When San Leandro High School students open the curtains next week on the school's spring play, they'll no longer be performing in the gym. And the audience won't be sitting in fold-up metal chairs, either.

The high school's new 550-seat theater will open just in time to welcome Once Upon a Mattress, which begins its two-week run next Thursday.

But while the students have already been rehearsing their lines in the new facility, the rest of the community got its first look Wednesday night.

The special "sneak peek" was organized as a fundraiser by the new volunteer group Friends of the Theater, part of the larger umbrella organization San Leandro Education Foundation (SLED).

The group held the event to raise funds for a theater director and ended up receiving $3,000 in donations at the "sneak peek" itself, according to Jeni Engler, who heads the theater volunteer group.

They also earned $5,000 in funds from people who dedicated individual seat nameplates, she said.

During the fundraiser, school officials and residents toured the theater and other areas of the Arts Eduction Center. 

The building not only includes the theater itself but dressing rooms, a makeup room, sound stage, green room, control room, computer labs and classrooms for the high school's multimedia academy.

The official ribbon-cutting by the school district will take place Monday, April 25.

The $20.8 million project was built with funds raised through a school facilities bond measure passed by San Leandro voters in 2006.