BY MEGAN MILSTEAD
NOV. 20, 2007
Ever wonder why Miami University doesn’t bring in big Broadway acts like Rent and Wicked to perform? According to Patti Liberatore, director of the Performing Arts Series (PAS), bringing Broadway to Miami is “somewhere between hard and impossible” for a quite simple reason: Miami doesn’t have the space.
Currently, Hall Auditorium, Millett Center, and the Gates-Abegglen Theater are the only venues available for such artistic performances.
James Lentini, dean of the School of Fine Arts (SFA), said that these sites are workable, but not exceptional.
“Taken in whole, the facilities we have here are adequate,” Lentini said. “They’re pretty good in some areas and adequate in others. And in some areas we’d love to be more than just minimally acceptable.”
Hall Auditorium is especially popular and its schedule is filled more than a year in advance for performances or guest speakers.
“The challenge we have is that Hall Auditorium has 750 or so seats and everyone wants it all the time,” Lentini said. “When anything gets larger than 750 seats it goes to Millett which is completely unacoustic for almost any musical performance.”
Millett, which can seat 1,000 to 10,000 people depending on the event, must be transformed from a basketball arena for artistic performances, and is not meant for music.
According to Liberatore, not just the crowd dislikes the venue.
“Wynton Marsalis actually spoke derogatorily from stage about performing in a gym,” Liberatore said of the jazz musician who performed with the Lincoln Jazz Orchestra April 6, 2003.
Long aware of this problem, Miami launched a study in 1999 to see if a new performing arts center (PAC) was feasible.
Robert Keller, Miami architect, said that the project fell through because of lack of donor support.
“There was a major donor associated with the project,” Keller said. “We started before 9/11 occurred, and then the whole financial outlook in the country took a dive soon after that. It was my understanding that the donor support wasn’t there. So we put the project on hold indefinitely.”
Keller said it is not unusual for projects to be researched and then put aside.
“In our long-range planning process there are a variety of long-range projects out there,” Keller said. “There are a whole lot of factors that contribute to when a project is acted upon and when it is not. We have other projects that are in that category as well.”
According to a long-range facilities plan from 2002, Miami was considering spending $94 million for new PAC space. It was to have room for around 1,400 seats and space for an undetermined type of food service. The proposed site was the current band practice field, which would have moved to the other side of Patterson Avenue. If approved and financed, the building would have opened this year.
“We wanted that building to be bright and full of energy and life and people every day,” Liberatore said.
Though she understands the cost of a new PAC is large, Liberatore feels it’s crucial for a university.
“A lot of students that come here went to high schools with better facilities than we have,” Liberatore said. “It’s a glaring hole in Miami’s toolbox to not offer our students a decent performing arts center.”
Lentini also feels a new PAC would help Miami compete with other universities in the area.
“We are sorely lacking that one performing space with the PAC that would make us highly competitive with the best institutions,” Lentini said.
In comparison, both Ohio University and The Ohio State University have state-of-the-art performance facilities with auditoriums that seat 2,000 and 2,477 respectively, according to their Web sites.
Liberatore understands that it is difficult for some to imagine spending so much money on a PAC.
“It’s a little hard at first glance to justify a huge building like that for a Performing Arts Series that has 15 performances a year. Many departments on campus need a larger gathering space for public events, like the Lecture Series and other student programming,” Liberatore said. “But we can justify huge stadiums for football teams who play seven home games a year.”
The musical specifications and standards required by performances add to the cost of facilities, she explained.
“Performing arts centers are one of the most expensive things to build because you need the volume in the concert hall because it is acoustic. You’ve got balconies and you need the sound to go up there and fill them.”
Though a new PAC is on hold indefinitely, a part of the original building plan is currently underway: Presser Hall renovations. According to Keller, the building’s upgrades, which will cost around $10 million, are not a short-term Band Aid fix to the PAC’s space problems.
“At least in my mind all of our effort and monies and so forth have been put to what is being gained through the Presser renovation project,” Keller said. “It should assist the SFA quite a bit. It should be a real improvement for the music department and the theater department.”
The renovated Presser, which should be finished by the end of the school year, will be used mostly by the music department. It will include three rehearsal spaces for large and small music ensembles and rooms for music education teaching and offices. While some members of the music department will need to stay in the current Center for Performing Arts located behind Shriver, they will vacate a decent amount of space.
This summer, that building will undergo what Lentini called a “functional renovation” to rework vacated spaces with the rest of the building. When ready, the building will include a dean’s suite—the dean’s office is currently in the Joyner House on Spring Street—conference room and theater scene shop. A long range facilities plan for 2007 says there will be additional renovations to the CPA in 2015-2018 that will total $19 million.
Both the Presser Hall and CPA renovations are being financed by the university.
While a new PAC is not on the books at present, the SFA has added it to its For Love and Honor campaign wish list. This time around, administrators are asking for a lead gift of $15 million to begin the project.
NOV. 20, 2007
Ever wonder why Miami University doesn’t bring in big Broadway acts like Rent and Wicked to perform? According to Patti Liberatore, director of the Performing Arts Series (PAS), bringing Broadway to Miami is “somewhere between hard and impossible” for a quite simple reason: Miami doesn’t have the space.
Currently, Hall Auditorium, Millett Center, and the Gates-Abegglen Theater are the only venues available for such artistic performances.
James Lentini, dean of the School of Fine Arts (SFA), said that these sites are workable, but not exceptional.
“Taken in whole, the facilities we have here are adequate,” Lentini said. “They’re pretty good in some areas and adequate in others. And in some areas we’d love to be more than just minimally acceptable.”
Hall Auditorium is especially popular and its schedule is filled more than a year in advance for performances or guest speakers.
“The challenge we have is that Hall Auditorium has 750 or so seats and everyone wants it all the time,” Lentini said. “When anything gets larger than 750 seats it goes to Millett which is completely unacoustic for almost any musical performance.”
Millett, which can seat 1,000 to 10,000 people depending on the event, must be transformed from a basketball arena for artistic performances, and is not meant for music.
According to Liberatore, not just the crowd dislikes the venue.
“Wynton Marsalis actually spoke derogatorily from stage about performing in a gym,” Liberatore said of the jazz musician who performed with the Lincoln Jazz Orchestra April 6, 2003.
Long aware of this problem, Miami launched a study in 1999 to see if a new performing arts center (PAC) was feasible.
Robert Keller, Miami architect, said that the project fell through because of lack of donor support.
“There was a major donor associated with the project,” Keller said. “We started before 9/11 occurred, and then the whole financial outlook in the country took a dive soon after that. It was my understanding that the donor support wasn’t there. So we put the project on hold indefinitely.”
Keller said it is not unusual for projects to be researched and then put aside.
“In our long-range planning process there are a variety of long-range projects out there,” Keller said. “There are a whole lot of factors that contribute to when a project is acted upon and when it is not. We have other projects that are in that category as well.”
According to a long-range facilities plan from 2002, Miami was considering spending $94 million for new PAC space. It was to have room for around 1,400 seats and space for an undetermined type of food service. The proposed site was the current band practice field, which would have moved to the other side of Patterson Avenue. If approved and financed, the building would have opened this year.
“We wanted that building to be bright and full of energy and life and people every day,” Liberatore said.
Though she understands the cost of a new PAC is large, Liberatore feels it’s crucial for a university.
“A lot of students that come here went to high schools with better facilities than we have,” Liberatore said. “It’s a glaring hole in Miami’s toolbox to not offer our students a decent performing arts center.”
Lentini also feels a new PAC would help Miami compete with other universities in the area.
“We are sorely lacking that one performing space with the PAC that would make us highly competitive with the best institutions,” Lentini said.
In comparison, both Ohio University and The Ohio State University have state-of-the-art performance facilities with auditoriums that seat 2,000 and 2,477 respectively, according to their Web sites.
Liberatore understands that it is difficult for some to imagine spending so much money on a PAC.
“It’s a little hard at first glance to justify a huge building like that for a Performing Arts Series that has 15 performances a year. Many departments on campus need a larger gathering space for public events, like the Lecture Series and other student programming,” Liberatore said. “But we can justify huge stadiums for football teams who play seven home games a year.”
The musical specifications and standards required by performances add to the cost of facilities, she explained.
“Performing arts centers are one of the most expensive things to build because you need the volume in the concert hall because it is acoustic. You’ve got balconies and you need the sound to go up there and fill them.”
Though a new PAC is on hold indefinitely, a part of the original building plan is currently underway: Presser Hall renovations. According to Keller, the building’s upgrades, which will cost around $10 million, are not a short-term Band Aid fix to the PAC’s space problems.
“At least in my mind all of our effort and monies and so forth have been put to what is being gained through the Presser renovation project,” Keller said. “It should assist the SFA quite a bit. It should be a real improvement for the music department and the theater department.”
The renovated Presser, which should be finished by the end of the school year, will be used mostly by the music department. It will include three rehearsal spaces for large and small music ensembles and rooms for music education teaching and offices. While some members of the music department will need to stay in the current Center for Performing Arts located behind Shriver, they will vacate a decent amount of space.
This summer, that building will undergo what Lentini called a “functional renovation” to rework vacated spaces with the rest of the building. When ready, the building will include a dean’s suite—the dean’s office is currently in the Joyner House on Spring Street—conference room and theater scene shop. A long range facilities plan for 2007 says there will be additional renovations to the CPA in 2015-2018 that will total $19 million.
Both the Presser Hall and CPA renovations are being financed by the university.
While a new PAC is not on the books at present, the SFA has added it to its For Love and Honor campaign wish list. This time around, administrators are asking for a lead gift of $15 million to begin the project.
No comments:
Post a Comment