Shauna Pratt/Staff Photographer
On the afternoon of Thursday, April 25, a student was discovered vandalizing the ’92 Theater. Second Stage Buildings and Maintenance Liaison Tessa Young ’13 entered the Theater shortly after 2 p.m. and noticed chairs strewn about.
“I heard somebody up in the rafters, at which point I was like, ‘Who is it?’” Young said. “And they told me who they were. I asked, ‘What are you doing up there?’ They said something not particularly coherent. I asked them to come down.”
The student then began tossing equipment from the booth.
“Then he threw down two lights, a couple of lamps; there was smashed glass on the floor,” she said. “A chair-desk was stuck between two of the sound panels. We think he was on top of the booth or up in the grid, climbing around. I asked him to stop because I was terrified, and then I called PSafe [Public Safety].”
According to Young, the student remained in the rafters or up in the booth until PSafe arrived, brought him down, and removed him from the building.
The student was unaffiliated with Second Stage, and it appears that he entered the lighting booth through an unlocked door. The booth is normally locked during the day.
“The only thing that Second Stage needs to emphasize is that everything remain locked,” Young said.
Facility and Events Manager for the Memorial Chapel and the ’92 Theater Edward Chiburis commented on the damage, which included a couple of lights and the Marley floor.
“From what we can surmise, there were a lot of things that were rearranged, let’s say; chairs were thrown around, trash cans were overturned,” Chiburis said. “Two lighting instruments were damaged, the dance floor seems to be damaged. It’s very possible that we will need to replace it; there’s a patch on it right now.”
News traveled among Second Stage members via text message, and they quickly gathered to clean up the space. Both Chiburis and Young emphasized that the Spring Dance performance scheduled for this Friday and Saturday will go up as scheduled.
“The place is in complete and perfect shape right now and ready to take dancers,” Chiburis said.