Theatre Design & Technology - Spring 1978 - 8

The accident gave ammunition to those who had opposed
building a theatre, as well as to those who questioned the
wisdom of an adjustable ceiling. Understandably, the accident was an embarrassment to San Jose city officials who
were eager to resolve all the problems that resulted. They
were determined that their spacious theatre be esthetically
pleasing, and that audiences have no qualms about sitting
where those crushed seats once were. It was also important
to make the house functional again in order to payoff the
bonds that made the initial construction possible.
While the whole story will probably never be officially
known, a definitive explanation should have been established
in court-the result of a $3 million-pius damage suit brought
by the city of San Jose against some eighteen defendants.
(Among the defendants were: the architect, William Wesley
Peters, George Izenour, Stagecraft Industries, Inc., Day and
Lewis, American Casualty, Taliesin Associated Architects,
Barnhart Construction Co., and Aaron G. Green & Associates.) The case, however, was settled out of court. In February, 1977 Thelen, Marrin, Johnson & Bridges, a firm of San
Francisco attorneys, announced that "the plaintiffs, the City of
San Jose and the San Jose Civic Improvement Authority,
have accepted a settlement offer of $2 million in satisfaction
of their claims."

advised against a multiple use solution, those local powers
who were determined to have a Community Theatre (its original name) were sold on the idea of a floatable ceiling as an
attractive means, both esthetically and practically, for transforming the 2,700-seat house rapidly into a less cavernous
1,945-seat theatre space. Today, Randy Earle, Technical Director for San Jose State University, insists, with good reason, that several halls could have been built for the price of
the failed adjustable one. But as designed and executed, it
looked handsome enough, and by lowering the ceiling it
could effectively make the balcony disappear. Whether, as
claimed, the adjustable ceiling could provide excellent
acoustics in both raised and lowered positions was not possible to establish in performance since the new theatre enjoyed only about two and a half months' performance life.
Various methods have been tried for shutting down unused
portions of a theatre auditorium to create a more intimate
ambience. Louis Sullivan's Auditorium Theatre in Chicago,
for instance, had provision for closing off the upper reaches
of seating. At the University of Wisconsin, Lee Simonson's
modern theatre achieved the same effect with curtains. Two
things, however, are to be avoided: impaired acoustics and
the feeling that part of the auditorium is temporarily iII-concealed.

San Jose's technical problems began-as has been the
case with so many civic theatres-with a desire to construct
a multipurpose auditorium/theatre/opera house/conference
hall. In short, a theatre which could be all things to all events;
a client need that is always difficult, if not impossible, to
satisfy. Aside from the adjustable ceiling, promotional brochures for the theatre boasted of "a fully rigged stage with an
automated orchestra shell, adjustable proscenium openings,
caliper stages, and extended forestages.... The stage lifts
will work in a number of configurations to provide either an
orchestra pit, patron seating, a thrust stage, or a combination
of any two of the above." There are those who feel that the
multipurpose theatre is the fruition of 2500 years of experience in creating effective performing arts arenas. Dr. George
Izenour's new book, Theatre Design, certainly supports this
idea, even offering as evidence a number of theatres in whose
design he has been involved. The San Jose theatre, interestingly, is not among them.
Although experts in the San Jose area, including members
of the San Jose State University technical theatre faculty,

Architect William Wesley Peters of Taliesin Associated Architects, Frank Lloyd Wright's heirs, believed that the San
Jose ceiling was an effective solution to the problems posed.
When the house opened on February 17, 1972, with a large
production of Verdi's Aida, both the creators and the users
announced their satisfaction in the press. Lobbies and public
spaces-easily adaptable for conferences and conventionswere clearly designed for a free flow of people in soothing
surroundings. The wide but rather shallow stage and the
generous backstage dressing room, rehearsal, and storage
spaces obviously would lend themselves to a variety of
theatre, concert, and conference uses. The theatre was heavily booked for months in advance.
Robert Commanday, music critic of the San Francisco
Chronicle, praised the theatre in his Aida review: "The 2,700seat house welcomed the splendid sonorities, particularly
after Act I, when the hidden acoustical side-curtains were
raised to enliven the acoustics. The sound blends and carries
with fi ne presence. It is almost equally distributed to the 1,945
seats in the orchestra and the 756 in the steep shallow bal-

Glenn Loney is a contributing editor of Theatre Crafts, and Professor of Theatre at the City University of New York. He has written on
the performing arts for a number of publications, including Opera News, and After Dark.

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Spring 1978