Five years ago, the Jackson-Reed theater department put on a production of “Legally Blonde”. Actors dressed in pink stood affront a striped staircase, with each set as pink as Elle Woods would want. Despite the success of the show, Performing Arts Teacher Daniel Iwaniec remembers the ceiling leaking during dress rehearsals, water pouring from the ceiling and puddles across the stage.

In 2011, Jackson-Reed underwent a 115 million dollar renovation, including the creation of an 850-seat auditorium. However, the theater department hasn’t used the auditorium this year. Since the pandemic, the lighting and sound system lost its function. “We’ve been completely crippled by it,” Iwaniec said.  

After months of advocacy by the school community, Ward 3 Councilmember Matt Frumin announced that he will work to earmark $550,000 for the repair of the Jackson-Reed auditorium.

“The auditorium is not only an indispensable resource for the incredible Jackson-Reed theater program, but an essential gathering space for the school and community,” Frumin said in a statement to The Beacon. “This work is slated to be completed by fall of this year and I am hopeful that this will solve the leaking auditorium (and atrium) roof once and for all.”

Because the auditorium was not available for use this year, Jackson-Reed theater shifted their productions to the Black Box. 

“Moving into a much smaller performing stage, cast sizes had to be cut down,” junior Luther Hoy testified. “This created a much more competitive environment and eliminated the welcoming, community-building theater I knew at the beginning of my sophomore year.”

Hoy testified in a DC Council for the Budget Hearing for Department of General Services (DGS), among other students involved in the Jackson-Reed theater program including Elijah Gold-Moritz, Beatrice Gumbinner, Isabelle Posner-Brown. The students shared their love for theater to sway the council members to repair the auditorium.  

“All I want is the opportunity to perform, but it is being stripped away from me, due to the continued hesitancy to fix the auditorium,” junior Beatrice Gumbinner testified. 

Iwaniec also testified that “working in our [malfunctioning] auditorium has been the most mentally taxing, physically exhausting, and stress-inducing experience of my entire career.  I’ve worked with literal opera divas with less issues than this space.” He noted that sound engineers decided not to work with the department because of the technological difficulties. 

This spring’s production of “Into The Woods” will be in the Black Box. While Iwaniec notes that the performance will be more “intimate,” he says the auditorium “allows more options for what shows that we can do.”

“You can have bigger sets, more lights, and more space to store set pieces and costumes,” Iwaniec said. 

Iwaniec noted that he has not yet been provided with a timeline. He will continue to send letters to ensure that the money provided by the DGS goes to the theater. 

“I think one of the hardest parts is having to constantly prove [the theater’s] value against people that don’t necessarily see that. They see it as frivolous rather than an integral part of our culture to have entertainment and storytelling,” Iwaniec said.