Theatre Design & Technology - Dec 1971 - 6

that can result from the application
of this Zoning Amendment.
The main portion of the American
Place Theatre is below grade. Like
an iceberg, it is best described not
by levels, but by blocks of volume.
The principal volume is the theatre,
which runs from plaza level down
three stories. On the south side of
that underground space is a block
of smaller spaces which includes
the mezzanine and cabaret that are
generated by the public's route of
circulation from the street down 27
feet to the underground lobby at
the back of the house. Below both
these elements is an L-shaped block,
42 feet below the street, housing
shops, dressing and green rooms,
and rehearsal space.
The theatre itself is not quite as
high (30 feet) as its plan is square
(55 feet by 64 feet). On either side
of the house, one level above the
seating, galleries doubling as acting
areas connect the control and observation rooms to the backstage. Extending over the entire audience and
acting area are lighting catwalks and
the hemp-and mechanical-winch rigging. The basic stage configuration
is a permanent end stage with 299
seats wrapped around a removable
apron, or thrust, which projects out
from the end stage. Although the
drawings show the removable wood
stage to be half an octagon, this stage
may in fact be reshaped for each production. At the sacrifice of a few
seats, it can be built at one side of
the house or the other; it can extend
the whole width of the end stage; it
can thrust out into the seating area;
or it can be el iminated altogether and
additional seats can be placed on the
wood floor instead. The gradual rake
of the fixed-concrete seating platforms dissipates the intensity of
{ center-stage focus associated with
conventional sharply-raked seating
about a thrust stage. Thus, it is theoretically possible to act in many different areas of the house without
grossly inconveniencing the audience. However, the prohibitive cost
of providing easily removable fixed

seating (unbolting conventional fixed
seats, relocating aisles and aisle
lights, and filing alternate seating
plans for each configuration with
the Building Department) militates
against the ultimate flexibility of
the space.

cess ... we offer a full professional production with a run of six weeks for a
membership audience. Plays and projects
which have a life beyond their production at the American Place Theatre will
be
transferred
to
Broadway,
OffBroadway, or offered for production
throughout the world.

The type of flexibility intended in
this theatre is in keeping with the
American Place's long tradition of
bringing the precise intent of the playwright to the public-of closing the
gap between playwright, actor, and
audience. In its membership brochure, issued in September 1964, it
defines its raison d' etre as follows:

For the past seven years, the American Place has operated with a minimal administrative and production
staff at St. Clement's Church further
west on 46th Street. The new
theatre, for which they have a 30year Iease at $ 5.00 per year, is
designed specifically to meet their
needs and to allow them to expand
their Writer's Program, increase the
number of productions by extending
runs and scheduling more than one
production per evening, double their
membership, and introduce a new
program devoted to political satire
which will use the cabaret space as
its home. However, the move to this
new and improved facility involves
no corresponding augmentation of

When the writer comes to the American Place Theatre, he enters a professional theatre with a continuous life
of individual projects, a theatre which
seeks the widest possible audience for
something worth hearing . . . . We offer
financial aid to authors . . . we offer
early collaboration between writer and
director ... we offer exploratory production with material written for the stage
seen 'on stage' during the creative pro-

THEATER DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY

DECEMBER. 1971

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