The Milburn Stone Theatre is currently in dire need of new lighting instruments. The current lights are the original lighting instruments that were installed when the building was first opened in 1991. Many of these instruments are so antiquated that we are unable to get replacement parts to repair them, thus we have had to cannibalize parts from other lights just to ensure that our actors are lit during our shows.
It is also becoming difficult to hire anyone to design our shows because they don't have the knowledge to work on the lights that we have in stock. The industry standard, and what is being taught in lighting courses, is ETC Source4 lights - we currently don't have any of these instruments in stock.
Additionally, the lenses on the instruments have deteriorated so drastically that we have to use higher wattage lamps to get the correct amount of brightness on stage. In short, we are using 1000 watts for each instrument as opposed to the 575 watts we would use with newer, properly working instruments.