Theatre Design & Technology - Dec 1969 - 11

It's this aspect of the facilities that we're
building now that I'm very concerned about.
What will the symphony orchestra do in the
year 2000? What will the dancers do?
Where will they do it?

guarantee the same sol ution to the performing arts problem. A bad performance will be
just as bad in a new concert hall as in an
old one. Conversely, good performances are
being held every day in bad facilities.

So far as the users are concerned, we want
facilities that will stand us in good stead
right now. We also want facilities which
will take care of us 25, 50, and even 75
years from now, when society may be
vastly different. As a user, I know that the
mere fact a center exists, beautiful as it
may be, will not be a panacea to all the
ills facing the financial structure, the future
planning, and the future methods by which
we will have to present the arts.

Yet, one cannot ignore the catalytic effect
of a new concert hall on audience support;
now can one doubt that architecture affects
the overall experience of attendi ng a performance. If you had a hall with totally invisible surroundings, the architecture might
be immaterial to the performance on stage.
But such is never the case, and too often
the surrounding envelope is a tawdry and
almost unsanitary relic of bygone days which
imposes itself inescapably on the overall effect of the performance.

We ask that the planners: the architects
and the consultants do only one thing. Help
us get and pay for facilities that can serve
us now and also serve us equally well 75
years from now.
A Postscript
Alexander S. Lacy:
I think we are looking at two distinct problems which are, nevertheless, related. On
one hand we have the architectural problem
which must be solved in terms of sizes and
capacities. On the other hand, a perfect solution to the architectural problem does not

Many peopl e argue that the overall lack of
mass audience support for the arts militates
against the construction of expensive cultural centers. Indeed, city fathers have been
taken to task as victims of an "edifice complex." But there is, nevertheless, a catalytic
effect from the construction of such performing arts centers, and I think we should
be encouraged by the fact that city fathers
are, albeit for the wrong reasons, moving to
construct such centers.

DECEMBER,1969

THEATER DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY

The construction of performing arts centers
may serve as a catalyst to the performing
arts. A "catalyst," is a substance which
causes more rapid reaction than would be
the case without the catalyst. The catalyst
will not however cause the desired reaction
if it would not have occurred in any case,
without the catalyst. My poi nt is that there
must in any community be a base of interest in the performing arts, or the expensive
new center will have no catalytic effect. By
this I do not mean to imply that a community should reach Olympian peaks of cultural
accomplishment before beginning its new
center, any more than the same community
should wait until its people are all thoroughly
religious before building its first church or
synagogue.
In support of Mrs. Thompson and those who
daily practice the performing arts,weshould
remember that we all have a continuing
selling job to encourage larger audiences for
the performing arts.ltshouldberemembered
however, that there is a limited audience
for any event in any given community,
whether it be for pre-Bach recorder music
or mud wrestling. We cannot move too far
ahead of the community taste, but we can
at least keep the stick that holds the carrot
just a bit ahead of the community's nose.

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