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New Hornet Theater director outlines season and urges junior-high auditorium renovation
Summary
New Hornet Theater director Jake Hood presented a season plan, recent auditorium upgrades and said a renovated junior-high auditorium would be used for student productions and classroom instruction if the district proceeds with renovation.
Jake Hood, introduced at the meeting as the new Hornet Theater director and auditorium manager, described curricular alignment across junior-high and high-school theater programs and listed upcoming productions and competition dates.
Hood said the season includes a junior-high production of The Tell-Tale Heart in February 2026 and a high-school production of Gathering Blue in February 2026, with UIL one-act competition participation slated for January and March. He also described recent facility work — repainting the sound booth, converting storage into a black-box classroom, installing an IMAX studio operation station and adding a live-stream system — and said these improvements expand the auditorium’s capabilities.
During Q&A, Hood told trustees that “If we renovate it, we will absolutely use it,” and outlined plans to purchase a second set of UIL unit sets so both campuses can rehearse and perform without moving between sites. He described training student technicians to run the high-school auditorium and said he hopes to replicate that model at the junior high after renovations.
Board members and fine-arts leaders gave mixed feedback on using the junior-high auditorium: some supported local performances there, while choir representatives raised concerns about seating capacity for larger, joint events. Hood and the board discussed a forthcoming community design meeting led by Huckabee to gather broader input on facilities priorities and ballot messaging.
