Theatre Design & Technology - Spring 2004 - 27

...a person could
park downtown, have dinner,
shop, or just stroll
around town, see the show,
and still only pay a dollar.

FINALLY
Was the whole thing successful? Consider the following: Pennsylvania
Centre Stage's attendance records reached new highs. Broadway Bound
drew 95% of its total capacity. I Love You You're Perfect Now Change
drew 99% of capacity, and The Tafetta's (with a week longer run) drew
92% of its capacity. In addition, Pennsylvania Centre Stage had seen several seasons of declining audiences and an increasing deficit in their
yearly budget. They had already cut their ticket prices by 16%, hoping
that the cheaper tickets would encourage better attendance. By the end
of the summer, Centre Stage had blown past its ticket projection by 30%.

WHAT DOES THE COMMUNITY THINK?
lery in that space. In addition, the layout plan needed to provide for
backstage dressing rooms, bathrooms, and showers, as well as audience
bathrooms. President Spanier also suggested a Penn State box office be
included in the plans. He had long wanted a campus box office located in
the downtown area and this project was an ideal opportunity to achieve
that goal. Such a box office, open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Saturday, would fit nicely with the proposed public art gallery, drawing
people in to look at the works of both university and local artists.

THE REAL STORY
What followed next was a very ambitious schedule. The building design
was agreed upon, the contract was signed, and the day after Labor Day
2002 construction officially began. The opening of the Centre Stage season
was June 2nd, 2003. Woskob had already jack-hammered the concrete flooring from the basement-primarily because he was confident the contract
with the university would go through and also because he wanted to do that
demolition work while the students were away from the apartments upstairs. Now, new foundations had to be laid, walls built, and plumbing
and electrical systems installed. And, remember those three support
beams? They had to be relocated.
For that, Woskob brought in experts. Additional beams were placed
to hold the load of the third floor. Then, the original beams were cut out
and moved to their new locations. Three new beams, each thrity feet long
by twenty-four inches thick, about 5,000 pounds, had to be loaded in
through the front windows. These would span the space and hold up the
third floor. At one point Woskob thought the floor might give way, but the
pace was slowed down and happily for the tenants upstairs, nothing fell
and no one was injured.
Other people began to get more intimately involved. Facility coordinators, directors, general managers, and a whole host of specialists began meeting regularly. Color choices, seating choices, dressing room
choices, all had to be made long enough in advance for the selections to
be designed into the space. But these were exciting decisions to make.
The faculty for the School of Theatre made regular pilgrimages to offer
suggestions and make small adjustments.

CUTTING THE RIBBON
At a ribbon cutting ceremony on May 19th, 2003, approximately nine
months after construction began, President Spanier officially dedicated
the space and invited the public to tour the theatre and gallery. The
mayor of State College purchased the first ticket at the box office. Pennsylvania Centre Stage began loading in scenery for its first production.
26

S P R I N G

2 0 0 4

TD & T

The community responded positively to the theatre productions, but what
was the overall effect on the community? "Electrifying," to quote Ginny
Chuba, president of the Centre Stage board of directors and owner of Sun
Management, an apartment management company in State College. "Everyone wins with this one," she said. "People are shopping before the
theatre. They are eating and drinking before and after. Retailers are staying open later to accommodate audiences."
To promote their first season downtown, the Centre Stage board of directors, in conjunction with the Downtown Improvement District and the
State College Borough Authority, created a special discount price at the two
major parking garages within walking distance of the theatre. Anyone
with a validated theatre ticket could park for one dollar. The promotion
benefited anyone going to the theatre and was not subject to time. So a
person could park downtown, have dinner, shop or just stroll around
town, see the show, and still only pay a dollar. It was an enormous success and the borough, with strong encouragement from the Downtown
Improvement District (DID), is planning the same promotion next summer.
The DID, having seen the enormous benefit to its members resulting from increased traffic from theatre patrons, has already offered to assist both the School of Theatre and Pennsylvania Centre Stage with their
advertising efforts.

BENEFITTING THE COLLEGE AND THE COMMUNITY
Though the Penn State Theatre Centre was originally conceived as a new
space for the School of Theatre, the lobby art gallery also opened up opportunities for the School of Visual Arts. A true town/gown relationship is
being formed with local artist and campus artist who share the gallery
space on a rotating basis. Following a graphic art display by Lannie
Sommese from the School of Visual Art was Minatures by Alyce Ritti, a
local artist. This display was follwed by work from Jennifer Hines, a
graduate student in visual arts.
Also, the School of Music's is able to take advantage of the new theatre. Their smallest public performance space was the 400-seat Esber
Hall in the School of Music Building. It was not ideal for small concerts
and chamber events, nor was it good for the required school concerts
for students which most often drew small crowds. The 152-seat Penn
State Theatre Centre is an ideal space. The School of Music's first performance was a chamber concert featuring three faculty members.

THE CHECKS AND MINUSES
With all these accolades are there any drawbacks from having a university resource off campus? Well, yes there are. It is a leased space, shared
with other tenants, which takes some getting used to: like when Panera

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