As I begin my week at the National Performing Arts Convention in Denver (convention posts likely to start tomorrow), I’m eager to find individuals and organizations rethinking how the performing arts work — how they engage, how they operationalize their vision, how they escape common knowledge and professional habit to find a more sustainable and dynamic voice. As I find them, I’ll let you know.
In the meanwhile, I was intrigued by this proposed theater design for London’s West End. It suggests fixed seating that appears for a performance, and then retracts into the floor after the show. Says ”multi-millionaire property developer” Laurence Kirschel:
”The reason that theatres don’t make money is that they are closed more often than they are open. We would look at how we can transform the space into a useful area when it is not being used for a show.”
While theaters lose money for lots of reasons beyond their complex use of production space, Kirschel’s proposal certainly addresses another challenge facing now traditional performance venues — the rather inflexible utility of performing arts space. Fixed seating, after all, is a fairly recent innovation in the performing arts, according to theater scholar Lynne Conner. And the bolted seats of most venues limit their use to a small range of possible activities (performance, lecture, presentation…perhaps the occasional reception on stage).
Of course, Kirschel isn’t particularly innovative in the larger idea. Many of us had those lumbering, telescoping (or retractable) seats in our high school gymnasiums. Fancier versions are now in use in blackbox theaters around the world. Back in 2001, Rem Koolhaas’ flagship Prada store design in New York was famous for its attempt to create a retail-by-day, event-space-by-night functionality (and didn’t quite succeed at either, I’ve been told).
But the larger tension remains: How can you balance the high technical and amenity requirements of present-day professional performing arts spaces, with the economic, operational, and social necessity for highly flexible space? And how many stagehands will it take, at how many hours and what cost, to switch between the two?
You actually have something similar in your own backyard Andrew. The Promenade Hall in the Overture has retractable seating. Similar to those gymnasium seats but with actual comfortable seats as opposed to a hard wooden bench.
The Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ in Amsterdam (opened 2005) was built with this sort of flexibility in mind as well..albeit to a very sophisticated level. Its main hall has a hydraulic floor that can allow for any level of raking for the seating and lift to the stage (well, within reason). This allows for any number of configurations that suit the use of the venue. the seating has been fitted with acoustic materials so that, even when they are unused, they act just as if a patron were seated in them (this way, the musicians know during rehearsal what they can expect acoustically during the performance). The walls that run lengthwise have been fitted with LED lights, which can completely change the colour (and hence, the mood) of the room as well. Two floors up, there is a smaller “chamber music” hall with beautiful acoustics, and a retractable wall that allows it to open up to a balcony that overlooks the main foyer. All in all, the venue has been designed for maximum flexibility. But with nearly 300 concerts programmed per year,there is little chance for it to experiment widely with other event types. (www.muziekgeboulw.nl)
The Usher Hall in Edinburgh springs to mind