Curtain Rises
Juniata's Sparkling Performing Arts Center Shines Spotlight on Campus
From prospective students looking for a great performing space to alumni who recall spending convocations in sweltering spring heat, those who visit the Marlene and Barry Halbritter Center for the Performing Arts cannot help but be changed by the experience.
"The Halbritter Center is not only a superb classroom and performing space, but it also will become a resource for Huntingdon and surrounding communities," says Juniata President Thomas Kepple. "This architectural gem allows us to provide top-flight educational opportunities and expand our arts and lecture programs."
The Oller Hall building seems as familiar as an old friend, but the entrance plaza, which features an inlaid seal of the College, soon reveals that the front of the building has been entirely redesigned to extend the portico well beyond the columned entrance and provide wheelchair-accessible ramps to the entrance doors.
The Halbritter Center is not only a superb classroom and performing space, but it also will become a resource for Huntingdon and surrounding communities.
- -Thomas Kepple
Accessibility within Rosenberger Auditorium also has improved with the addition of three wheelchair-access areas: a large central area at the rear of the hall and two smaller areas on the right and left aisles. The College also installed state-of-the-art audio to complement the 40 assisted-listening devices available for every event. The ceiling has been redone to improve the acoustics of the auditorium, and every window has been replaced.
The once-drafty building features new insulation, supporting the new climate-controlled heating and air conditioning system that runs through the entire theatre complex. The 820-seat auditorium's most impressive changes, however, might be behind the scenes.
"There is a continuing challenge to build a first rate instrumental music program at Juniata and these two facilities should provide impetus towards that goal," says Anne Baker, Trustee and co-chair of the Campaign for the Arts. "High quality performing spaces with good acoustics will greatly increase Juniata's ability to showcase both student and professional performances. As a former professional musician, I believe strongly that the performing arts are a critically important part of a liberal arts education."
The facilities for the performing artists, particularly the "green room," dwarf the admittedly meager rooms that existed previously. A large common room, outfitted with a kitchenette, comfortable seating, computer access and storage, has dressing rooms for men and women, each complete with shower, bathroom and makeup stations. A hydraulic lift in the green room allows crews to lift equipment onto the stage or to reveal theatrical effects during a performance. "In the past, we had a harder time bringing in different acts because of what the facility lacked," says Chad Herzog '99, director of the Performing Arts Center, whose job was created to support the performance space.
The two small bathrooms in the Oller Hall foyer have been replaced with offices for theatre staff. The memorably cramped original bathrooms have been superceded by spacious new restrooms in the wonderfully open Esther Doyle lobby.
Graduates and Professors are Center Stage for Theatre, Auditorium Seats
In Juniata's equivalent of Hollywood's Walk of Fame, the stars, so to speak, of the College can be honored by alumni, family or friends by buying seats for their favorite professor or student in Rosenberger Auditorium and the new von Liebig Theatre.
Roger and Carol Anderson, of Glenville, Pa., gave a seat in honor of their daughter, Cindy '96, believing that Juniata's POE allowed Cindy to mold her education around dual interests in singing and medicine. Cindy earned two degrees at Juniata, in vocal performance and pre-med. "Singing was and is a love for her," her father says. "Medicine won out as her career path, but singing remains a joy. Buying a seat seems an appropriate way to sponsor an item related to her love, and show some appreciation to the college that played a key part in her personal development."
Bill Fegan '48 furnished a theatre chair in honor of Esther Doyle, professor emeritus of English. Bill relates that "Dr. Doyle was instrumental in my choosing to make theatre a life's career even though all the shows were extracurricular. Not only was she our theatre mentor, but she was our inspiration for life. I have taught and directed theatre through all these years having had just one three-hour course-Play Production-taught by Miss Doyle, as she was then called. She is a Juniata treasure." Bill feels that a theatre seat named for Doyle is a fitting way to recognize her inspiration in his life.
Please contact Marsha Hartman, director of development, at (814) 641-3110 or hartmam@juniata.edu for information about seat-naming opportunities.
-Linda Carpenter, director of annual giving
Just beyond the lobby is the Suzanne von Liebig Theatre, a free-form space that resembles few traditional theatres. The three-story space starts with a surface that has no fixed seating, allowing for myriad seating and performance choices. Herzog says the space can seat 175 to 200 people using chairs or a newly designed riser system that can lock banks of seats into place. "The company that designed the seating created a new seat for the system and they are calling the prototype the 'Juniata' seat," Herzog says.
"The theatre complex will create new student interest in theatre arts, which will result in greater student participation in theatre productions," says W. Clemens Rosenberger '54, Trustee emeritus and co-chair of the Campaign for the Arts. "Because we now have the necessary flex space and staging equipment Juniata will be able to attract to its campus the finest professional actors, Artist Series productions, theatre workshops and visiting faculty."
"The new space will allow us to play with the performers' relationship to the audience," says Mandi Yeager '08, a sophomore from Curwensville, Pa.
The von Liebig space is dominated by the three-story Elizabeth Graybill Geiser '37 Window, unique to this type of theatre, that draws the eye to the cupola ceiling designed to mimic the cupola of Juniata's Carnegie Hall. A second-story catwalk holds the theatre's computer-controlled lighting and sound system, areas for lighting design and a small space for performances or storage. A third-story catwalk holds lighting stations that can unplugged in an instant, allowing for maximum flexibility in lighting design. Behind the theatre space lies the scenery shop, fully outfitted with tools and a massive soundproof door leading out to the theatre. "The theatre will allow us to explore a larger spectrum of production styles than most programs would allow," Yeager adds. "The window serves as a way to bring the world of theatre out of the confines of the building, creating a world of its own."
Like the large auditorium, many of the most advanced features of the new building are below the main floor, on "the garden level" as Herzog calls it. An exciting space is the huge movement and dance studio, which has a 3-inch maple floor, theatrical lighting and seating for 85. "This will be the main teaching space for theatre," says Andrew Belser, associate professor of theatre. "The space has its own lighting control room as well as a small recording studio that can be used by sound designers or the College's IT and digital media students."
Another classroom space is more traditional in nature. Used primarily for the College's Performing Arts Management course, the space is fully outfitted for multimedia production, including six Macintosh G-5 computers, digital video cameras, plasma screen television monitors and digital cameras. "The students will be doing everything associated with marketing the arts-advertising, press releases, grant proposals, even commercials," Herzog explains.
The building's lower level also has a costume sewing shop, two large instrument storage areas, two faculty offices, bathroom facilities and an elevator. Like that elevator, the Juniata theatre program is on the rise, although in our program's case, only the sky is the limit.