium is owned by the Petersburg School District, but it’s used extensively by the community for live music performances, Northern Nights movie theater showings, Mitkof Dance Troupe recitals, and stage plays by the school’s drama department or the Mitkof Mummers Theatre group.
David Berg coordinated grants through the nonprofit Petersburg Arts Council to fund several recent improvements at the auditorium. He said it started with a $3,800 grant awarded to the Council from the Petersburg Community Foundation, an Alaska Community Foundation affiliate. That seed grant got the ball rolling for more local funding to follow, amounting to nearly $22,000.
Petersburg Mental Health Services, a nonprofit that uses invested funds to give grants to organizations that benefit the community, contributed $13,000. The Mitkof Dance Troupe gave $2,000. The Mitkof Mummers and Petro Marine also contributed $1,500 each. Alaska Marine Lines donated freight services, and Hammer & Wikan donated hardware for replacing part of the stage’s side curtains.
Other theatrical improvements included adding a special black backdrop called a stage scrim, purchasing a fog machine, enhancing lighting hardware and replacing the light control board.
Berg sat down with KFSK’s Olivia Rose to talk about the upgrades. He said funding them was a community-supported effort to maintain the beloved facility — and also another step toward modernizing some of the original technology.
Listen here:
Berg said there’s still a little bit of money to spend, so they’re looking to check-off some more theater improvements on their wish list. He noted they plan to sell some of the old equipment on the secondary market to bring in more funds for upgrades.
TRANSCRIPT:
This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
BERG: At the beginning of last year, I met with some users of the facility, the Mitkof Dance Troupe, the drama department from the school and and the Mitkof Mummers, and we came up with a list of things, kind of a wish list of things that have happened that we’ve noticed about the theater since it was originally constructed back in mid 1980s. And so there are some functions, some equipment in the facility that was original. And so we just started on our list and it grew pretty quickly.
ROSE: Can you tell us a bit about those specific improvements?
BERG: Sure. The rotators on the curtains were old, so we felt like those could certainly be replaced because they didn’t work properly. We have an old fog machine, so we could make an improvement there. We’ve figured out that we could add a black scrim, which is a kind of a theater design element that you can act behind if you light people up, and then when you take the lights away, they disappear. Community members might recall that we did a major upgrade of lighting in the auditorium in 2020, or 2019 — and the lighting board that controls those lights, we replaced that. We were able to replace some of the black light bulbs, too, that we can use to have more fluorescent lighting on the stage. So there’s some neat things that we found that were on this list, along with upgrades to our lighting board. And as you can imagine, you know, theater equipment is fairly expensive.
ROSE: Yeah. I mean … the Wright Auditorium is also home to the local Northern Nights movie theater, which has been dealing with financial hardship, but it’s gotten grants and things lately. But this is its own separate story. These upgrades don’t sound cheap, so who paid for it?
BERG: Well, we started off with a grant that I wrote for money from the Petersburg Community Foundation last spring. So they started off with $3,800 and then — because we had a list of things that were, you know, almost $20,000 of equipment — we looked to other community organizations. Petro Marine contributed. So did the Mitkof Mummers and the Mitkof Dance Troupe. We had in-kind donations from Alaska Marine Lines and Hammer & Wikan, and then the Petersburg Mental Health Services (raincountry.org) contributed a major amount to make this whole thing come together, to put us over the top for funding.
ROSE: Are you talking about the contribution that was recently given to the Northern Nights movie theater?
BERG: No, this is completely different. [Petersburg Mental Health Services (raincountry.org)] has really stepped up to the plate for us, and also for the whole theater and the Northern Nights Theater.
ROSE: So did you end up gathering all of that $20,000 or so that was needed for these upgrades?
BERG: Yes, we did. Yeah, it’s really exciting.
ROSE: Dave, you’ve done the lights and tech for many performances over the years in the auditorium. Can you share a little bit of your perspective about why they’re significant for the auditorium and why these upgrades matter to the community?
BERG: Syd and Vara Wright, whom the facility is named after, they basically came up with the funds and designed a world-class facility that we have at our fingertips here in Petersburg to be able to use. And facilities like that need maintenance. And the school can’t afford to do everything. They’re there for our kids. And not only does the school use the facility — I mean, I come in there periodically through the day and I’m amazed at how many groups are actually using it from the school — but seeing the Mitkof Mummers come in there, and seeing the Mitkof Dance Troupe using the facility, having the Petersburg Arts Council come in and have performances there — it’s a facility that everyone in the community can be proud of and enjoy.
ROSE: And it sounds like everybody’s kind of pitching in to help maintain the auditorium because it’s such an important community space.
BERG: Yeah … to have this available, and then to have the community support it, it’s heartwarming.
