NORMAL - The lights will go out at Stroud Auditorium at University High School, but the show will go on again in fall 2010.

The closure is part of $2.9 million in renovations to bring the more than 40-year-old auditorium to modern standards. Theater teachers are arranging for alternative sites for upcoming shows and rehearsals.

The renovations include a new roof for all of University High School, said Dick Runner, Illinois State University's director of facilities, planning and construction.

The rehabilitation of the "very-dated, heavily used auditorium" will address both safety and aesthetic issues, Runner said.

Asbestos abatement and demolition of the auditorium's interior will begin as soon as school is out for the summer.

"People are more than willing to put up with the inconvenience because renovations for this space are long overdue," said Robert Dean, superintendent of the Illinois State University Laboratory Schools.

Work on the 700-seat theater is mostly funded by ISU's capitol renewal plan and will concentrate on seats, carpet and ceiling. The school has raised about $175,000 for extras such as sound equipment and stage lighting.

"We've been working on it for a few years," Dean said.

U High was built in 1965; the auditorium opened a couple of years later.

Renovations to the engineering and technology sections of the school, made possible by a $500,000 donation by businessman and alum John Roan, were completed earlier this year.