Right on cue for the March 20-24 run of Lip Sync 7 (see story page 20), Pro-Auditorio del Lago de Chapala (PACA) President John Keeling reports big advances in a feverish push to overhaul the lighting and sound systems at the Auditorio de la Ribera.
Over the past several weeks, Keeling has overseen the inventory and release of lighting equipment that has been gathering dust in a locked storage room for the past two years, the manufacture of a custom-made cabinet for dimmer boards, and employment of skilled technicians to wire and install the new gear.
In addition, components of a basic sound system – including a control board, speakers and microphones – were purchased and put into operation. A catwalk stretched between the auditorium control room and the stage is finished and ready for use by technical crews.
All the new gadgetry was put to a first test at the Lip Sync show dress rehearsal on March 18, with favorable preliminary results. Performances will serve as the baptism of fire to analyze the need for fine tuning and additional upgrades. The equipment will immediately benefit many other performing arts groups that, up to now, have been forced to bring in sound and lighting gear or cope with the auditorium’s shoddy installations.
Keeling is now awaiting the green light from state culture officials to proceed with the final step of fixing the building’s air conditioning system, projected for a May kick start. The work will involve building brick ducts and installing special padding to muffle the noise created by cooling units, extraction fans and high decibel events going on at the neighboring Ajijic bullring. Sufficient funds, generated by last year’s Lip Sync performances, are stashed away in PACA’s tightly-managed bank account.
The Audtorio de la Ribera was built in the 1970s under an initiative spearheaded by local culture mavens Enid McDonald and Josephine Warren. The original construction and subsequent improvements have been largely funded by the expat community with approval and limited support from the state government.
Keeling explained that the Pro-Auditorium association was set up five years ago as a non-profit support group after he learned that both performers and audiences perpetually complained about the auditorium’s abysmal acoustics. He was fortunate to recruit Canadian architect Thom Weeks, a specialist in renovating performance spaces, to draw up a detailed plan for overhauling the facility.
That carefully crafted proposal spawned the comprehensive renovation project and a three-million-peso spending budget to be split between the federal government’s National Council for Culture and the Arts, the Jalisco Culture Secretariat (SCJ) and the PACA fund-raising campaign supported by the lakeside community.
Keeling stressed that the proceeds from this year’s Lip Sync shows will be split equally between PACA and the Lakeside School for Special Children. PACA will maintain control of its share, to be used strictly for future improvements of the auditorium facility. He also pointed out that the group and its projects have not influenced decisions on raising rates for renting the auditorium, which like those for all SCJ performance venues, have been jacked up significantly under the current administration.