2023 HIGHLANDS NC EXPERIENCE GUIDE
“The community built this for the community,” Trumbly reflects. The result of the generosity from volunteers and donors will impact several arts organizations and programs who call the PAC home, including Highlands-Cashiers Chamber Music Festival, Highlands Cashiers Players and PAC Youth, a program for young thespians. This year, another major shift within the community’s performing arts scene will occur when Mountain Theatre Company moves from The Highlands Playhouse on Oak Street and makes the PAC its new home. Among the many new features Mountain Theatre Company will inherit is a fly system (or theatrical rig- ging), used to quickly hoist curtains, lights, scenery and stage effects, opening a much broader range of production possibilities. As partner Choate Construction put it, the result is “a pre- mier entertainment space that reflects the high-caliber talent of the local community.” Working with them was architecture and design firm Lord Aeck Sargent, whose portfolio includes The Bascom, projects for Atlanta’s High Museum and renovations of Duke University’s Page Auditorium and Augusta’s Miller Theater. Jones Lasalle & Long (JLL) handled project management. Trumbly easily rattles off the new PAC’s impressive fea- tures: seating for 298, state-of-the-art acoustics and light- ing technology, comfortable and well-appointed dressing
rooms for the cast and lead performers, a lobby with a bar. The new facility can be used for small conferences, too; USB capability is built in, and screens are available. And then there are the unique, special touches through- out, such as a graphic wall mural that set the design tone for the interiors, aesthetics that mimic N.C. basketweave, a unique and flexible display of donor’s names in the lobby and a backstage wall featuring the signatures of donors as well as artists who have performed there. The visuals were important to Trumbly, who previously owned a local art gallery for a decade. She describes the space as “contemporary, yet mountainesque.” The PAC still owns its former home, the adjacent Martin Lipscomb Theatre, as well as the land between the buildings and U.S. Highway 64. It has not abandoned the original vision of adding a black box theater and an outdoor amphitheater somewhere on the property. But for now, they’re enjoying the rewards of hard work and dedication. Trevathan took a moment to reflect on how she feels when she steps inside the new PAC. “I must confess I had a tear in my eye on opening night. I thought of all the sleepless nights worrying about find- ing donors, accelerating costs and other issues, and felt very proud of what we did with essentially 100 percent private funds in our little town. I also see the next steps to take the facility even further.”
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