Evening star., 1932-11-17
.BALLOU
SCENERY LOFT USE
Structures at High Schools
Were Ordered by Fire
Marshal, He Says.

The complaint Of the District Com
missioners and the Fine Arts Commis-
sion against continued use of the
scenery lofts at senior high school audi
toriums was met by the school authori-
ties assertions yesterday afternoon by
the statement that they never did want
the lofts anyway and the explanation
that only the Commissioners approved
fire regulation requiring steel curtains
in the school halls neceSsitated the con-
struction of the lofts.
DR.. Luther Reichelderfer, president
of the Board of Commissioners, objected
to the lofts" which are high box-like
structures atop stages to accommodate
curtains which cannot be draped, folded
or rolled, because, he wrote the School
Board, they cost too much money. DR..
Charles Moore, chairman of the Fine
Arts Commission, objected to them be-
cause they destroyed the "esthetic"
beauty of the school buildings archi-
lecture. These letters of objection were
presented at yesterdays School Board
meeting.
Question Is "Serious One"
Called upon for an explanation, DR..
Frank w. Ballou, superintendent, as
serted that "the whole question Of our
stage equipment Is a serious one" DR..
Ballou told the board that the school
authorities never had recommended the
construction of scenery loft" in any
school building, in the first place, be-
cause the scenery used in high school
productions is simple in design, light in
weight, Is manufactured by the stu
dents, and need not be hauled aloft out
of sight over the proscenium arch OF
the stage.
These lofts" Dr. Ballou told the
board, were constructed because the
District building authorities insisted we
had to have them. The fire regulations
require that theaters be equipped with
a fireproof steel curtain, and the Dis
trict building people construed that our
school halls came under the classifica-
ton of 'theaters.' So at tremendous
expense we were required to install
steel curtains and these in turn can be
handled only in these very lofts to
which objection now Is raised. re-
peat, we school people never did want
them"
Farley Is Directed.
The School Board then instructed
DR.. Ballou to seek a conference with
the Commissioners to explain the posi-
ton of the school authorities and to
inquire whether the costly steel cur
tains really are necessary for the simple
productions staged by the school chill
dren. 1t was the consensus Of opinion
at the board meeting that If the school
auditoriums may be used by the school
children without having the halls
classed as "theaters," that not only the
lofts, the outline of which presents dill
ficulties of solution for the architect,
but the steel curtains themselves, might
be eliminated
During the comment at the Franklin
School Administration Building follow
ing receipt of DR.. Reichelderfer 8
and DR.. Moores letters it was recalled
that when the fire marshal insisted
that steel curtains be installed in both
the Central and the Dunbar High
School auditoriums both stages were
rendered unfit for further dramatic use.
The fund for the installation Of the
steel curtains was sufficient only to
cover the cost of actual installation
and did not contemplate the readjust-
ments of other equipment which was
put out of commission. For at least
three years the School Board has sought
| unsuccessfully to secure an approprta-
tion to make the stages nsable again,
but each year the items are eliminated