The years Kamstra has spent lifting, lowering and sometimes awkwardly maneuvering to get large instruments and equipment into or out of Robinson Theatre’s orchestra pit by hand are nearly over.

“Chimes are the worst,” said Kamstra, music professor and head of CMU’s music department.

The instrument’s steel tubes are incredibly heavy, making it a four-person job at minimum. The timpani, or kettledrums, are next on Kamstra’s heavyweight list.

But next fall, those percussion instruments can simply be rolled onto a lift that will lower them into the pit and bring them back up again with the pressing of a few buttons.

Talking about that orchestra pit lift, along with the acoustics, rehearsal space, performance opportunities and more that are in the works, brought a smile to Kamstra’s face as he and others recently got a look inside the new theater.

At a Topping Out Ceremony, during which the building’s highest beam was raised and fitted into place, CMU supporters and students walked a caution-tape lined pathway through the construction site and into the new theater.

It was still a room of cinder blocks, cement and beams, but three levels of seating could be seen taking shape, rising up and around the front of the stage.

FUNDRAISING MOVES FORWARD

CMU’s $53-million theater project is on budget and on schedule for a fall 2024 completion, said Robin Brown, vice president of development and chief executive officer of the CMU Foundation.

Funding for the theater has been covered in part by $39 million from the state of Colorado with $6 million designated for the project by CMU.

The remaining $8 million must be raised by the university’s Setting the Stage capital campaign. That campaign has been slow to gather steam, admitted Brown, who was excited to finally be able to show potential donors at the Topping Out Ceremony how the project is developing.

There also was some good news to share during the ceremony regarding fundraising. The David and Mary Wood Foundation has given $100,000 to the project through a $50,000 matching campaign, announced Doug and Jamee Simons, who are the campaign chairs for Setting the Stage.

This joins a $175,000 grant awarded to the project in October by the Mesa County Federal Mineral Lease District and $225,000 in private donations.

The goal is for Setting the Stage to raise at least $2 million by the end of the 2023–24 academic year, said Brown, who was hopeful the project will garner funds through donors, as well as additional grants and naming rights for the new theater.

In the meantime, the university also is moving ahead with plans for renovating the Moss Performing Arts Center and Robinson Theatre, which was built more than 50 years ago.

PLANS FOR RENOVATIONS

CMU’s initial plan for a new theater involved demolishing and rebuilding Robinson Theatre in its current location within Moss.

However, the cost of those original plans along with logistical problems related to the site led the university to seek a more feasible option: an 850-seat stand-alone performance theater across from Hotel Maverick on Kennedy Avenue.

But Moss, which has code issues and an orchestra pit that floods, still needed to be addressed.

To that end, CMU has put together a $13 million project for renovating Moss and Robinson, Brown said.

A $9 million request for that renovation project was included in Gov. Jared Polis’ proposed budget that was presented in mid-November for the next fiscal year.

CMU also has designated $4 million of its own funds toward the renovation, Brown said.

While a timeline for the project has yet to be set, the changes that are coming should make the building more functional for both academics and performance, she said.

Among those changes is remodeling Robinson as a smaller theater. The loge seating areas on either side of the sound booth at the back of the theater will become a sound recording studio and will be named for Grammy Award-winning musician Kalani Pe’a, who is a CMU alumnus and Setting the Stage supporter, Brown said.

There also are plans to reconfigure offices, soundproof rooms where music lessons are offered, adjust rehearsal space and, in general, update the building, she said.

THEATER TAKING SHAPE

While the renovation project for Moss and Robinson waits in the wings, the new performance theater has quickly taken shape since its groundbreaking in March.

“When you think about theater, you think about this,” said Emma Gregory, as she stood on the unfinished stage and looked toward where balconies and boxes will be build and a future audience will sit.

The CMU freshman and double theater major was among a group of theater students at the Topping Out Ceremony to paint their hand prints and write their names on two beams to be used in the building.

Junior acting and directing major Kehan Denny agreed with Gregory, calling the theater a “grand space.”

Both were hopeful that having the new theater in addition to Robinson would mean more CMU shows and acting opportunities for students, in addition to the possibility of attracting national professional touring shows to Grand Junction.

It will be “one of the sublime places to experience performing arts,” said Mo LeMee, head of the theatre arts department at CMU.

The new theater reminds him of some he has visited on London’s West End. Similar to those theaters, the seats are close to the stage. “You can see faces … and what’s actually happening on a face,” he said.

In addition, the acoustics should be “extraordinary,” LeMee said.

In terms of acoustics, this theater will be like offering high definition instead standard definition, color instead of black and white, said Kamstra, who along with LeMee was included in the planning for the new theater.

There will be state-of-the-art sound and lighting systems and a capacity for larger audiences for concerts that often sell out Robinson, he said.

Both Kamstra and LeMee said they were looking forward to the rehearsal spaces, dressing rooms and construction and storage spaces for theater sets and instruments.

In fact, the new building will have more square footage behind the stage than in front, Brown said.

“It’s just going to be a tremendous asset for the community and also for us to attract students to our program,” Kamstra said.

BRINGING IN THE ARTS

The Simonses have season tickets to the Buell Theatre in Denver. But it would be nice to see the Broadway musicals and shows that come there, also come to Grand Junction, Doug Simons said.

“We’re so proud of this project,” said Jamee Simon, noting how the new theater will help to prepare CMU students for future careers in the performing arts.

“It’s a huge deal,” Doug Simons said.

Academic needs will take the highest priority for CMU’s new theater; however, it offers the possibility for staging bigger community performances as well as large-scale, nationally touring shows, Brown said.

Right now, Robinson Theatre can’t support those touring shows and the Avalon Theatre can’t easily do it either, said Brown, who clarified that CMU doesn’t intend to host bigger, popular music acts such as those that come to the Amphitheater at Las Colonias Park or the Avalon.

Instead, it will broaden what can be offered locally in the performing arts and expose Western Colorado residents and CMU students alike to shows they might not otherwise see, she said.

When it comes to booking those shows, CMU is seeking to contract with an outside group to manage and operate the theater, Brown said.

The model will be like what has worked for Hotel Maverick, which CMU owns and uses as part of its hospitality and culinary programs, but is managed by Charlestowne Hotels, she said.

As management details are worked out and construction continues, Brown is certain excitement for what is coming will grow.

“We’ll get there,” she said regarding donations toward the Setting the Stage capital campaign.

Even now, word is still getting around and she still gets asked, “what is that?” by folks who have only recently spotted the building rising north of North Avenue.

It’s a “game-changer,” she said.