As crews renovating the former IGA building approach their Nov. 1 deadline, they prepare to make final installments in the theater area but will continue to work well into the week.

On Wednesday, two days before the deadline, the hallways of the former IGA were busy with crews painting the theater and cleaning the floors of rooms and hallways that boxes now no longer dominate. A 60-foot-long by 20-foot trailer arrived about two weeks ago, said John Oertling, allowing mounting boxes of properties and costumes to clear out of the building and into storage. The department salvaged about 178 shelves from Booth West library and is using them to organize the materials.

On Wednesday, however, the theater still had no seats, production lighting or scenery.

Oertling said crews were going to start installing the 178 seats Thursday, and he plans to have the project completed by the end of the day if there are no problems.

However, because some of the seats are different widths so the audience does not sit directly behind one another, he is still unsure whether all the seats will fit or if installation will go smoothly. The scenery also will be installed by deadline, he said. The theater department’s purposely chose to put on “Waiting for Godot,” a play requiring only a tree for scenery.

The production booth, which will hold sound equipment, has been built, but still needs to be painted and equipment needs to installed, he said.

Production lights are scheduled to be installed by the end of next week, he said.

The scene shop, which a month ago remained scattered with boxes and equipment, is now looking more organized as boxes get unpacked and equipment gets installed. Costume rooms, which lacked counter space last month, are fully functional now with shelves, sinks, chairs, lighting and mirrors.

Meanwhile, theater students are still practicing in the lobby of the Village Theater, awaiting the Nov. 13 opening of their first production of the year.

Though the move has come with some inconveniences, Katie Luchtefeld, a senior English and theater major, said she is happy with the new building. Construction was sometimes an disturbance for classes, but professors were accommodating and understanding.

“I feel like they did not have much to work with, and it was an IGA. We’re taking an IGA and making it a theater, and I think they did a darn good job,” she said.

She said the new building has more space, and it’s more convenient to have the costume and scene shop on one floor. In the Doudna Fine Arts Center, the two shops were separated by a floor.

Jerry Eisenhour, a theater professor, agreed, saying the construction has been a hassle, but students and staff have worked through it.

“It’s a larger space overall, and we had to be somewhere,” he said.

Eisenhour said he was supposed to teach a class in the theater, but his classroom was not disrupted when he was forced to teach in the lobby.

“We knew there would be some things we had to put up with because construction wasn’t ready,” he said.

Theater classrooms have been relocated to the Village Theater until 2005 during the renovation and construction of the Doudna Fine Arts Center.