Grand Opera House renovations behind schedule, show in one week

October 6, 2017

Edna Ruiz,

MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – The Grand Opera House is getting a much needed face-lift. Renovations began in July of this year and were expected to be done by October 6th. Crews are racing against the clock.

“Always working against time when you’ve have an active theater,” said Grand Opera House Executive Director, Gram Slaton. “I built in about a week of buffer time before we have our first performance which is the last Macon Symphony Orchestra, next Saturday, the 14th.”

Before the the Macon Symphony Orchestra plays its song, Slaton says there’s a lot to do.

“We’ve got carpet that needs to be finished,” said Slaton. “We’ve got these little run way lights so people can see as they’re traveling on the carpet.”

Part of the $1.9 million renovations were replacing the seats. The seats before were about 50 years old. Most of the seats are installed, but the ones on the balconies still need to be placed.

Slaton says Tropical Storm Irma is to blame for some of the delays.

“It set us back about a week and a half,” said Slaton. “As anyone will remember, it took forever to get supplies down. It interrupted not only life in town, but also life in the region.”

A new air conditioning and heating unit was added to the stage house, most of the seats are in tact and carpet is rolled out. So, Slaton is hopeful that everything will be complete before show time.

“We knew it was going to be tough to finish, but we’ll get it done,” said Slaton. “We got a great crew, and they’re all determined to make sure that we’re up and running and get the job done.”

Slaton is hoping to have renovations completed in the next 5 days. Crews will also be working on renovating the basement this Fall.

The next phase will be to renovate the lobby and restrooms. That will begin in early June of 2017.