One of the most unique tributes to the State Theatre was created with technology unimaginable during the days of vaudeville and silent film when the theater was built. Braedon Laundrie, a 19-year-old Eau Claire native and UW-Eau Claire sophomore, recently posted to Facebook a 2-minute, 30-second virtual walk-though of the theater built with the video game “Minecraft.”

Inspired “mostly just out of boredom,” Braedon decided three or four months ago to create a detailed model of a real-world location. He selected the State because he’s spent so much time there onstage, backstage, and in the orchestra pit. Braedon’s first State Theatre memory is from 2004, when he saw his father, Tony, perform in the Eau Claire Children’s Theatre production of “Little Shop of Horrors.” Braedon was soon acting himself – a personal highlight was flying over the stage in the ECCT’s “Peter Pan” in 2006 – and for the past few years has played drums in the orchestra for numerous ECCT and Chippewa Valley Theatre Guild productions.

Relying most on memory, Braedon used the world-building video game to create the walk-though, meticulously creating a three-dimensional rendering of the theater’s marquee, lobby, balcony, stage, orchestra pit, dressing rooms, and more. The hardest parts of the project, he says, were getting the scale correct and making the virtual lights work. (Within the walk-though, a player can raise and lower the house and stage lights.)

Braedon figured his creation would only interest a few theater friends, so he was surprised when it started gaining thousands of views on Facebook and grabbed the attention of local media outlets.

“It is sad that the State is closing, but with the Confluence opening it provides a lot of opportunities that might be more fun than the State,” he said.