"All the World's a Stage": St. Paul's New Theater Completes Construction

With construction for the new theater wrapping up in August, the updated addition to St. Paul High School came with a remarkably long and strenuous process.

To better understand all facets of the construction process, I sat down with Mr. Caleb Miller (Mr. C), who operates as the teacher of Theater Arts and director of the SPHS Theater Company; he provided The Double-Edged Sword with insightful information and context.

While students waited for a large section of campus to return to use, it was a lengthy campaign on the technical side of things. During mid-pandemic in 2020, the SHEA Foundation (created by a family located in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles that equips various Catholic schools with renovations), had come to St. Paul, offering a new construction proposal and ideas on what could be built.

Mr. C had pitched the idea of a simple black box theater. After six months, the Shea family had requested an updated version of the plan for their architect. Outfitted with an expanded budget, the vision for the new theater extended into something bigger.

Del Amo Construction of Torrance pioneered the building of the theater; the next two years included numerous meetings and discussions on what the responsibilities were for St. Paul, including payments and other miscellaneous matters. The theater was originally going to be built in the 500 building, but was moved to the 400 due to easier electrical work and not to disrupt too many classrooms.

Construction finally began at the two-year mark: “It was insane to think it was real,” Mr. C stated. “Itʼs what I dreamt of when I was a student here at St. Paul.” Originally, construction was supposed to be finished within a year, but that didnʼt happen. With issues arising and construction not always easy, the entire process took longer than expected.

With construction closing the curtain in August and passing the necessary safety inspections, the theater and the 400 building will be open soon for use. Mr. Cʼs hopes for this theater are to make the arts more recognized on campus, not just by the viewers, but also by the students of this program and all those outside it. He wants students to know the feeling of being on a real stage, explaining the incomplete feeling of acting without an established theater: “Itʼs like playing football without a field.”

Mr. C has expressed his gratitude many times to everyone who made this possible, describing it as “such a gracious gift from God.” Additionally, he noted the dedication of St. Paulʼs past theater students (before we had a formal program), who were required to skip sixth period to make it for rehearsal at another school. This is a display of the amount of love that everyone in the SPHS Theater Company puts into their work, as the saying goes: “Do what you love with people you love. God bless.”

Upcoming Shows:

• “Noises Off”: December 3, 4, 5 & 6
• “Just Another High School Play”: December 10, 11,12 & 13