SJS News

Throughout Father Dunnan’s 32 years, the fine arts program has grown significantly, resulting in the need for the Pohanka Fine Arts Center with the intention that the Cotton Building would continue to be home to the theater program and the old art room would be transitioned into a new dance studio. Over the last two years, those spaces have undergone a beautiful and much-needed facelift completing the building’s transformation into the new Bowman-Byron Performing Arts Center. 

Last year, construction of the state-of-the-art dance studio was completed. This space includes Robbin’s flooring, a locker room, double bars, 10-foot mirrors, a smart board, and a Bluetooth audio system. The old ceramics studio now serves as the theater and dance costume shop. Also in this space is the access point to the brand-new catwalk, which spans across the auditorium seating area.

The catwalk was the first step in the theater renovation process. This catwalk has allowed us to bring the front rack of lighting back into the house to provide a better angle for lighting on presenters and performers on the stage without casting a shadow on faces and with easy access for maintenance. The entire lighting system was transitioned into LED lighting, including LED Lekos, LED moving wash lights, and LED moving spotlights, all controlled by a new digital console in the booth. Also in the booth is the brand-new audio console that controls 28 wireless mic packs—enough for an entire musical cast—four hand mics, and a speaker system. Above the stage is the new 18-watt JBL line array PA system. Just behind the grand drape is our brand-new motorized projection screen for the new 4k projector that is hanging from the catwalk. Also in the house are 24 new RGB house lights and RGB walk lights with digital panel controls. 

On the stage, the old curtains that had torn and shrunk over the years were replaced with brand new 15-foot curtains with legs that swivel, transforming the look of our stage and making scene transitions and entrances on and off stage seamless. 
The solid wood doors leading into the Cotton Building were replaced with doors with a glass front to make it a more inviting space with plenty of natural light. New carpeting was also installed throughout the building and it was freshly painted in the same colors as Pohanka to connect our two arts centers. 

The next step in the building will be reorganizing the downstairs hallway to create a more spacious stagecraft room, giving us storage and space to add another dressing room in addition to our existing green room.  Finally, the old board room will be transformed into a multipurpose space for rehearsals, classes, and pre-theater donor events. 

All of this has happened because of the generosity of donors who support our quickly growing performing arts program, including Geoff Pohanka '76 and Anne Kline Pohanka who supported the theater upgrades. The arts at Saint James have grown from a department with a chapel choir and curricular art course to a program that includes choir, art, ceramics, applied music in every discipline, music ensembles including winds, strings, guitars, flutes, and acapella groups, a thriving theater program with four productions a year, a year-round dance program offered as an athletic option and now two curricular daytime dance courses.  

This performing arts building is not only an incredible facility to support our young actors and dancers, but also a place to hold lectures, movie nights and guest speakers. We hope you can visit the Bowman-Byron Performing Arts Center soon!