Nestled at the foot of the Smoky Mountains in North Carolina,Cherokee Central School takes a unique approach to public education, focusing not only on traditional course material, but also on the cultural heritage of the Cherokee Indians. Productions Unlimited, Inc. was pleased to contribute to these objectives by providing Lighting and Rigging Systems, as well as a projection screen, for the school's Cultural Arts Center, and projection screens for the elementary school's Gathering Place and dining room.
The Cultural Arts Center is a 1,011-seat facility for the creative and performing arts. The lighting system is comprised of worklights and broad cycs by Lighting & Electronics, Canto followspots by Strong and a mixture of Electronic Theatre Controls (ETC) Source Four fixtures including ellipsoidals, PARs, PARNels and zooms. Additionally, we provided several SeaChangers, an Ocean Optics product, to increase the system's efficiency and augment the school's efforts to promote environmental sustainability. Our team fabricated box booms and light ladders in our metal shop and our friends at SSRC manufactured raceways and distribution. Four ETC Sensor+ dimmer racks with a custom auxiliary rack, an ETC Architectural Control System and an ETC Eos console complete the system. A useful extra at the Cultural Arts Center is an ETC Emergency Lighting Transfer System, which ensures that, in the case of a power failure, the system will draw from an alternate power source, thereby providing light to allow people to exit the building safely.
The Cultural Arts Center boasts a 52-foot fly loft above the stage, affording them a range of production possibilities that are atypical for most K-12 schools. We installed a fully automated rigging system consisting of Vortek motorized hoists and, completing our work at Cherokee, we installed stage curtains fabricated by Stage Decoration & Supplies. Recently, we had the pleasure of returning to Cherokee to provide and install a Wenger orchestra shell.
We also installed a video projection screen, by Stewart Screens, in the Cultural Arts Center. DaLite projection screens were installed in the elementary school's multi-seasonal pavilion, The Gathering Place, and in the elementary school dining room.
Productions Unlimited, Inc. is proud to have outfitted Cherokee Central School with the first-class equipment and technology necessary to pursue their distinct educational goals with functional efficiency and environmental care.
