The Charles E. Maedgen Jr. Theatre, originally built in 1964, is located at Texas Tech University and houses the School of Theatre and Dance within the J.T. & Margaret Talkington College of Visual & Performing Arts. The old theater needed renovations due to outdated facilities and safety and accessibility concerns. The renovation included a complete redesign for better aesthetics and acoustics and also included a metal shop, electric shop, prop shop, and costume shop, all equipped with cutting-edge technology. The theater boasts new dressing rooms, a second green room, and a spacious basement below the stage for an orchestra pit. The theater also features front and rear projectors allowing for complex projection design. Notable improvements include a full LED lighting system with a state-of-the-art flagship ETC Apex 10 lighting console, providing highly customizable professional lighting. Additionally, a total of around 300 new lights were installed, nearly matching the number of seats in the theater. A highlight of the renovation is the sound system, which consists of 28 speakers controlled by the Moyer Galaxy Galileo system, offering a 360-degree immersive soundscape processing unit, enabling precise manipulation and balancing of sound. Accessibility was also improved with the addition of new seating and aisles. The renovation and expansion allow the Dance and Theatre departments to share the new resources of the facility combined under one roof.
