This is the second of a two-part series that shares memories from some of those who have performed in the auditorium at Newtown High School, which is currently undergoing major renovations. The first part of this series can be read here.

Spaces are filled with memories for those who filled them, and the Newtown High School auditorium has been filled with many students since the building opened for the 1970-71 school year.

The NHS auditorium renovation work is waiting for the state to approve documents before the project can go out to bid. Once it is approved Public Building and Site Commission Chair Bob Mitchell expects to have a better understanding of the time frame, but the renovation work is expected to last through the 2016-17 school year.

Safety was a noted priority for those involved in the design for the space, including Mr Mitchell and Newtown's Director of Visual and Performing Arts Michelle Hiscavich. NHS Choral Director Jane Matson and NHS theater arts teacher Janice Gabriel also noted safety as a first priority.

Ms Matson said she wants the space to be practical and functional.

In 1979 in front of "harvest gold" curtains, Ms Matson performed with her fellow chorus students for their eighth grade graduation. It is one of her first memories of the space, but her brightest memory comes from the following school year.

"In my freshmen year we did

Camelot. My brother played King Arthur and I played Guinevere," said Ms Matson, who added that she remembers her brother Steven Ferraiuolo's performance being amazing.

No microphones were used at the time, Ms Matson said. The pit orchestra played and the actors sang.

"There was no sound system at all," said Ms Matson.

When the actors sang, Ms Matson said it would be time to tell the orchestra to "shhh."

Ms Matson remembers a musical each year she was a student at NHS, but the theater department has changed since then. She remembers a teacher involved in the productions, but she does not remember official classes. The shows were smaller and the theater program was more like a club.

"It was different. It was a lot smaller,  and we all kind of worked on everything," said Ms Matson. "People would come in and we would work on the set and [former band director Joseph Grasso] would work on the set."

The sets were not as involved as they are now.

"I just remember a lot of curtains and a lot of flats," said Ms Matson. "But they were great productions."

Ms Matson also recalled a number of concerts, which had fewer students at the time, so the choir, band, and orchestra could perform together.

"I enjoyed the holiday winter concert," Ms Matson recalled, "just before winter break."

When she stepped into the auditorium after being hired as the choral director in 2010, Ms Matson said she noticed the sound booth was moved, acoustical tiles had been added, "And the curtain is blue now. Everything else is the same."

The seats were the same, too, which shocked her.

NHS Band Director Kurt Eckhardt said he moved to town in 1992 and began his position at the high school in 2002. While he was still teaching at Joel Barlow High School, Mr Eckhardt said he attended a festival at NHS. He remembers noticing that as the Danbury High School band played, he could not hear the clarinets until he walked to the back of the auditorium. The percussion sound carried well, and he remembers then telling his own percussion students to quiet down when they played.

The auditorium overall, Mr Eckhardt said is "an acoustical mess."

He also remembers attending Sandy Hook Elementary School grade school band performances in the auditorium when his children attended SHS.

One memory that stands out, he said, was from May 2013, when the NHS wind ensemble, orchestra, and chorus, along with community musicians, the Hartford Symphony Orchestra, and the Hartford Voce Singers joined to perform the world premiere of Samuel R. Hazo's

Glorificare, under the guidance of the composer. The evening was the culmination of work and dedication to celebrate the lives and spirits of those lost at Sandy Hook School on 12/14.

There were more than 1,000 people in attendance that evening, Mr Eckhardt remembered, and when the quiet moments in the song were performed all that could be heard was the piano.

"That was the most quiet I have heard a concert hall," he said.

Mr Eckhardt said he has many memories of students doing great things on the stage at NHS. He also remembers watching his daughter Brianna play lead roles in theater productions. She played a part in

Into the Woods, he said, and he was the pit orchestra director for the show. It was one of those moments, he said, when he realized she was no longer his "little girl."

One of his hopes for the new auditorium space is that it will be acoustically representative of the caliber of talent NHS students are capable of. He wants the space to be a place where "the kids can showcase their accomplishments and great music."

A History Of Need

Roughly 21 years ago, Tom Swetts began working at NHS, and he was responsible for overseeing the auditorium - a job Ms Gabriel has taken on - for roughly 19 years.

Mr Swetts has a degree in theater and he also had experience in the construction industry.

Over his time at NHS, Mr Swetts noted challenges, including some that came up during work in the late 90s.

At the time, Mr Swetts said, the renovation work moved the light booth to the center, near the lobby, from a position at the right.

"The building inspector wouldn't give them permission to open the school until they got rid of the wires that were sticking up in the middle of the hall where the new exit was, which were the wires for the sound system," said Mr Swetts. "They just cut them and buried them in cement."

When the auditorium reopened following the work, Mr Swetts said there was no sound system and no money remaining.

"I went out and bought a baby monitor with my own money so that we could at least hear in the light booth," said Mr Swetts.

A friend of his later donated two used speakers. Mr Swetts said those speakers stopped being used in 2000, when a fund drive for a new sound system was held. $100,000 was raised, and a promised match from the Board of Education, Mr Swetts said, was only met by $80,000, rather than $100,000 - leaving speakers that could not be purchased for the space due to the remaining unmatched $20,000. Those missing speakers, he said, were never put in the space.

"Everyone was complaining, saying the sound system was better, but it wasn't great. Well, it wasn't great, because it was never completed," said Mr Swetts.

The acoustical tiles were added in 2000, Mr Swetts said, and those fixed the echoing problems of the past.

Other issues in the space included a roof leak that was left for so long the oak floor of the stage below rotted. Plywood was nailed and glued down, creating a problem a couple of years later, before Mr Swetts left. The plywood was eaten up, with six-inch long splinters sticking up "all over the place," he said. Masonite was purchased by the district, and Mr Swetts said he worked with students over one weekend to fix the floor.

Mr Swetts also said money could have been saved over the years if projects were completed earlier. Before he retired, Mr Swetts said he "went ballistic" when plans to renovate the space were shared with him by the district. The changes were cosmetic, he said, and had nothing to do with safety.

Just one of his safety concerns centered on how pipes were hung above the stage. Mr Swetts said he used a scissors lift one day. When he went to put his hand on a pipe for stability, he quickly pulled back. He realized an electrical pigtail was hanging down, and it was bare copper wire.

He later requested a safety study, "which basically ripped apart the safety of the auditorium," he said.

His hopes for the space brightened when a design was presented to the Board of Education in December of 2015. Mr Swetts said the design included input from many people, and he credited Superintendent of Schools Joseph V. Erardi, Jr, for the in-depth scope of the plans.

"But in the end, it doubled the cost," said Mr Swetts.

In March, Mr Mitchell reported the Public Building and Site Commission learned the project's scope would cost $6.2 million. The project was then reevaluated by designers and local officials, and at his board's meeting on June 28, Mr Mitchell reported he believed the original scope of the project could be met by the $3.6 million budget. If funds are available in the contingency account once the project is completed, Mr Mitchell said, those funds could be used towards theatrical equipment, like lighting.

Despite his concerns Mr Swetts said he has many fond memories from the space, including years of working with students and starting the theater tech curriculum. He still keeps in contact with many of his former students.

Memories From Performances

NHS English teacher Brian Tenney graduated from NHS in 2006, and he has many memories of Mr Swetts's classes. Mr Tenney noted the theater department has changed since he graduated, and it includes more options for interested students, like the Unified Theater course run by Ms Gabriel.

Mr Tenney has been involved with a number of productions since he returned to teach at the school in 2012. His latest role was technical director for the production of Disney's

Beauty and the Beast this past March.

But when he was in school, Mr Swetts was the "beginning, middle, and end of theater."

Mr Tenney started participating in theater productions as an eighth grade student at Newtown Middle School, and he continued to participate throughout his tenure at NHS. In the spring of 2003, he was the lighting head for the production of

Les Miserables, directed by Sabrina Post.

"That show was incredible," said Mr Tenney. "That's probably the best thing I have ever seen on this stage."

Mr Tenney also recalls watching then-fellow student Annie Grills in a scene in the high school's 2006 production of

How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying.

"It was one of the best moments I can remember," said Mr Tenney.

After graduating, Mr Tenney continued to be active with theater productions at college, and noted theater majors had less technical experience than he had from learning from Mr Swetts.

The theater program at NHS now, he said, under the guidance of Ms Matson and Ms Gabriel is "sort of in a period of hope right now." He sees a sense of "team" between Ms Matson and Ms Gabriel, and Mr Tenney said he is lucky for his part in the effort.

Brett Boles graduated from NHS just three years before Mr Tenney. In his sophomore year,

Taming of the Shrew was performed.

"It was my first Shakespeare. Who doesn't remember their first Shakespeare play?" said Mr Boles.

He recalls a feeling of closeness with his castmates in productions; there was a sense of family.

Mr Boles also remembers being awed by then-fellow student Grant Skinner's voice in a production of

Man in La Mancha.

"He really had one of those one-in-a-million voices," said Mr Boles.

Mr Boles, now an award-winning musical theater composer, lyricist, and librettist, has been involved in a number of local theater productions as a professional. He has worked with NewArts and with productions at the high school. He was the musical director for the

Beauty and the Beast production.

The theater department at the high school has changed since he was a student, and Mr Boles said he feels it has more people overseeing the direction of the department now.

Leslie Ballard, member of the band Panacea, graduated from NHS in 1972. She remembers attending high school at what is now Newtown Middle School. When her graduating class transitioned to the then-brand-new high school, it felt enormous.

"It was stunning," she said.

The students were all greeted in the auditorium, and the chairs felt plush.

"The auditorium became the center of so many things," said Ms Ballard, whose father, Winthrop Ballard, was the district's assistant superintendent at the time.

The entire zeitgeist, Ms Ballard said, of her class changed. The students became more cohesive, and the auditorium was "really a hub of activity." She remembers many assemblies in the space.

From his time at NHS, Greg Horton - a working actor who lives in the Bronx with his wife Roxann Kramer (in June, Mr Horton and his wife were in a production of

Much Ado About Nothing with the Hudson Warehouse group in New York City) - recollects different plays.

He began participating in theater at an earlier age, both at NMS and in local area productions. Mr Horton remembers participating in

Mouse Trap, My Fair Lady, The Man Who Came To Dinner, and watching Kiss Me Kate and Camelot, while at NHS. Brigadoon was a popular show to try out for in his senior year. When auditions were held, he said, everyone wanted the lead. Based on the response, the choral director at the time decided to also hold a special production for the NHS Singers group to perform. Mr Horton graduated in 1983.

NMS social studies teacher Susan Lang - who has helped with theater productions at NMS and is a member of the band My Dad's Truck - graduated from NHS in 1979.

Looking back, Ms Lang is still impressed by "how big it was two renovations ago." She recalled being involved in productions like

Oliver and South Pacific, and attending assemblies and pep rallies in the auditorium. For large assemblies, seniors sat in the front, juniors sat in the back, and sophomores and freshmen were on the sides.

From her time with theater productions, Ms Lang said she learned of the special type of camaraderie that is formed, and the collegiality between the cast and crew. Her love of theater remains today, and she continues to occasionally participate in local productions.

Over the years, Ms Lang said it has been "cool" to watch the high school productions. Ms Post's

Les Miserables production from 2003 was a standout production for her.

And to see Ms Matson now overseeing the department is "perfect," Ms Lang said.

"It's just so right," Ms Lang smiled, sharing that Ms Matson, who graduated just a four years after Ms Lang, is also a friend.

Ms Lang said Ms Matson's debut musical directing production of

Joseph and the Technicolor Dream Coat in 2011 was equally as amazing as the 2003 Les Miserables.

"That was an amazing performance," said Ms Lang of

Joseph and the Technicolor Dream Coat. "It was a heck of a way [for her] to introduce herself."

Then-student George Primavera played Joseph in the production, and Ms Lang said it was a great performance.

Hopes For The Future

Many have hopes for the newly renovated auditorium, especially for functional seats in the space. For Mr Tenney, it is that the end result will reflect the talent the students bring each time they step onto the stage.

Mr Boles said he wants a lighting system that "won't fall on you," and a better acoustical environment.

"I hope it is a space that is conducive to giving students an even better experience than I had," said Mr Boles, adding that his own experience will be hard to beat.

He wants students to be able to learn life skills that will prepare them for anything.

"My hope is that we have a safe space, and a space that is worthy of the students that come through here. I want the best for them," said Ms Gabriel.

The new space could adequately prepare students for college by providing the right resources and proper equipment, she said.

Newtown High School Principal Lorrie Rodrigue, who came to NHS in 1997 as an English teacher, said with renovation work expected to last throughout the 2016-17 school year, plans are being made to move events and classes typically held in the auditorium elsewhere.

Her memories of the auditorium from her years at NHS include assemblies, staff gatherings, and the musical productions.

"Of course our musical productions are second to none," said Dr Rodrigue. She hopes the auditorium renovation will continue to bring members of other communities to see the NHS musical productions.

"We wouldn't be able to do that if we didn't renovate our space so that it is something that is of community use," said Dr Rodrigue.

She also has hopes that the newly renovated space will be safe and vibrant, a space technically suitable for a variety of needs. "I really want this space to be conducive to teaching theater and acting and Unified Theater," said Dr Rodrigue.