With the Center for the Arts opening this fall, the University now has several new performance and practice venues equipped with the latest technology to enhance the experiences of students and audiences.

The 91,000-square-foot education and performance facility houses a 450-seat proscenium theatre, a theatre rehearsal room, a 200-seat recital hall and an orchestra hall, as well as 32 individual music practice rooms. Ayers/Saint/Gross is the architect, and Whiting-Turner is the construction manager for the $48 million project.

“Each space has a different design and function,” Steve Ruble, UD project manager in facilities planning and construction and project coordinator for the center’s construction, says. “The acoustics are the primary consideration, and everything in the building is designed around this need.”

The 5,100-square-foot Puglisi Orchestra Hall is designed for multiple uses, including meetings, catered events and as a rehearsal space for the 300-plus-member UD Marching Band.

Heidi Sarver, UD Marching Band director, says it is not just the orchestra hall’s size that makes it such an attractive practice and performance space.

Among the many performance-enhancing design features of the room are a curved ceiling to help disperse sound, as well as battered (angled) walls that direct sound upward, acoustic draperies and the use of heavy materials to absorb sound. The structure rests on a floating neoprene pad and uses acoustic isolating joints to keep the music in the room and to provide an effective barrier to outside noises.

“We will be able to have an acoustically appropriate space for sit-down music rehearsals,” Sarver says. “The Marching Band goes inside during bad weather, as well as when we are learning new music for a new production.”

The inclusion of an audio/video playback system in the space also means the Marching Band will be able to review its performances on a weekly basis. “This is something we have not been able to do since the band size exceeded 200 members,” Sarver says. “The educational value of this is without measure.”

James Prodan, chairperson of the Department of Music, says the new practice rooms and performance spaces are welcomed by students who previously practiced in the Amy E. du Pont Music Building.
“The practice rooms have been needed very badly,” Prodan says. “The sizes of the practice rooms are appropriately varied for different needs. Sound will not get from room to room, which is important for practice concentration.”

Student, faculty and guest performers who use the 670-square-foot stage of the new Gore Recital Hall can play for as many as 200 patrons in its 2,400-square-foot seating area.

Gore Recital Hall is served by a sound room equipped with a full rack of state-of-the-art sound and video equipment, including a projector, microphones and power connections for audio setup, and like the other performance and practice spaces in the building, the recital hall maintains its separate acoustic integrity.

“Just having the practice and performance spaces is very special,” Prodan says. “The addition of the Center for the Arts will raise the profile and quality of our student body.”

The center’s 450-seat Thompson Theatre is designed to serve the needs of faculty and students in the Professional Theatre Training Program (PTTP) and their audiences.

In addition to a 4,700-square-foot seating area, the Thompson Theatre features a 3,100-square-foot stage area that vertically extends 70 feet from stage floor to roof.

“PTTP has needed an additional performing space since its inception at UD, and the new theatre in the Center for the Arts can definitely provide that,” Sanford Robbins, chairperson of the Department of Theatre, says.

With its fly system that allows for quickly placing and removing scenery, as well as an orchestra pit with a lift capable of raising to stage level, the new theatre and rehearsal areas also will be an invaluable learning tool for those interested in the technical side of the theatre.

—Jerry Rhodes, AS ’04