Newswise — When the new Ursinus College performing arts center opens today (Thursday April 21), details such as sightlines and rigging may be overlooked. But as new or improved space for performing arts becomes a priority for many colleges, the issue of how a college will use the space drives the design, says a theater consultant.
The Kaleidoscope, the new performing arts center at Ursinus, was built specifically for student performances at the liberal arts school, which offers new majors in theater and in dance. How the college intended to use the space drove the planning process, said theater consultant Barbara Spandorf of Fisher Dachs Associates, which worked with architects Perry Dean Rogers of Boston on The Kaleidoscope. "We needed to know exactly how they planned to use these theaters, so that the school and the facility have the right fit," said Spandorf. "We also wanted something they could grow into and aim towards in the future, but also something that works for them now -- from the moment they first enter the building."
Opening festivities at Ursinus include guided tours of the $25 million Kaleidoscope building and workshop performances in ballet, chamber music, comedy improvisation, dance and theater, so visitors can preview the facilities. A concert by Wynton Marsalis is planned as an appreciation for the generosity of major donors who contributed to Ursinus' $115 million capital campaign, which includes the performing arts center as its centerpiece. The tours will emphasize technical details such as the scene shop, and how its size allows sets to be fully constructed in the shop, leaving the stage for rehearsal space; and an orchestra pit which can be raised to expand stage space.
Spandorf and colleague Joshua Dachs of Fisher Dachs noted several key aspects of the new spaces, such as stage size based on width for dancers, and full counterweight rigging systems that allow scenery to be raised and lowered. These systems, along with stage lighting and control systems, which dim the lights and provide special lighting effects, also help to teach stagecraft, for a working classroom.
The 350-seat Lenfest Theater, the first proscenium arch stage at Ursinus, was designed so that the seating layout and sightlines create a welcoming room. One feature is a parterre rail that breaks the orchestra level into two different seating sections so that there does not appear to be a large expanse of seats, creating a more intimate room in which smaller audiences sit closer to the stage, in front of the parterre. Similarly, side boxes at both the orchestra and balcony levels were designed to break down the space and create a more intimate room for both the audience and the performers, one in which facial expressions can be seen both on the stage, and from the stage.
The smaller studio space is designed for experimental productions. In this flexible room, Fisher Dachs designed a wire rope grid above the performing area where student technicians can safely walk to hang lights. The rope grid allows lights and drops to be hung anywhere above the studio floor. Flexibility in the seating is provided with demountable platforms that will allow the student director to reconfigure the studio theater in an infinite variety of forms " from an end stage to an arena, or theatre in the round.
Fisher Dachs Associates, based in New York, has designed hundreds of performing arts projects, including the renovation of Radio City Music Hall, a black box studio theater for Yale, the Hasty Pudding Theatre at Harvard, a new performing arts center at Georgetown University, Hill Auditorium at University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, and a new Broadway playhouse, known as "Henry Miller's Theatre" in New York. Project Manager Barbara Spandorf was trained as an architect and has been designing theatres since 1997.
Ursinus College, founded in 1869, is a highly selective, nationally ranked, independent, coeducational liberal arts college, located on a scenic, wooded, 170-acre campus, 28 miles from Center City Philadelphia.
RSS