The production center is only the latest phase of a broader, multi-million dollar effort to modernize and expand City Theatre, which has been bringing the toast of contemporary theater to Pittsburgh for 44 seasons and counting.
Thursday, November 08, 2018
City Theatre's new production center will beautify the street and connect its cultural campus
The production center is only the latest phase of a broader, multi-million dollar effort to modernize and expand City Theatre, which has been bringing the toast of contemporary theater to Pittsburgh for 44 seasons and counting.
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4 comments:
Oh good, another Phillip Chosky theatre in Pittsburgh. All jokes aside, It is wonderful that the Chosky foundation is still supporting the arts in this city, and it sounds like this center will be helpful to City's advancement and continued operations. Describing the current limitations of the theatre's current space, the problems for design sound limiting. The current space requires "all props and scenery must be designed to be moved through a doorway and up a flight of stairs to reach the main stage, a process that costs the production crew much time and energy," and places limitation on size and scale. I am also very happy that they aren't simply turning their old shop space into storage, but are looking into "re-purposing our current scene shop into a multi-purpose room that can be used for events and other activities.” Space is always a premium, so being able to take advantage of any addition in a well thought out and curated manner will serve City very well in the future. Thats not to say that storage is a bad thing, and certainly more if it can be useful, but the idea that this space could be an active location for events and activities could allow them to expand operations and perhaps serve as a new source for revenue.
I’m so excited to hear about the renovation coming to the City Theatre. When I first visited it in the first few weeks of school, I had trouble even finding it. I also went on a Saturday morning, when the facility was closed, so I had limited exposure to the theatre. Luckily, I returned for “The Revolutionists” and had the chance to appreciate the moving, innovative work the Theatre produces. I also think it’s wonderful that they are going to have their production facility on the same campus. This will be highly effective in reducing transportation costs and lessen the challenge of having to mobilize large sets and racks of costumes. This could also benefit the strides they are making in improving the education program, because it could connect students with both the performance and technical aspects of the theatre process, by having both the theatre, rehearsal, and shop spaces within walking distance.
I love seeing Pittsburgh adding all these infrastructures into the citizen's daily life. I found it interesting that this project is designed to solve the similiar problem that often troubling all theater around the world. According to the article, in this newly built building, the City theater has their current shop layout changed to reduce the pathing of moving scenery from the scene shop, paint shop and prop shop to the theater deck. For the past years, the scenery had to move through a flight of stairs and doors to reach the theater, which causes a longer footprints. The building was previously a housing of a factory and later own by the city theater, serving as storage and parking space. The renovation will enable the building to provide much practical benefits for the city theater and provide a much needed fabrication space. Furthermore, the new layout of the building includes a public space which also benefits the residents in proximity. This kind of projects carries many great purpose, I hope we can see something like this done to our Purnell in the near future.
I am always pleasantly surprised every time I hear about another project in the works to improve the pittsburgh community through the arts. I think Pittsburgh is unique in the way it supports what the arts can do for the community and in turn see the results of what that support can do. I am glad to hear that City theater gets to opportunity to have this new space. I have not had many interactions with the theater, but from what I have herd from those more closely involved, I think these improvements are well needed and will improve the community and the processes of the City Theater immensely. The importance of a space in which all design elements have space to work and collaborate is much more important than a lot of people realize. In a school setting it is easy to see how when a problem needs to be solved everyone you need to solve it is in the same space.
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