Theatre Design & Technology - Fall 1983 - 21

When we first heard that the Democratic Party was interested in using the
Crouse-Hinds Concert Theater, Civic
Center of Onondaga County, as the site
for their 1982 Convention, we were both
delighted and a little nervous. We had
never been involved with "staging" a
convention, and certainly not a com'ention in a concert hall.
The Crouse-Hinds Concert Theater
is the home of the Syracuse Symphony
Orchestra and countless other Syracuse
area arts organizations. It is one of three
theatre spaces in the Civic Center, which
opened seven years ago, and adjoins a
sixteen-story building housing the offices of Onondaga County government.
The Crouse-Hinds Concert Theater is a
2117 seat hall designed by A RCO P Associates of Montreal, Canada as a multiuse facility. Russell Johnson, acoustician, implemented acoustical treatments. Patron sightlines and technical
flexibility are incorporated into this
space. The proscenium opening is 60 I
wide by 40 I high. Onstage there are 80
line sets, full orchestra shell utilizing
twelve 24 I high by 10 ' wide castered
towers. Four ceiling panels containing
1000W PAR lamps and electrical tripping and lift motors are positioned in
the fly loft to raise and lower the ceiling
shell. Five house electrics are hung as
house plot electrics and a full complement of black borders, legs, travellers,
plus cycs, scrims and some additional
curtains are hung for the stage. The
stage floor is two layers of plywood with
masonite covering all on bird's nest
sleepers.
In the house, the main arena for the
Convention, the orchestra pit is a twosectioned hydraulic elevator with aircastered removable seating. The upstage
lift holds 75 seats and the downstage lift
has 92 seats. These extra seats were not
used for the Convention. The orchestra
lifts became the stage for the main
speaker's platform.
Along the side wall of the theatre are
acoustical cllrtains. These curtains,
velour and sheer, are used as \'ariable
acoustical treatments for the space. For
the Democratic Convention we lowered
the velour curtains 10 feet from the
floor. There are pull drapes along the
back wall of the house. These were
closed as a further dampening of the
theatre.
The front-of-house lighting is hung
from a steel cat walk suspended from a
ceiling position approximately 75 feet

FROM

Ballets
TO

Ballots
AND

Back
by Richard S. Peterson

Concert theatre in norlllal configuration.

Concert theatre set up for the Convention sho\l··
ing cross·over aisles.

from the stage floor. This lighting position supports forty Major lOx 15 single
step lens Lekos-IOOOWQ lamps (80 circuits are available). There are three
towers house right and house left that
contain the box boom lighting positions.
The normal instrument hang on these
towers is eight 8 x 9 Major Lekos and
eight 6 x 12 Altman Lekos per side. The
towers, steel catwalk, and two balcony
rails comprise the front-of-house
lighting positions. The onstage electrics
can be seen in the house plot diagram.
For the Convention, we used the complete front of the house and backlit the
speakers' platform from the first onstage electric. The control board for the
lighting system is a Silu'on-Van Buren
Compu-set 2000 located in a control
booth on the mezzanine level. Elements
of the board include 100 control channels by 250 presets by 350 dimmerscomputer controlled memory system
with disc storage. Patching by low
voltage pin matrix located in the light
control booth.
The sound system is controlled by a
Ward Beck Console. The mixing console offers 16 x 4 mix and a 6 x 2 effects
section. The board is located in a control room at the rear of the Orchestra
level. The mixing board can be operated
in the control room or be pushed into
the rear of the house. The speaker system consists of three Altec clusters
mounted over the proscenium arch. The
entire speaker bridge has a vertical travel
of 20 feel. The house tape decks include
Crown half-track reel to reel, Otari
5050B reel to reel, Skully four track
machines, NAD cassette player, and a
full complement of dynamic, condenser,
and wireless microphones. With all of
these technical aids and the fine esthetics
of the hall the New York State Democratic ominating Committee selected
Crouse-Hinds Concert Theater for the
1982 convention.
How do you turn a concert hall into
a convention floor and main arena for
typical political furor? There were many
points to consider. Hours were spent
planning out the floor plans, establishing the positions for the various media,
security, delegate, and technical requirements around the space. The Democratic Committee wanted to remove a
lot of the orchestra seating to make
room for the delegates-this had not
been done before. What about stagehands-when, how many needed for
what day? Telephones: no problem; call

USITT Fall 1983/Thcatre Design & Technology

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