By: Presley Harrison, Shield Editor
NRCA’s newly renovated and expanded Sherrill Center for the Performing Arts (SCPA) reopened for Chapel last week. On Thursday, Sept. 12, first through ninth grades opened the space with worship and teaching, while high school sophomores, juniors, and seniors were away on their class trips. The SCPA project is one of three major expansions taking place on campus in 2024. Cafeteria and classroom spaces round out the construction projects designed to accommodate NRCA’s growing number of students.
The SCPA expansion and renovation included the removal and replacement of all seating and the movement of the back wall and control booth backward approximately 15 feet. This new space allowed for 140 main auditorium seats to be added, as well as 20 wall-mounted jump seats in the lobby for overflow. In addition, the theater is receiving updated lighting, heating and cooling systems, finishes, and curtains. The stage, backstage area, and all the surrounding hallways were also all renovated within the broad auditorium upgrades, seeing new flooring, paint, and woodwork.
The backstage area that housed NRCA’s shop increased by almost 1,000 additional square feet of STEM and fine arts workspace for the woodworking courses, robotics program, and theatre set design-build teams.
“The expansion will enhance our ability to accommodate additional students and families throughout the year at our chapels, school events, and fine arts productions. These projects also provided an update to the aesthetics and function of the space, the flow of traffic is much better, the lighting and sound have expanded functionality for our productions, and the additional seating space were all much needed renovations to our growing school and community,” said Chauncey Minnick, NRCA’s Director of Operations.
NRCA families will have the opportunity to see the SCPA during Spiritual Emphasis Week as evening services are open to students and their families.
The cafeteria expansion grew NRCA’s dining space by almost 1,400 square feet, featuring brand-new tables of varying sizes and shapes to create a dynamic café atmosphere. Started in June of 2024, the interior construction is now complete, and, after a few final touches regarding roofing, the outside space is tentatively slated to open on Sept. 27. Construction on the classroom expansion is ongoing with an expected completion date of early 2025. Work began over the summer to add two classrooms to the end of the current eighth-grade wing and two classrooms to the end of the current ninth-grade wing.
“These spaces, along with the additional auditorium and cafeteria space, will allow for additional students and expanded opportunities to provide Kingdom education to those in our community,” Minnick said.
