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Lafayette Journal and Courier Purdue welcomes state of the "art" theaters February 5, 2006
"The mechanics and electronics are challenging, but it's good for us to learn how to use everything, in professional spaces," says Mick, a junior in stage management. "The old ones had sort of lost their relevancy." Exit Purdue's old Experimental Theater and the Black Box, a teaching theater that was housed in one room of the Creative Arts 3 building ... a World War II Quonset hut. Enter the $43.4 million Yue-Kong Pao Hall of Visual and Performing Arts, at Marsteller and Wood streets. There, Mick's "laboratories" are the all-new, superbly equipped, 300-seat Nancy T. Hansen Theater -- to host its first production on Feb. 17 -- and the Carole and Gordon Mallett Theatre, a smaller teaching space that can be transformed into any theater setting. Its first show, a world premiere, is set for March 31. "It's having the materials used in today's professional theater," Mick says. "You work with items used every day in any kind of theater space. It's the only we we can learn." "People say, 'Aren't you spoiling them?' " says Professor Russell Jones, chairman of the theater division. "We're qualifying them to work at higher levels." "The excitement students have matches that of faculty and staff," he says. "You couldn't ask for a more excited group of people," says Professor Richard Thomas, who teaches courses in sound design. Outdated, cobbled-together facilities push students to be creative, Mick says, "but it was infuriating at times. You wanted a space built for theater." "To have all new, and just what you wanted, does not often happen," says Joel Ebarb, assistant professor of costume design technology. Pao Hall, named in memory of shipping magnate Yue-Kong Pao, opened in fall 2003. It is home to the four divisions that make up Purdue's Patti and Rusty Rueff Department of Visual and Performing Arts: theater, music, dance and art and design. The department, part of the College of Liberal Arts, has more than 900 undergradates, 60 graduate students and 40 faculty members. Its courses have about 8,000 enrollments a year. The building's entrance plaza is still a muddy lot, and artwork remains unhung. But the two theaters were completed recently, as were spaces for costume design and storage, dressing rooms, prop storage and a scene shop. The Hansen theatre, a 300-seat proscenium, doubles the seating capacity of Experimental Theatre. Former Purdue President Arthur Hansen pledged $1.8 million to name it in honor of his wife, an artistic soul who died in 2003. "People need to know Purdue is more than an engineering school," Mr. Hansen said then. "It's fabulous, fantastic," says Kathleen Kerins, a theater minor from Indianapolis who calls the stage "a big part of my life." "I've never worked in space so nice before," she says. "I think it will expand theater at Purdue. There's so much to use ... I think it will make the shows a lot better." Audiences will notice the difference, Jones says. Seats are wide and comfy, with soft seats and backs. Handicap-accessiblity was provided for the audience, cast and crew. The theater features computer controlled "intelligent" lighting, plus high-tech stage rigging, production technology, "surround" sound and a hydraulic orchestra pit lift. A grid suspended 65 feet above the stage allows sets and people to "fly" off the stage. The stage floor is removable, and fully "trapped," so different entrances and exits are possible, via trap doors. The floor itself can be dropped 12 feet. The stage is 36 feet side, with an opening 28 feet high -- compared to a 12-foot opening in the Experimental Theatre. That will allow two-story settings to be staged. Purdue theater productions can now be more complex, and students will be exposed to the equipment they will encounter in professional theaters, says Professor David Sigman, head of visual and performing arts. "These spaces are educational spaces," he says. Jones says the Hansen theater preserves the intimate feel of the old Experimental Theatre in Stewart Center. The back row is less than 50 feet from the stage, and terraced seating provides maximum visability. The Malletts pledged $770,000 toward the theatre that bears their names. Depending on how it is set up, it can seat from 100 to 150, compared to just 50 at the Black Box. Just about everything is moveable in the new space, to let directors shape the arena, customize the stage and divide the audience. There's also a "green room," where actors will mingle; dressing rooms with sinks, showers, makeup mirrors and costume racks; a scene shop; a costume shop and storage for stage apparel and props that range from dolls and telephones to baskets, cameras and flashlights. The big investment in bricks, mortar and technology, Mick says, "shines a new light on what the program has to offer. Now it's up to the program to meet the expectations." Sean Wilson, a high school senior from Glenview, Ill., hopes to study lighting design this fall. He was in Pao Hall this past week to visit a class, learn about the program and tour the new theaters. "I had heard Purdue was an engineering school," he says, "but someone I do theater with in high school visited here and told me I had to see this new facility."
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