The Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre at the Old Globe. This set served two productions. It was used for the Grand Opening on December 7th, 2009, with a performance by Kelli O’Hara and Paulo Szot (from South Pacific at Lincoln Center). A week later it was used for a production of I Do, I Do. In both productions the corner of the stage platform was opened to create a small orchestra pit.

The new facility houses the Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre and Lady Carolyn’s Pub on the ground level and the Karen and Donald Cohn Education Center, Hattox Hall and the Donald and Darlene Shiley Terrace on the upper level.

The Prebys Center is the result of a survey that Fisher Dachs Associates conducted for Globe CEO and Executive Producer Lou Spisto. FDA principal Joshua Dachs worked with Spisto and the Old Globe staff to create the study. “We had a conversation about their priorities,” says Dachs. “Out of that, the first real projects turned out to be the theatre and the educational space.” FDA worked closely with the architect for the Prebys Theatre Center, Seattle-based LMN Architects, to realize the spaces.

“The Carter was lacking quite a lot,” comments Spisto. “It lacked flexibility; it lacked safety; it lacked proper lighting positions; there was no trap; actors had to make entrances from the same places that audiences did. The thing that it did have was the most perfect relationship between the audience and actor.”

Dachs agreed the audience relationship needed to be preserved. “Everyone loved the shape and seating capacity, but there were all these other things that they hated. We came up with a design that was very similar to the original one but created things like stage level vomitories that they didn’t have before. Now there is a huge variety of potential entrances which gives you an enormous range of new blocking possibilities that they never had before and new capacity to accommodate plays with wheelchairs and furniture that were extremely problematic before.”

There is also now a trapped stage floor. “Instead of a fixed stage floor, it’s a system of platforming that can be manipulated,” comments Dachs. “For the first event, they carved out a corner and made an orchestra pit. For another show, they had a stair entrance up from the trap room to reflect the idea of the set being on the second floor of a building. From a design and technical perspective the stage floor is entirely malleable. That is a huge advantage that they didn’t have before.” The White’s stage floor system is a slightly customized version of a stock product from Staging Concepts.

There are now catwalks above the White Theatre with a wide variety of hanging positions and dimming circuits. There are also Unistrut rails mounted in the walls around the space to allow lights to be hung in the space.

Add Flexibility, But Keep the Intimacy
Above the stage got a complete makeover as well. “Overhead it’s a completely new theatre; it’s got great catwalks and a lot of attention has been paid to how one does rigging tasks in there,” Dachs says. “There is steel at a slightly higher elevation to enable you to do spot line rigging, which is great if you need to drop a chandelier. Whatever you need to raise, lower or suspend, there is a network of steel above that makes that easy to do and the catwalks make it easy to get to. The new grid is higher than what they had previously, which was badly encumbered with all sorts of ductwork and trusses that were just in the way. Nothing is in the way now.”

In terms of lighting, FDA added flexibility. “We created some perimeter positions over the seating that are very easy to get to and are rather flexible,” Dachs explains. “Around the perimeter of the room there are a lot of Unistrut channels set into the wall. Above the stage, there is a perimeter catwalk with a tic-tac-toe pattern of catwalks within that are bristling with equipment, circuits and mounting positions. You can mount equipment up at a handrail position; there are also pipes that are set below the catwalk. You can put a fixture in just about any location.”

The White Theatre features space to fly scenery and the flexibility to hang rigging points where needed.

The dimming and control system is from Electronic Theatre Controls with three ETC Sensor dimmer racks, an ETC Net3 Ethernet network, an ETC Ion 2000 console with fader wings and touchscreen monitors, as well as a radio focus remote and remote video interface and a Unison controls for house and cue lighting. A 48-circuit SmartSwitch relay panel provides both 120V and 208V non-dim power for moving lights, LED fixtures and color changers. A new package of fixtures, purchased to supplement the existing inventory, include ETC Source Four PAR-EA units, Source Four JR Zooms, Selecon Rama 6” Fresnels and SeaChanger color changers.
The dimensions and the shape of the new space balance the technical needs and the audience/artist relationship.

The trap room below the White Theatre. The stage deck is a customized version of a standard product from Staging Concepts. The stage can be flush with the first row of seats or set one-foot higher or lower than the seats as well as having the ability to put a trap or entrance wherever needed.

The trap room is nominally 10-feet deep to the typical stage floor level. From the typical stage floor to the bottom of the catwalks is 17 feet. The rigging steel above that is 25 feet from the stage floor, so there is plenty of room above. However, to maintain the intimate feel the audience has a lower ceiling overhead.

“We consciously kept a ceiling over the audience,” explains Dachs. “The ceiling is about nine feet above the heads of the last row and extends out to cover the first row of seats; over the first row, it’s about 15 feet above your head. Then the space pops up over the stage. The audience feels that they are in a very tight, intimate little chamber yet there is a lot of vertical scope that the artists have to work with.”

Adding all the important requirements a modern theatre needs didn’t keep Fisher Dachs from including all the little touches that make a theatre one of a kind.

“The footprint of the stage is nominally 24 feet by 25 feet and each of the sides is curved a little bit,” comments Dachs. “Each of the rows of seating is curved to match. The perimeter walls are all gentle curves that echo the rows of seats and the stage edge. It is a serene little space; it doesn’t consist of hard, straight edges. It is the size of many university black box theatres, but it is carefully tailored around producing in the arena form; it is far more sophisticated than you ever end up with in a studio theatre. It is a very purpose-built, very subtly designed version of an arena stage. They are really happy with it and we are really proud of it.”


Pretty Darn Wonderful
Spisto is indeed happy with the final results. “We are very, very pleased with the new theatre,” he says. “There are two aspects that work well for the Old Globe. The first aspect is that it is so easy to work in from a technical perspective. It is flexible and allows us all sorts of possibilities. The other thing that I think is equally—and in fact at the end of the day is more—important is that the relationship between the audience and the actor just works beautifully. And the acoustics are perfect.”

Left to right: Steven Kaplan as Jay, Jennifer Regan as Bella and Austyn Myers as Arty in Neil Simon’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Lost in Yonkers, in The Old Globe’s new Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre.

Like theatre, architectural projects are a collaboration of many different partners. In addition to FDA and LMN, Jaffe Holden Acoustics was the acoustic and audio-visual consultants and Horton Lees Brogden consulted on specialty lighting. Spisto comments, “Working with LMN Architects and Fisher Dachs was superb.” Spisto is equally pleased with the choice of LMN, out of two dozen firms interviewed. “We have loved working with LMN; they listened; they allowed us to lead the program. We are a theatre; it’s like building a hospital for doctors; the people here don’t just work in the building, we create in the building. I really loved both of these firms; they were tremendous. I think that if all of life was as successful as this building we would all have pretty darn wonderful lives.”

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