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The Pleasanton Unified School District officially started tearing down Amador Valley High School’s nearly century-old theater on Friday.
Demolition is expected to be complete by the end of August, according to the district.
Razing the Amador Theater, which was built in 1932 but has been deteriorating in recent years, is part of the district’s larger campus renovation project, which aims to build new athletic and performing arts facilities for the school.
PUSD’s Board of Trustees approved the $85 million design-build agreement to construct the new facilities in January 2025. According to the district, the overall project budget is approximately $95.8 million, funded by Measure I bond proceeds.
The scope of the project includes demolishing the existing theater in order to build a new performing arts center; modernizing the existing music building; remodeling the existing competition gym into a practice gym and locker rooms; tearing down the existing small gym; and constructing a new competition gym.
Over the summer, construction crews from Blach Construction began renovating the existing locker rooms, installing new utilities and preparing the existing gym and theater for demolition.
Crews started demolishing the overall structure with the wrestling room and part of the small gym on Tuesday, before moving their way up to the theater on Friday.
Amador Theater, historical stories, memories, and lore.
The Backstage Cold Spots & “Someone in the Balcony”
For decades, drama students rehearsing in the Amador Theater swore the balcony had a presence.
• Late at night, students reported cold pockets of air drifting across the stage even when the HVAC was off.
• Tech crew members said they sometimes felt someone watching from the balcony, only to find it empty.
• A few students claimed they saw a silhouette leaning on the railing, but it vanished when they looked directly at it.
Teachers always chalked it up to drafts from the old roof structure — but the stories persisted for generations.
The Locked Room Behind the Stage
This was one of the most persistent pieces of lore.
• Behind the stage, there was a small storage room that students said had been locked “for decades.”
• Rumor held that it contained broken lighting gear, old props, and forgotten city records from the 1930s.
• Drama kids dared each other to peek through the crack under the door — some claimed they saw movement or heard soft tapping inside.
In reality, it was probably just a cluttered, unsafe storage space. But the myth became part of Amador’s identity.
The Sealed Projection Booth
This one goes back to when the Amador Theater actually showed films.
• Students said the old projection booth was sealed off and inaccessible.
• The story was that old film reels and equipment were still inside, untouched since the 1940s.
• Tech crew occasionally reported odd noises from the booth during rehearsals — scraping, shifting, or a faint metallic clink.
The logical explanation: settling beams, rodents, or temperature expansion. The student explanation: “The projectionist never left.”
The Ghost Light Tradition
This is a real theater tradition, but Amador students turned it into lore.
• A single bulb was left burning onstage when the theater was empty.
• Students joked it was “for the ghosts to rehearse” or “so the old actors don’t fall off the stage.”
• Some claimed that if you turned the ghost light off, you’d hear footsteps or stage creaks within minutes.
In truth, the ghost light prevents accidents in a dark theater — but at Amador, it became a symbol of the building’s personality.