ON Friday 25 February TAFE NSW, Southern Cross University (SCU), Coffs Harbour Senior College (CHSC) and Coffs Harbour City Council announced the completion of stage one of the major upgrades and refurbishment of the D Block theatre at the Coffs Harbour Education Campus (CHEC).

With a grant from the NSW Government’s Stronger Country Communities Fund of $309,856 CHEC has been able to markedly improve the D Block theatre to make it an up to date, vibrant and connected facility that is available to all users of the campus and the wider community.

With a seating capacity of 500 the raked theatre now boasts a refurbished foyer including a new ticketing and merchandise booth, a state-of-the-art audio-visual control desk, a venue wide communications system, an accessible main lighting truss, upgraded air conditioning system, improved acoustics, over 9km of new cabling, an upgraded 300amp power system and a new driveway and improved external access to the stage.

One of the main people behind the design and execution of the project is CHEC’s highly experienced Senior Client Support Officer (Audio Visual) Simon Coates, who said, “This project has enabled the Campus to deliver Coffs Harbour with unique first class technical, rigging, staging and event facilities ‘in house’ for the first time in the area.

“We’ve delivered the core foundations for a first-class industry standard performing arts and events facility.”

SCU’s Vice Chancellor Professor Tyrone Carlin thanked the project team as well as Member for Coffs Harbour Gurmesh Singh, Coffs Harbour City Council and the Coffs Harbour Chamber of Commerce for their commitment and support.

The facility is already host to world class performances produced by the Coffs Harbour Music Society and has several other national touring and local community performance art events booked for 2021.

 

By David TUNE