Theatre Design & Technology - Dec 1969 - 7

To me, as an architect and a planner, it
seems much more appropriate esthetically
and intellectually that the isolation which
flows from "patron" psychology be broken
as we are trying to break it in the theatre
district. A notion of the isolated building
for theatrical purposes-of a theatre which
is used only in the evenings or on Wednesday afternoons it seems to me-is a leftover
from another time and another sensibility.
Although it may seem shocking that someone would say the appropriate place for a
theatre is part of an office building, it
seems to me that that is exactly one kind
of place that a theatre naturally belongswhere possibly 7,000 people pass the box
office four times a day; where it's possible
to have play readings during the lunch hour
and two or three performances during the
evening. It seems to me this might break
down the isolation that I find is so arbitrary,
and which seems to produce many of the
problems we are discussing.
Robert D. Graff:
Once a community begins vaguely to consider construction of a performing arts center, it is faced with the immediate task of
determining: (a) the performing arts needs
of th e commu nity (both the present and fo'eseeable); and (b) The resulting design needs
of the center such as seating capacity,
dressing rooms, stage equipment, etc.
These determinations involve as much crystal-bailing as those made daily by corporations planning to introduce a new product
into the marke~. My firm, Arthur D. Littl e,

THEATER DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY

Inc., is only one of a number of consulting
firms which apply their know-how in market
research and civic planning, to analyze performing arts needs of communities.
Some years ago the idea grew, as psychologists started to explain us a little bit, that
the difference between men and animals
was that we humans do not live only in the
present. Because we do live not only in the
present, we have need of the past. One of
the ways in which we do this is through
the performing arts.
So if one were to answer the question
"Who Needs Performing Arts Centers",
there is no question that every single human being alive on th is earth needs them.
The most effective use of consultants comes
before there is any question of a building.·
The consultant goes into matters of market
research in a very deep way and, in effect,
the life-style, flexibility and social needs of,
the time.
I
This leads to a very serious community consideration, for groups who are responsible
for individual forms, of the performing arts
are not necessarily commu nicative wi th other
groups with similarly fragmented responsibilities. Unless a community can be pulled
together in some kind of a planning process,
you may build whatever you like, and you
may fill it 52 weeks a year; but in point of
fact it's not going to work.
What the consultant can do-a consultant
who works with the principals in this preliminary period-would be to get a tolerable

DECEMBER,1969

measure of understanding of the level of
commitment; a clear feeling for what the
community can truthfully support. Armed
with that information, those responsible for
the building can then engage in intelligent
discussion with the architect.
(Mr. Graff said that in some cases his firm
will recommend that a performing arts center
not be built, "because there is not the audience, community necessity, or the sustenance which could do more than support
a series of traveling troupes." However, he
felt that minimum facilities are needed almost anywhere, which frequently could be
provided in a good high school auditorium.)
Hugh Hardy:
What kind of building can possibly satisfy
the need? There is no question that art
isn't what we would like it to be. Art is
what artists do. And performance is what
performers do. If a happening is performance today- not less or not more than a
three-act, one-set, four-character play-then
that sort of requirement must be structured
into the architecture.
How is it possible for architects to determine the building which can satisfy themyriad needs for performance wh ich even a modest community has today? We are far away
from resolving the problem.
What a consultant can really do is provide
the architect and the community with a more
precise definition of the structural requirements, the audience possibilities, and thus,
the parameters for the building.

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