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Photos by Jim Craven The auditorium of the $9.1 building is just part of its features. A new cafeteria and classrooms are also part of it. Not all of this new building is a stage Ashland High facility impresses By ALEX BREITLER ASHLAND -- Students can act -- not to mention sing, draw, learn and eat lunch -- in a brand-new building at Ashland High School. The lobby of Ashland High School's Mountain Avenue Theater is sunwashed on Friday afternoon. The new building has already hosted some plays. While it's primarily a theater, there's much more than just a stage in this building. Other features include a spacious eating area along with art classrooms and -- perhaps in the future -- a child-care classroom. The 44,000-square-foot facility is the result of a successful 1996 construction and technology bond and 18 months of construction. Katharine Danner, executive director of the Ashland Schools Foundation, said she thinks the new building is working out nicely. "Pretty much everyone who's seen the facility has been very impressed with it," she says. "It seems to be meeting the needs of the school." The theater has already hosted some plays. Recently, acoustical panels were added for concerts and musical events. But the theater only accounts for one-third of the space in the $9.1 million-dollar building; a lunchroom and several classrooms are tacked on as well. Ashland Bakery and Cafe leases the dining area and provides the food, varying from typical cafeteria fare to dishes like white rice with teriyaki sauce. A sewing lab has been set up in one of the classrooms, and a child development classroom may eventually provide child care while training AHS students who are interested in preschool education. The building opened just before winter break, and since then it's become a popular lunchtime choice for students. "I like the food," said ninth-grader Tim Savard as he munched on fries. "I've only been in the theater once, but it seems pretty nice." "It's better than the other building," added fellow freshman Iman Pirasteh. Danner said work on the facility isn't complete yet. "It's still kind of in the shakedown period, things are still being added to it," she says. But ninth-grader Garrett Steinbroner likes the theater just the way it is. "It's like stadium seating in there, so you can see," he said. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA