Tehachapi News

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The renovation of the Beekay Theater has reached the point where the magic aura of a live theater is beginning to emerge.

Heavy construction by primary contractor Bowe Construction Company of Lancaster - owned by Tehachapi resident Darren Bowe -- is ahead of schedule and almost complete, according to job superintendent Jim Ritchea.

Walls, ceiling, floors, plumbing and wiring are ready for the final construction phase, which is the responsibility of the city of Tehachapi - the owner of the building -- and Tehachapi Community Theatre - the leaseholder of the building.

The city and the theater group will be working as a team to complete the theater. Local subcontractors and suppliers are being used whenever possible.
Tehachapi City Manager Greg Garrett said that Bowe will turn over the project to the two entities “in about two weeks.”

Ritchea “Once my contract is dismissed, the city crew can come in,” Ritchea said.
When it takes over, the city construction crew will work with designer David Reed and secretary Monica Nadon of Tehachapi Community Theatre and city liaison Rebecca Bergstrom to polish off the finish work. The theater group is paying for and providing the light system and fixtures (including gold-tone brushed nickel chandeliers), mirrors, the sound system, control board, furniture, floor coverings, moveable stadium seats and risers - everything to make it a first-class legitimate venue. The city will install it all, along with the toilets, stalls and tiles in the restrooms and lobby.

The design style, Reed said, is a “modified art deco movie house look.”

As of mid-September, the building has come alive.

Architect and Bear Valley Springs resident Kevin Haub of KHA Architecture, Bowe Construction and Boyle Engineering of Bakersfield have transformed the derelict 1936 art-deco movie house into a legitimate theater structure that will meet modern safety and disability standards while maintaining the feel of the vintage exterior design.

The interior of the roofless old shell of a building, long since gutted by fire, consisted of piles of dirt and a few random trees. The city had hoped to save the four reinforced concrete exterior walls but the project proved too costly, and only the front wall is original. That façade, however, carries the subtle art deco flavor that sets the edifice apart from modern structures.

The mass of pipes and valves that constitute the brains of the fire sprinkler system is tucked not-so-subtly into a corner of the men's bathroom. The city said it would be ugly outside the building, so into the men's room it went.

The most challenging part of the renovation - the surgical separation of the old building from Las Palmas Restaurant, with which it shared a wall - has been accomplished cleanly, albeit with the loss of three feet the length of the north side of the building. The city paid to reframe the restaurant wall. The fire department, wary of grease fires than can flare up in any restaurant, required the three-foot wide space to create firefighter access between the buildings. It's a tough loss for the Tehachapi Community Theatre, which is using every bit of space it can eke out of the structure.

The Green Street façade, braced above the entry door and cleaned up, has been incorporated seamlessly into the new construction. The new marquee, Nadon said, will replicate the original. Movie-style poster cases will flank the front door.

The lobby, with its undulating curves, is painted a warm yellow.

A drinking fountain is plumbed near the women's restroom. Mobile refreshment carts will take the place of a built-in concession stand, for which there is no room.

The full-function ticket booth will settle into a curved wall that has a low window to accommodate people in wheelchairs.

Light and sound traps are built into both sides of the front of the theater, with buffer space and black curtains to block visual and audio clutter emanating from the lobby. The entry passages will be painted a dark burgundy.

In the auditorium, the concrete floor stands ready for risers and the comfortable individual, moveable chairs that are coming. The auditorium capacity will be around 130, depending on configuration of the seating - which is flexible - and requirements of the fire department. As a non-profit community theater, Nadon said, they do not come under equity waiver union rules that require actors to be paid scale in venues seating more than 99 people.

The stage is two feet high and 40 feet across at its widest, 23 feet at the narrowest point.

The rough plywood floors of the stage are wired for electrical outlets and microphones and capped with metal plates.

“There will be no big curtain,” Nadon said. “They aren't used much any more. It will be an open format.”

On the sides of the auditorium, artist Allison Gray will paint murals of the four seasons in art deco style.

Light cans in the open-truss, black-painted industrial ceiling await their bulbs.
Electrical and telephone panels sprout bouquets of wires.

The raised control booth at the back of the auditorium will hold sound and light boards and two spotlight nests.

“This is the heart of the building,” said Reed, standing in the control booth. “Our original plans were to make it more than a meeting hall. It is now a theater. It's been a great relationship with the city.”

The community theater group - drawing from practical experience -- made sure there was a restroom backstage so actors in costume would not have to meander through people from the audience to use the lobby restrooms.

On the other side of the stage is a tiny “green room/dressing room” - the only place available inside the building for actors to prepare. An RV parked out back will provide a larger changing room.

Theatrical sets and costumes will be stored elsewhere. Tehachapi Community Theatre is seeking a suitable, inexpensive place to rent to keep its props and sets.

“We'll just kind of have to work with it,” said Reed, who referenced space-challenged venues in New York City that have to truck away stage sets after each act of a production.

Members of the 40-year-old Tehachapi Community Theatre, which has never had a permanent home, are giddy with anticipation of the opening of the theater.

“We've never had a home and this will be the first live space since Wells Auditorium was finished in the 20s,” Reed said. Earlier, he said, Isadore Asher maintained an opera house on the second floor of his emporium on Tehachapi Boulevard.

Nadon will direct the first production in the facility, the musical “Oliver,” and will audition for players at the end of October.  The musical is scheduled to open in February.

The theater will be open to the public on December 6 during Tehachapi's Old Tyme Christmas celebration, when groups will be performing free all day.

A gala opening is scheduled for mid-December.

The new theater will help usher in the city's 100th birthday.

“Main Street Tehachapi has asked us to host a party on New Year's Eve to kick off the centennial celebration,” Nadon said.

Tehachapi Community Theater has raised $52,000 of the $60,000 it needs to pay for the final construction phase, Nadon said.

To make donations to Tehachapi Community Theater or listen to the schedule, Nadon said to call the organization's hotline, 661-822-4037, and leave a message.

The new theater is available to rent by other organizations.

The theater fundraising may become even more crucial as state funding shrinks.
Garrett said “RDA [Redevelopment Agency] is our major funding source. Arnold is trying to take it away from us.”

In a strongly worded letter to Governor Arnold Schwarzenneger dated Aug. 6, Garrett said, “The Redevelopment Agency in Tehachapi has been an enormous success and has funded significant improvements in our historic downtown and created a vibrant downtown business community. To confiscate Redevelopment money would be a deliberate attempt to damage our city. We will do everything in our power to oppose this potential blunder.”

Members of Tehachapi Community Theater are delighted to have hands-on control over the creation of the city's new baby.

During a recent look-see tour of the building, a city construction crewman spotted what looked to him like a problem with the floorboards of the stage.

“They should have used a better quality plywood,” he said.

Reed and Nadon responded with a chuckle.

“It's a working stage,” Nadon said.

She explained that the stage - already wired with electrical sound and lighting connections covered with metal plates -- will be painted black and hammered on and trod on, and when it gets beat up, the plywood will be replaced.

The builder was thinking like a builder.

Reed and Nadon were thinking like thespians.