After nearly a decade, a performing arts center is in sight for students at Saugus High School.

Called the Forum, in honor of the school’s Roman theme, the building is currently under construction on the corner of the school, and officials estimate it will be done sometime in 2018.

The 468-seat building is funded through measure SA, which passed in 2008 and generated funds both for the Saugus Forum and the Canyons High School performing arts center, which was completed in 2016, in addition to Castaic High. Saugus High was originally built in 1975, and is one of the last Hart district high schools to receive a performing arts center.

Gina Painter, the drama teacher at Saugus, said this space will make a huge difference to the students looking to pursue a career in the arts.

“The kids are learning how to perform in a real theater, at a real venue,” she said. “If they were to go on to do this for a living, they would have to feel comfortable in those spaces. And I think bringing our program to a professional theater is an amazing opportunity for our students.”

A late July tour of the facility was the first time Painter had seen the Forum since it was a dirt lot.

“The technology and the state-of-the-art theater that we’re about to put these kids into changes the game completely,’ she said. “It’s really something to stand on the stage and look out and have it look like a theater. That’s really incredible.”

As the school receives more recognition for its art programs, Painter said, the growing number of students interested in joining has become an issue the new performing arts center will hopefully solve.

“We can do what we do anywhere, if you have a love for the arts, theater, band and choir,” she said. “We can do it in the MPR. But we are literally bursting at the seams. As the programs grow, the room that we’re in right now is pretty tiny. So just the physical space of the theater is really amazing.”

The 19,000-square-foot building will contain, in addition to the main theater, a stagecraft room, dressing rooms, a drama room and theatrical lighting throughout.

Hart district officials agree that the state-of-the-art building is long overdue.

“The students needed a performing arts center,” said Joe Messina, the William S. Hart Union High School District board president. “They’ve been practicing in a shoebox for all intents and purposes.”

The district’s focus on preserving and growing arts programs is apparent in this project, he said.  

“I think that speaks volumes for the district, for the staff, for the teachers and how we deal with things here in the district,” said Messina.

The Forum construction cost a total of $18.3 million, said Mike Otavka, the director of facilities for the district.

“The difference is really the site,” he said, explaining the Canyons performing arts center had to be squeezed in between two existing buildings.

“You can see the architectural response to the different sites,” he said. “Canyons is much different than this building, and that’s what we intended. The building needs to fit nicely with the campus. You can’t just put down a generic building.”

For retiring principal Bill Bolde, the Forum will be a capstone he has worked on nearly his entire 14-year tenure with the school.

“We’ve waited many, many years,” Bolde said. “We had some delays, and all of a sudden it’s nine years later and we’re finally getting it. There’s been a lot of people looking forward to this day.”

The new facility will be a pivotal space not only for the theater program, he said, but all of the other arts programs on campus, from marching band and choir to traditional art, through the yearly festival of the arts.

“That’s going to be a chance for all the kids to have a part in this facility,” Bolde said. “That includes the visual arts, the fine arts, the digital drawing, the 2D drawing, ceramics classes. There’s literally … 1,300 kids who have a connection to the arts. They’re going to be really pleased to be a part of this.”

Officials have already picked out a quote that will be placed on the wall of the facility to symbolize it’s purpose: “Art is the heart of the human spirit.”

“It was important that this building feature an artistic design,” Bolde said. “To be artistic in nature as it is something we are very proud of … We wanted it to be something special.”

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