Building For The Performing Arts

Extract

When we talk of the “performing arts,” we must talk about all of them: the spoken drama, musical theatre, opera, ballet, and concert music. Up until now it has been generally true in the majority of American communities that most all spaces that could seat anywhere from one hundred to ten thousand people have, at one time or another, been used for performances of every kind, size, and description. It was inevitable that the artist made compromises which lessened—sometimes almost to the vanishing point—his effectiveness as a performer. Space designed specifically as a theatre does not make a good concert hall, nor does space designed specifically as a concert hall make a good theatre. This is true visually as well as acoustically. We can demonstrate that certain transformations are possible within a single facility which will adjust both the performing and audience spaces to quite opposite and diverse uses.