The Glen Arbor Players is changing lodgings and going old school. Its new home is the nearly 100-year-old Leelanau School in Glen Arbor. GAP commences its 2025 season next month on the stage of the school’s auditorium, eager to perform a run of thoughtfully chosen plays in a setting made for just that purpose. The staff and students at the Leelanau School are also eager to meet their own good fortune as they anticipate improvements to the auditorium.

Inviting GAP to be the theater troupe is part of the Leelanau School’s
campaign to boost its community presence and connections and to make overdue improvements in the auditorium. Rob Hansen, Head of School, has pointed out that a well-kept secret is not a good business plan. It’s time to move in a new direction, to let their neighbors know about them, to share assets, and to make the school’s auditorium a place that community groups want to use.

The school, coming up on its centennial, was founded in 1929. The auditorium was built in 1953 as part of the first structure at the school's current location. Kate Olson, Director of Alumni and Development, believes the last technology updates to the auditorium happened in the mid-1980’s; some paint, carpeting, and task lighting upgrades were in 2008. Their plans to bring the auditorium up to 2025 standards include new seating, flooring, and curtains; updated lights, sound, and electrical systems; and improved technology, which would, for example, provide webcast capacity for local business and groups to make presentations. Space for wheelchairs, companion seating, and a new sound and light board will reduce seating a bit but still leave 130 seats.

Outside the auditorium, the school has plans for improved sidewalk access, beautification, lighting for guests approaching the building, and golfcart shuttles. Olson says the projected total cost is $360,000, with $170,000–$180,000 for the technology and electrical work inside the auditorium. The school is applying for grants and asking for individual donations. Thus far, alumni and local friends have supported the project with $31,000 for hiring consultants, purchasing gently used equipment from the former Parallel 45 Theater Company, and updating the projector – all to help realize a worthy goal for the school’s neighbors and community.

The school has reached out to other community groups too, confident that the planned improvements will attract them. It looks forward to future collaborations including Interlochen Center for the Arts, the Glen Arbor Arts Center, the League of Women Voters, the Leelanau Historical Society, and the International Affairs Forum. Olson is sincere when she says the Leelanau School loves Glen Arbor and wants to offer its young people, as well as the community in general, cultural opportunities close to home.

GAP is so enthusiastic about the invitation from the Leelanau School that it doesn’t need to wait for the improvements; it’s ready to get started in its new digs. The season opens next month with Michelle Kholos Brooks and Kelly Younger’s Kalamazoo, a funny, tender story of two widowed seniors venturing into the risky world of online dating for a second chance at love.

It’s a housewarming party that all are invited to attend!

Please go to GAP’s website http://www.glenarborplayers.org  or GAP’s Facebook page for details about the performing troupe and their season.