Riverbank’s Federated Women’s Club met for its monthly membership meeting this past week, taking the opportunity to receive an update on a donation the club has made to the Riverbank High School drama department.

Drama instructor Stacey Bauer told the group of the facilities that have been built up in the Black Box Theatre on campus, which was originally used for Auto Shop classes.

Over the years, movable staging and seating areas have been used so as to allow several different configurations of the theater. A set construction class has been added to the school’s curriculum that helps with staging and some set design for projects in the theater. During this time, the Black Box has been used for student productions and class projects. Even community theater groups have staged plays in the facility.

During that time, possibly the weakest link in the ‘house’ was the seating. Consisting merely of folding metal chairs, the seats were, at best, painful over the course of a play; at worst, for some, excruciating. The addition of stadium-type pads to sit on helped, but not much, officials noted.

A recent $1,000 donation from the Women’s Club, combined with funds from other sources, allowed the drama department to purchase new padded seats. They, too, are folding, so the flexibility of changeable layouts in the room remains.

Co-presidents Marilyn McRitchie and Mary Lomax of the Riverbank Federated Women’s Club presented a replica of the check to Bauer at a recent meeting.