A Stage Worth the Wait at Beverly Hills High

For 9 ½ years, generations of students passed through Beverly Hills High School without access to the very space designed to amplify their voices. That absence mattered. Performing arts are not extracurricular window dressing. They are core to confidence, discipline, teamwork, and expression. When the lights came back on this week, the message to students was simple and overdue. You matter enough to do this right.

Honoring Michael J. The 2026 BHHS Dance Company performs at the grand opening of the newly renovated K.L. Peters Auditorium.

Libow at the opening set the right tone. His long support for arts and education is not symbolic. It is concrete. Naming the Michael J. Libow Stage recognizes a donor who invested in people, not plaques. As Dr. Alex Cherniss noted, that kind of commitment leaves a mark that outlasts any single performance.

What stood out most was that the night centered students, not speeches.

The 2026 BBHS Dance Company delivered the first performance on the restored stage, and it was exactly the right choice. These were not guest artists or hired professionals. They were BHHS students, selected through a demanding process, performing at a level that earned standing ovations because it deserved them. The auditorium did not give them credibility. They gave the auditorium life.

Equally important was what happened offstage. Theatre Tech students ran lighting, sound, and transitions. Culinary Arts students catered the event with precision and pride. A student string quartet set the mood. This was a full-campus effort that showed what public education looks like when programs are allowed to function at full strength.

The renovation itself reflects a rare balance. The district modernized aggressively where it mattered, lighting, sound, accessibility, backstage infrastructure, while protecting the building’s soul. The preserved façade, the 1937 Van Kaufman mural, and the restored plaque honoring Joel Pressman signal respect for those who built the legacy before today’s students arrived. Progress did not require erasing memory.

That balance matters, especially to the younger students in attendance. When elementary and middle school students watch high school performers in a professional-grade space, they are not just entertained. They are recruited. They see a future version of themselves on stage, and they start imagining what they might become.

Principal Loan Sriruksa described the feeling plainly. The theatre was alive again. That matters because schools are not just collections of classrooms. They are communities shaped by shared spaces. Auditoriums, gyms, lawns, and stages are where identity forms.

Board President Judy Manouchehri framed the reopening as a promise kept. That is not political language. It is accountability language. Public institutions make commitments over long timelines, and the real test is whether they see them through. On this project, BHUSD did.

The upcoming reopening of the BHHS Grand Lawn points in the same direction. Shared spaces signal shared purpose. They tell students that school is not just somewhere you pass through, but somewhere you belong.

After years of waiting, K.L. Peters Auditorium is back, not as a museum piece, but as a working, breathing home for student talent. The applause this week was earned. More importantly, it was overdue.

The lights are on. Now the work continues.