Arts Alive! will perform “Chicago: Teen Edition” at Barrington Middle School in early May, and when they do, organizers will be bringing in their own audio equipment.

That has become a necessity, said Arts Alive! Artistic Director Dena Davis. 

“For the last couple of shows we have performed at BMS, the audio production director at Barrington High School had to bring in the entire audio set-up from the high school in order to provide sound for microphones and monitors to feed sound to the stage,” Davis wrote in an email to the Barrington Times. “To my knowledge, there are many wiring issues in the auditorium which create a whole array of issues.”

Barrington School officials discussed the situation at the April 11 School Committee meeting. Schools Finance Director Doug Fiore offered some background about the issue — he said that because there was a delay in using the middle school auditorium, officials never had an opportunity to use the sound system robustly. Fiore said that when officials recently started using the system robustly, the bugs in the system became clear. He added that the more the sound system is used, the more apparent the issues become. 

Fiore told members of the School Committee that the district is bringing in a consultant to investigate the issues. The consultant, he said, has some previous experience working in the BMS auditorium.

During the meeting, Committee member TJ Peck asked if the sound system was still under warranty. Fiore said it was not.

There was also some discussion about tapping into BMS construction bond surplus money to pay for any repairs to the auditorium sound system. The project finished about $4.7 million under budget; the school department turned over $4 million to the town and had approximately $650,000 remaining. 

Peck asked if the district could use that money, but School Committee Solicitor Aubrey Lombardo said the bond counsel has advised that the remaining money must now be used to pay down the debt service resulting from the middle school construction bond. 

Acoustic panels

Shortly after students moved into the new middle school building, officials ordered that the state-of-the-art auditorium be closed off. Acoustic panels had started falling off the walls, and while legal teams for the district and contractor ironed out who would pay for the fix, students and staff were barred from using the space. 

School officials said the auditorium could not be used until it was 100 percent. 

In May 2022, officials reopened the auditorium. The contractor, Brait Builders, had reinstalled the panels — accurate to the original design — at no additional cost to the district.

But that window of time when the auditorium was closed slowed down the normal break-in period, officials said. 

Davis said she has discussed the sound system woes with school officials and they want to see the problems repaired. She said the company that initially installed the equipment did not finish the job properly. 

“It is just a shame that this beautiful space, which was meant to be a ‘State of the Art Facility,’ doesn't have working technology,” Davis wrote. “I believe it has affected both the band and choral performances at BMS, which is far worse than the effects it has on us — in the bigger picture. Most people, to my knowledge, are not even aware of this. 

“At the risk of sounding like I am on a soapbox, it is frustrating to hear of all the discussion about sports fields, turfs, etc when the most basic elements of the district's ‘elite’ performance space don't even work — and haven't since it was completed.”

When “Chicago: Teen Edition” opens on May 11 inside the BMS auditorium, Arts Alive! will be using their own microphones and a sound mixing board on loan from the Wilbury Theatre Group.