Buildings kept popping up all over campus, just as the Burnight Center Theatre did. The theatre’s birth is thankful to Dr. Frank Bach, anthropology and theater professor, and Dr. Lee Korf, theater professor.

They were solely responsible for the production, the architecture and the dedication of the theatre, which took place in 1965.

Both doctors were huge supporters of the arts so they wanted to make sure there was a place where everything could happen.

They incorporated the name Burnight in honor of Dr. Ralph Burnight but they didnt want to it to just be a theatre title only.

By having it called Burnight Center Theatre, recalls Theater Production Manager, Etta Walton, “We are a center here. We are theater, radio, television and music.”

Inside the theatre is a dynamic sound set up that attracts many artists.

The walls of the theatre are made of teak wood and no space between each piece of wood is the same.

Bach and Korf listed the theatre as a Lecture Hall so the state would grant them more money for the project. That is why all 362 chairs come with a retractable desk.

We are now approaching 2010 and rumors keep surfacing about the demolition of the theatre.

The new location is said to be in the back of the school.

Both Etta Walton and Georgia Wells have heard the same.

A specific G.O. Bond is supposed to be for that but no one knows where the money is when it’s actually supposed to happen.

So in the meantime, that 1960s style building stands in its Y shape with its 30ft solid glass walls on the east side of the theatre’s entrance, 84 doors all together and some of those doors are 10-foot glass doors, awaits the next performance.

That performance will take place in October when the Many Wives of Widsor is performed.