Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 2012 - 40

The VPAC loading dock

photo by loren peter ahles, courtesy of hga architects & engineers

"soft opening" preview of the VPAC featuring the Moscow State
Symphony Orchestra in fall 2010, the sound consultants retuned the hall during intermission to better balance the strings
with the rest of the orchestra. Tuning the hall will be an ongoing
process for the facility over the upcoming years as it presents
an eclectic season of live music, spoken
word, dance, and cinema.
To date, performing artists in the
VPAC have universally applauded the
acoustics. Robert Bucker, dean of the
Mike Curb College of Arts, Media, and
Communication and VPAC executive
director, said, "It's really, really fun to
offer a venue like ours which is such a
great facility acoustically that a musical
theatre artist [Brian Stokes Mitchell]
is willing to put down his microphone
and actually create an acoustic environment as opposed to an amplified environment. We had this happen this last
spring with Lyle Lovett and John Hyatt
performing. These gentlemen just decided they wanted to do some theatre
performances. They wanted to come
inside, so to speak, and they wanted to
do much more acoustical evenings. We
were the very first stop on what would
become a tour of those two folks performing in halls not unlike our hall. I want us to make sure we
can make that happen when a popular culture artist expresses
interest in it."

Community Outreach
The Valley Performing Arts Center has also expanded and reforged CSUN's commitment to enhancing pre-K-12 arts opportunities for the school children of the San Fernando Valley
with the 2011-2012 State Farm Student Matinee Series. Bucker
continues, "The outreach role of the VPAC to the K-12 community is a very important component of our mission. We
choose programming that is developmentally appropriate for
students throughout their elementary-middle-high school journey. We provide teachers with teaching materials prior to the
performances; present professional development opportunities
for K-12 teachers on Saturdays during the academic year; and
present a Summer Arts Institute for K-12 teachers to prepare
them for the programming of the following year."
All performance opportunities are directly aligned with
California Core Content Standards as well as the California Visual and Performing Arts Standards. Weekday performances
for school age groups averaging 1,000 students showcase
a number of the artists from the regular season, including
the Acting Company's Comedy of Errors and Julius Caesar,
modern dance company Diavalo, the Moscow National Ballet's Nutcracker, and the National Acrobats of the People's

Republic of China.
In spring 2012, the Los Angeles Ballet production of Swan
Lake will be the first presenting partnership between the VPAC
and a major regional company. The VPAC will host the Joffrey
Ballet West Summer Program in July 2012, with approximately
400 young dancers from the region living on campus and studying with the Joffrey dancers.
Since the Great Hall and its support spaces were constructed with private funding, VPAC operating expenses must be
met by a steady income stream. Fortunately, the CSUN campus
is a popular location site for commercials, television, and even
major motion pictures. The Oviatt Library at the center of the
campus has served multiple times as the Star Fleet Academy
in the latest Star Trek movie, the high school for superheroes
in Disney's Sky High, and for Battle Star Galactica's original
episode. The campus averages one major location shoot per
month, and the University Licensing Office confirms that VPAC
is generating weekly calls from location scouts. In just eleven
months of operation, various parts of VPAC were locations for
network pilots and episodes, still photo shoots, and even a "webisode" of Video Game High School.

Onstage/Backstage
The eclectic programming for the Valley Performing Arts Center
demands a stage house and production support services capable of accommodating the wide range of acts booked into

winter

2012

theatre design

& technology

39
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 2012
