Town of Danville Completes Motorized Acoustic Drapery and LED Stage Rigging Retrofit at Historic Village Theatre

Theatrical operations staff with the Town of Danville Recreation, Arts and Community Services Department and stage rigging engineers completed a comprehensive stage acoustics, lighting, and accessibility retrofit on Saturday evening inside the historic 245-seat Village Theatre auditorium at 233 Front Street in downtown Danville. Originally built in 1913 as the Danville Grange Hall, the beloved wooden landmark hosts more than 140 annual performances by the Role Players Ensemble, youth drama camps, acoustic chamber musicians, and classic film screenings.

To allow sound engineers to tune the hall's reverberation time between unamplified string quartets and full-band musical theater productions, rigging crews installed variable-position motorized tracks carrying twenty-two heavyweight flame-retardant crimson velour acoustic banners along the side walls and proscenium arch. At the touch of a backstage digital console, the stage manager can deploy or retract the absorptive drapery in twenty seconds to eliminate slap-echo across the balcony and orchestra seating tiers.

Overhead on the stage pipe battens, electricians replaced eighty-four 750-watt tungsten-halogen stage lamps with convection-cooled, zero-fan ETC ColorSource LED ellipsoidal and fresnel fixtures. The solid-state luminaires reduce booth heat loads and stage electricity draw by 78 percent while eliminating cooling-fan hum during quiet dramatic monologues. A new low-profile hydraulic wheelchair lift was also installed beside the stage-left wings so performers and guest speakers with mobility disabilities can access the main stage deck directly from the greenroom.

The $340,000 theatrical modernization grant was approved by the Danville Town Council through the Cultural Facilities Capital Reserve program. Patrons can browse the November playbill and reserve winter holiday concert tickets on the Danville Village Theatre Box Office Portal.