Nicholls theater renovations nearing completion

Lafourche educator wins Principal of the Year
August 3, 2016
OUR VIEW: First bell marks beginning of school year
August 3, 2016
Lafourche educator wins Principal of the Year
August 3, 2016
OUR VIEW: First bell marks beginning of school year
August 3, 2016

Anna Broussard and her gang will soon be nomads no more.

Broussard, head of Nicholls State University’s theater department, has been traveling with student actors from venue to venue across campus for the past year. While contractors have been on the job renovating Talbot Hall and its theater, Broussard and those students have been on the move.

There was the Le Bijou Theater in the Student Union; the theater is so small that only four actors can share the stage at any one time. For the spring production and this year’s summer camp, Nicholls students and campers have been at Peltier Hall, trying to find practice times in a space shared with the rest of the university.


Over the next month, however, Broussard and her crew will again have a permanent home, complete with a makeover. NSU Facilities Manager Stan Silverii said the $9.6 million renovation on Talbot Hall and the Al and Mary Danos Theater it houses should be finished by the first month of September.

The project was paid for through $8.1 million in capital outlay money from the state combined with $1.5 million in private contributions raised by the late Al Danos – hence the name of the theater.

The new theater has a reduction in seating from 300 to 240 spots in an effort for larger, more comfortable seats. The acoustics in the Danos Theater have been entirely revamped to have an amphitheater feel, according to Silverii.


The final month of work includes adding wood to the walls on each side of the audience section to improve the sonic qualities of the room.

Some of the theater’s priciest and most sensitive toys have received some new accommodations, as well. The theater now has a room dedicated to housing the two Steinway grand pianos the school has. The separate room is climate controlled, which ensures that workers are able to keep the pianos in the proper temperature and humidity to be in tip-top shape.

“We used to keep [the pianos] in a covered box off side the stage. Those things, they’ve got to be in perfect tune when you get people flown in to play here,” Silverii said.


Sound is not the only sense receiving an upgrade in the theater, though. According to Broussard, her department had struggles with lighting in the theater before renovation. There were many old lights that didn’t work properly, and the department held out on replacing them with renovations around the corner. And what would the updated stage mean for her cast?

“Hopefully make our lives easier – to have, you know, stuff that works properly,” Broussard said.

The renovations to Talbot go well beyond thespian interests. The school’s mass communications department will get to work with updated technology once they move back in. The hall features an open room for recording video segments, including a background wall that will be a giant green screen. Flowing from that room will be both a production room and an editing room to produce high-quality content. KNSU, the school’s radio station, also received an update during the revamp.


Silverii said contractors have renovated three general-use classrooms, and the theater would also be used for classes outside of music and theater. They also went through the ducts and ceilings to put in new ducts and a new HVAC air conditioning system. To protect all of the work done on the inside, Nicholls has put a new cap-sheet roof over Talbot, replacing the old tar and gravel roof that had protected Talbot for 30 years. Silverii said the new, modified version makes detecting leaks easier, and gives Talbot a brand new roof with no wear and tear on it.

“The large investment that we’re doing in here, you definitely don’t want to have a roof leak six months from now and destroy this floor or seats,” Silverii said.

Silverii commended the students’ understanding over the last year, saying they have been “resilient” as they walked around construction zones while heading to class. He said students, intrigued by the revealed innards of the building, have come up to ask about the work as it happened.


“We want to thank all of them for being so patient through this process. There were days when they were welding in here, soldering, paint, different smells going throughout the building,” Silverii said. “I know it’s been difficult for them. But we’re almost at the end now.” •

Nicholls theaterKARL GOMMEL | THE TIMES