SPRINGFIELD — Even auditoriums get second acts.
After being closed for over a year, Sangamon Auditorium, which is managed by the UIS Performing Arts Center, plans to re-open in October with new seats, carpeting and lighting, as part of a $1.25 million refurbishment of the 45-year-old theatre space.
It also has a new layout, with two new aisles running from the stage to the back of the main floor, the former “loge.” A middle, or cross aisle, has been widened and wheelchair accessibility has been upgraded.
“Our first act was 45 years and now we’re opening up to a brand-new second act,” said marketing manager Jen Tibbs. “It’s a refresh setting for next generations to keep coming here.”
The State Journal-Register recently got a “first look” at the auditorium renovation in progress, as workers drilled holes for seat frames and the stage filled up with boxes upon boxes of fresh seats.
That stage has played host to a cavalcade of performers like Bob Dylan, George Carlin, B.B. King, Jerry Seinfeld, Willie Nelson, Chicago and Johnny Cash, along with Broadway shows, luminaries like U.S. Rep. John Lewis and author Norman Mailer and high school and college graduations.
Hal Holbrook opened the auditorium on Feb. 21, 1981, with his one-man show “Mark Twain Tonight!” which he later reprised.
Two shows have already been booked for the fall, including comedian Bert Kreischer Dec. 12. The opener has not been named.
Officials were still finalizing details on what productions would be included in the UIS Broadway Series. Tibbs said she was hopeful the office could announce the full Broadway season by the end of June, with subscriptions going on sale the first week of July.
In November 2024, it was announced that a $5.7 million state-funded plumbing infrastructure–addressing every water and wastewater pipe serving restrooms, sinks, fountains and dressing room showers–would be done, necessitating the closing of the Public Affairs Center.
“(PAC Director) Bryan (Rives) thought this would be a great time to do a re-fresh, so he got approval for a capital campaign,” Tibbs pointed out. “We needed $1.25 million to do…an upgrade of everything. We are at $840,000 from the community.”
Seats in most auditoriums are replaced after about 25 years, Tibbs added, so those in the auditorium were almost twice that age while the carpet had never been replaced.
The new red seats, from a Michigan manufacturer, will have more lumbar support, more cushion and are uniform in size, she said. Each will have a cupholder.
Gold Circle seats are leather and even wider and will be configured in pairs, Tibbs said. The Gold Circle, what used to be The Pit, comprises the first three rows closest to the stage.
In all, the auditorium will lose 270 seats, with capacity going from 2,005 to 1,735, Tibbs said. A tradeoff is that it is adding 74 aisle seats.
“It’s going to be very modern and chic looking,” Tibbs promised.
Aisle lighting is being enhanced, and path lighting is being added to in the mezzanine and balcony. Row letters and seat numbers will be enlarged and easier to read.
The auditorium will have wheelchair opportunities in the center, Tibbs said, and all of its wheelchair accessibility will have a companion seat that’s permanent.
Tibbs admitted that after the COVID pandemic, patrons just got comfortable coming back to shows, so “it was a hard one to swallow knowing that we would be shut down for a season.”
There wasn’t a feasible way of moving an entire season of shows to venues across Springfield because “we couldn’t get the artists we wanted to in town with fewer seats, so there wasn’t a huge discussion (about that) at all. We have to show the potential money they can make when they’re looking at booking here.”
Tibbs didn’t say how much potential revenue the PAC was losing from this season.
The Illinois Symphony Orchestra and the Copper Coin Ballet will both be back at the auditorium for the 2026-27 season, Tibbs said, though both companies played shows at other venues around Springfield this past season. The symphony wraps up at First United Methodist Church May 1.
An open house for 2nd Act Campaign donors went over well, Tibbs said.
“People were really, really curious on what it looked like empty, and people were curious about what we were doing,” she said. “They cannot wait to get back in here.”
One fixture who will be absent when the auditorium re-opens is stage foreman Joe Taylor, who is retiring in June.
Taylor, 66, worked as a deckhand on the Hal Holbrook show in 1981 and has done every conceivable job there since then, more recently overseeing stagehands.
While welcome, Taylor admitted retirement was bittersweet.
“I kind of wanted to hang around until the end (of the renovation) because everything is going to be new,” Taylor said. “I’m delighted. We really didn’t update for years in here, so it was really good to see all the update happen.
“I loved my job, so I stayed. I got paid to see shows and do what I loved to do.”
Contact Steven Spearie: 217-622-1788; sspearie@sj-r.com; X, twitter.com/@StevenSpearie.
This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: Sangamon Auditorium getting a second act with fall re-opening
Reporting by Steven Spearie, Springfield State Journal-Register / State Journal-Register
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