The Dalles Civic Presents "Alex Zerbe - The Zaniac"

Two-time Guinness World Record-holder Alex Zerbe: Professional Zaniac, “with the energy of ten thousand suns,” is coming to The Civic! As a self-described “human cartoon,” his show is a blast for kids and packed with humor for teens and adults.  Tickets can be purchased here.

 Thanks to gamblers and Google, The Dalles Civic Auditorium has undergone a major upgrade in the lighting and sound systems in the theater.

The state lottery issued a General Fund grant for $50,000, and the institution also received a $50,000 Google Data Center grant. Equipment was installed by Portland-based Hollywood Lights.

The company's Alex Marine explained some of the new items being installed:

"We've updated everything in here to the current decade,” he said.  “We've got a brand new 48-channel digital mixer here. We've upgraded and installed over a dozen wireless microphones, which will really help out with the theatrical performances.

"We also updated the speaker system, or actually, put a speaker system in," he added. "It's top of the line Sound Labs, really great fantastic speakers, and I'm really excited to get going here."

Joining him in the installation process was Greg Eggen, system sales manager, lighting designer and project manager. He said Hollywood Lights was founded in Portland in 1948.

“About 1996, we opened a branch in Seattle,” he said. “We've kind of got the whole Northwest territory covered as far as event lighting, temporary power, electrical services, rentals, and sales for the entertainment industry.

"Alex and I are kind of the lead designers for permanent installations and upgrades," he continued. "We do AV (audio-visual) and lighting integration for theaters, houses of worship, nightclubs — Any place that needs audio visual equipment.”

Jenny Jenkins, treasurer for the Civic Auditorium presentation committee, said the upgrade was part of a long-range program to restore and enhance the century-old local landmark.

“We paid for the sconce lighting in the body of the theater with the fundraiser that we had for the 100th birthday last year,” she said. “And we’ve gotten an additional grant from the Full Moon Donor Trust, a donor-advised fund of Renaissance Charitable Foundation. We will use some of that as well as some of the money from that original hundred year celebration to put a projection system in as well.”

As a theater person herself, Jenkens said she was excited about the new opportunity. 

“We owe a lot of thanks to Skot Barker of Great Skot Productions who lent us equipment for the past five productions of the Children's Theater as well as the adult theater, and the dinner theaters that we've done here,” she said.

“Without him, that would've never happened because we didn't have equipment and he loaned us his expertise on a regular basis as well," Jenkins said. "Now having it in-house, being able to have what we need at the moment we need it without having to ask somebody for it is incredible.”

She said the lighting company would train several people in the operation of the new equipment, which should bring future productions to the next level. 

Marine summed up the change, saying, “There's a lot of potential here and we're excited to see where it goes.”