MHS Foundation launches “Stage of Excellence” initiative to rehabilitate school auditorium

September 7 — After months of studying the script, the MHS Foundation is now ready for its big stage.

Morgantown High School’s nonprofit fundraising arm has officially announced “A Stage of Excellence,” a $4 million campaign to restore the building’s former grand auditorium on Wilson Avenue.

When Eleanor Roosevelt dedicated this space in 1940, war clouds were gathering in Europe and the attack on Pearl Harbor, which propelled the nation into two world wars across the Atlantic and Pacific, loomed.

In West Virginia, people remained mired in the Great Depression.

In Washington, D.C., the New Deal established by Mrs. Roosevelt’s husband, Franklin, continued to make considerable efforts to redress the situation of struggling households.

Yet the first lady had high hopes for the high school auditorium — and not just as a showcase for the arts.

She wanted the boards of this scene to also be supports for dialogue and speech.

“A meeting place for all members of the community to discuss important government issues,” as Eleanor decreed that May evening 84 years ago.

In the early 2000s, the auditorium was all of these things.

A skinny young boy named Don Knotts discovered on the main stage that he could make an audience laugh and, more importantly, make them believe that the fictional character he was portraying in a school production was suddenly and gloriously real.

Trevor Nicholas, a big kid with a bigger voice, discovered that the songs he brought could make an audience cry, clap and even dance in the aisles.

These days, the aisles are no longer conducive to dancing in the auditorium, which has seen better days in the limelight.

The seats are broken.

Pieces of plaster are falling from the walls.

The lighting is unusable, with no real catwalk in place to bring in new rigging for a concert or play.

ADA compliance is lacking — as is the star who suddenly comes down with the flu on opening night.

In its current state, the auditorium is simply not safe, foundation treasurer Mark Nesselroad told members of the Monongalia County Board of Education at a meeting last May.

That’s when discussions began about the total $4 million for the rehabilitation – with the hope that the school district would invest the first $2 million in general revenue.

Besides offering a venue the opportunity to re-engage in a college town that already fosters the arts, there’s also a critical purpose for the BOE, Nesselroad said.

During the years the auditorium has been vacant, the treasurer said, the district has spent more than $300,000, including all related costs, to rent the Metropolitan Theatre on High School for its theater productions and other events.

The auditorium, Nesselroad said, would be a natural venue for Morgantown High’s annual Mohigan Idol talent show, a district-wide event featuring students from all grade levels that raises money for WVU Medicine Children’s.

Call it being loyal to your school, he said then.

And, he added, loyal to your coffers.

Money currently spent securing other locations, he said, could be reinvested directly into the school district.

The auditorium, he said, could also return to its original role.

“There’s no reason why the community can’t use it,” Nesselroad said, echoing Eleanor Roosevelt.

When announcing the campaign last week, the foundation announced that the BOE of Mon would contribute financially to the project.

Visit Morgantown High School Foundation Inc. on Facebook for a link where you can contribute online, as well as to view a timeline and vintage photos from when the auditorium was a daily destination for school activities.

The foundation, meanwhile, has long been known for its efforts to advance Morgantown High’s mission.

She helps purchase educational materials and played a significant role in the renovation of Pony Lewis Field and its press box and related facilities in the early 2000s.

More recently, the foundation funded the reissue of a well-received biography of graduate Tom Bennett, who died in Vietnam and was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his bravery as a combat medic.