Theatre Design & Technology - Fall 1977 - 13

positive. As Sullivan described it,
The effect was thrilling. An audience of 6,200 saw
and heard, saw in a clear Iine of vision; heard even
to the faintest pianissimo. No reverberation, no
echo, - the clear untarnished tone, of voice and instrument, reached all. The inference was obvious: a
great permanent hall housed within a monumental
structure must follow. This feeling marked the spirit
of the Chicago of those days? 7
Ferdinand Peck decided to move ahead with plans for
such a project, and every architect in Chicago competed
for the commission. The obvious choice fell on Adler
and Sullivan, and the experimentation in the Exposition
Building which had allowed them to perfect their ideas
about theatre design proved to be of great value when
they began work on the Auditorium Theatre. The basic
structure is very similar, and the treatment of the acoustics and sightlines practically identical. The major differences are the move to electric lighting, the smaller capacity (4,200), and the added element of flexibility in
altering the size of the proscenium opening and the
seating sections.
The significance of the success of the Auditorium
Theatre, based so clearly on the prototype developed for
the two-week opera season, and its symbolic representation of a democratic philosophy are somewhat forgotten
today. In his book Culture and Democracv, Hugh Duncan
reminds us,
With the completion of the Auditorium no city in
America could boast of so beautiful and so effective
a theatre. Chicagoans were being called to every city
in America to design and build after the forms
developed in "Chicago Designs" and "Chicago Con-

struction." . . . Tuthill, who designed Carnegie
Hall in 1889 called in Dankmar Adler as a consultant. 2 g
Because of cheaper costs for labor and materials,
temporary buildings for festivals of one kind and another
were often constructed in the nineteenth and early
twentieth centuries. Today the idea seems impractical,
and yet with the danger of acoustical failure in a theatre
or opera house, one wonders if some experimentation in
a temporary structure might be cheaper in the end. One
example of such experimentation is the Vivian Beaumont
Theatre in Lincoln Center. Before construction began,
Jo Mielziner built a temporary theatre in an unused movie
house in Pontiac, Michigan and experimented with sightIines and acoustics there. The Beau mont has been widely
praised by critics and audiences alike in contrast to many
theatres built in recent years. In the area of theatre acoustics and sightlines it is obvious from the examples of the
past and the present that experimentation as well as scientific theories are required. Acoustical science has developed greatly since the time of Scott Russell's Acoustical
Curve, and yet it is apparent that what may work in
theory is often a great disappointment in practice. The
interaction between the shape and size of the theatre and
such elements as the materials used in construction, the
use of carpeting and the type of upholstery, the effect of
decorative elements, and the presence of an audience
cannot simply be estimated. The opportunity to experiment with these various elements as well as a scientific
basis are required to assure success. Adler and Sullivan
used both in designing the Auditorium.
Concluded on

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Fig. 4. Another view of the Opera Festival Auditorium.

USITT

THEATRE DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY

FALL. 1977

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