The 58-year-old Palm Springs High School auditorium recently experienced a facelift.
“It just got $17 million worth of Botox; it’s so Palm Springs!” joked Palm Springs Mayor Robert Moon at the dedication ceremony Oct. 26.
Local architect E. Steward Williams originally built the Palm Springs High School auditorium in 1958. Since then, the stage has hosted a number of music superstars and acting legends like Van Cliburn and Frank Sinatra.
The renovated and expanded use of the auditorium enables the Palm Springs Unified School District to meet the increasing demands of students and a culturally enriched city. The Richards Center for the Arts provides a venue for a combination of community and educational film and theater.
A new storage space, dressing rooms, and green room outfit the venue, which also received upgrades to plumbing, sound projection, and electricity. The building was structurally improved to meet California earthquake standards. And the seats are new, too, with classic red fabric that honors the auditorium’s original design.
PHOTO BY JAVIER SANCHEZ, FOUNDATION FOR THE PALM SPRINGS UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT
The 1,100-seat auditorium was redone with classic red fabric that honors the auditorium’s original design.
“It was taken back to the bones,” explains Ellen Goodman, executive director of The Foundation for the Palm Springs Unified School District.
The new facilities make it possible to give students exposure to top level stage production and digital experiences that were previously unavailable. These improvements could improve revenue streams with increased sponsorship and ticket sales opportunities.
The dedication event honored Palm Springs philanthropist Rozene Supple, who donated $2 million to a five-year capital campaign for the arts now being spearheaded by the Foundation for the Palm Springs Unified School District. Supple’s endowment is the largest single donation to the district to date, according to Goodman.
PHOTO BY ERIN PETERS
Palm Springs Mayor Rob Moon reads a proclamation for the new auditorium.
The auditorium was renamed the Richards Center for the Arts after Rozene’s family name. Supple and her husband Ric also own Camelot Theatres and the Palm Springs Cultural Center. From a statement Supple gave in an earlier article and read at the ceremony, she said education was the “starting place for making the world a better place.”
Moon echoed that sentiment at the ceremony, noting the “incredible investment in the youth of Palm Springs. This is the first day of so many years of fantastic events. This is just the beginning.”
PHOTO BY JAVIER SANCHEZ, FOUNDATION FOR THE PALM SPRINGS UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT
The new auditorium makes it possible to give students exposure to top level stage production and digital experiences.
PHOTO BY ERIN PETERS
The building was named after the family name of Rozene Suppel, who donated $2 million donated $2 million to a five-year capital campaign.
