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Millikin University Breaks Ground On New Theater Center

millikin.edu
rendering of Millikin University's new Center for Theatre and Dance

Millikin University in Decatur has broken ground on a center to house classes and performances. It includes a new state of the art theater that can seat over 250 people.

Construction will pick up this summer and is set to wrap up in 2020. The overall project is expected to cost $29 million and several million dollars still need to be raised.

Laura Ledford is the Dean of the College of Fine Arts for Millikin. She says new capacities will include a more welcoming lobby for patrons, LED lighting, as well as capacity for projections - a relatively new trend in major theater productions. She says the developments will allow "students to learn to use this equipment, which will be used in all the professional theaters they will work in."

For more information on the theater and these new developments, click here, and listen to the interview above.

Rachel Otwell of the Illinois Times is a former NPR Illinois reporter.
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