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U.S. THEATRICAL CENTERS.
Term Paper ID:26624
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Essay Subject:
Examines 8 theatrical centers in U.S.: Lincoln Center, John F. Kennedy Center, Music Center of L.A., 5 more.... More...
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15 Pages / 3375 Words
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Paper Abstract:
Examines 8 theatrical centers in U.S.: Lincoln Center, John F. Kennedy Center, Music Center of L.A., 5 more.
Paper Introduction:
This research will examine the eight top American theatrical centers in the U.S. The research will set forth the background for the establishment of performing-arts centers in certain major urban areas of the country and then discuss the focus of each such facility, with a view toward identifying the attributes of each center's operation and the scope of activity in which each center engages.
To adequately appreciate the standing that a performing arts center has in any major urban area, it may be useful to look at the social function that the concept of performing arts has served in the U.S. in general. From the acting company formed by William Hallam in 1752 in Williamsburg, Virginia (Hewitt 12-12), to the present day, theatrical performance appears to have held popular appeal with the public at large. On the other hand, there appea
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The theatre more generallyappears to have been considered an extravagance, particularly where othermatters were more pressing. . The need to raise funds and keepticket prices at a reasonable level over the long term appears to havedriven this profit-center concept of facilities use.Raymond F. However, program content hasalso been a key feature of OCPAC. Asecond feature of NJPAC's programming, connected to the first, is its focuson minority-group demographics. Its annual budget is reportedly $5 million ("Lincoln"). Lincoln Center appears to be connected to arange of cultural life in New York while also remaining distinct from theovertly commercial Broadway theatre that can be considered its counterpart.John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington, D.C. It was during this period thatwhat originated as the Orange County Music Center was renamed the OrangeCounty Performing Arts Center. The inspirationfor this shift seems to have been the evidence and example of long-termsuccess associated with the three principal performing arts centers in theU.S.: Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York, the KennedyCenter in Washington, D.C., and the Music Center in Los Angeles. Owing to its International Classic DanceSeason is known as "the leading West Coast presenter of internationaldance" ("Center History"). However, the fact that it did not progress from brainchildto fait accompli can be inferred from the little-known fact that in theformative years of the organization one major fund-raising mechanism was atelethon (Clinton 746). Equally, it can be argued thatwhat comprises the "top" theatrical centers of the U.S. capital and to its association with a highly regardedAmerican name. Where, for example, is Texas, whether Dallas or FortWorth or Houston or San Antonio? There is no single pattern to a venue's location within agiven locality; however, most appear to be at or near city centers. Concert Hall), a 3 -seat theatre (Marshall E. Theatre U.S.A. and willdiscountenance and discourage every species of extravagance an dissipation,especially . However, several key features of NJPAC are also of note. But attempts to establish similarcompanies in Philadelphia and Chicago in the 195 s did not succeed.Meanwhile, the motion-picture alternative to legitimate theatre, whereproduction and marketing costs of mounting an elaborately costumed play hadincreased from a high of $25 , in 1951 (Hughes 484) to an average of $2million for a flop ("Boffo" 8 ) and $4 million for a hit (Jacobs 5) some 3 years later, further encroached on the practical appeal of liveperformance. The second distinguishing feature of TBPAC is evidence of more popularand less, so to speak, highbrow programming as the staple of centeractivity. Meanwhile, the Tulsa Performing Arts CenterTrust, the fund-raising arm of TPAC, has a leadership comprising citizensprominent in business and the arts and appointed by the mayor.Conclusion The pattern of performing-arts centers as an American culturefranchise appears to be popular rather than highbrow in orientation, andincreasingly attentive to financial concerns and technical impressivenessof the physical plant. Since 1965 the library, informally referred to as the "people'suniversity" (Dionne 3 ), has been affiliated with the New York PublicLibrary and in 1998 was temporarily relocated during a $3 -millionfacilities-renovation project. "Great Expectations Fuel Arts Center Work." Newark Star-Ledger 2 March 1997: 1.Sudol, Valerie. In other words, implied in thelarge-scale performance spaces is what could be called a "common touch"very much distinct from, say, Lincoln Center or even the Hollywood-adjacentMusic Center of Los Angeles. It does meanthat from the earliest period of American history the theatre in its manyconfigurations was apart from the mainstream. However, what does emerge unambiguously is that majorconcentrations of urban population have in recent years been reliablepredictors of the establishment of major performing-arts facilities andprograms. Community pride and self-esteem were at the heart of the matter;these attributes appear to have taken shape chiefly in a focus onfacilities expansion. TPAC also has a version of a rehearsal hallor black-box theatre (Liddy Doenges Theatre), which can be manipulated toaccommodate a variety of seating and performance configurations. The mass-market focus of Tampa's center can also be inferred from theprogramming offered by the resident Center Theater Company of Tampa Bay,which in 1998 and 1999 presented a review called Hollywood Nights, a live-theatre tribute to motion picture technology and history ("Welcome"). Indeed,such facilities have been linked to the concept of urban renewal,especially in cities like Newark, where a performing-arts center was viewedpartly as a mechanism for breaching the multiple problems of urban squalorand the antipathy between urban and suburban subpopulations (Freeman 4;"Breathing" 14). TheCenter describes itself as "the umbrella organization" for some 3 performances every year, ranging from Mostly Mozart and Live from LincolnCenter to Jazz at Lincoln Center. As of 1998, plans were under way for adding toOCPAC's facilities, with construction of a 35 -seat theatre, a concert hallseating 1,8 , and prospective plans to site "an art museum or othercultural arts usage" at the physical plant. CD-ROM. Dreyfoos, Jr. To begin with, whereas MCLAC is located in downtown Los Angeles, OCPACis located adjacent to a suburban shopping center that functions very muchas its own city center. The results were spotty until some ten years later, by whichtime the off-Broadway theatre had emerged as a force with a life of its ownin New York, as well as in Dallas, Texas, and Washington, D.C., where therewere resident-player companies, even though the playbills were by and largeclassics and revivals of Broadway shows. However,the cultural life and demographics of Newark as an urban center on its owncan be readily distinguished from those of New York City. "New Arts Center Strikes Suburban-Urban Chord." Newark Star-Ledger 3 June 1997: 4.Hewitt, Barnard. That feature is reflected in the physical plant itself, whichcomprises four separate theatres and a rehearsal hall that is equipped formusical, dance, opera, theatrical, pageant, and motion picture andtelevision productions. in general but perhaps also of the world. . The Kennedy's status is undoubtedly partly due to its physicallocation in the U.S. . from desire to availability of the finest artistic offerings" ("CenterHistory"). Kennedyin the early 196 s; indeed, the Center has evolved to the status of what iscommonly referred to as America's "national cultural institution, thanks toso many people who are committed to that ideal, the ideal that art andculture are not so much a pastime as a definer, a clarifier, arepresentation of America" (Clinton 746). By and large lacking access to first nights on 42ndStreet or at the Met, however, performing arts centers across the Hudsonand around the country seem intent on duplicating the technical features ofboth commercial theatre and its highbrow counterpart in New York. Kravis Center for the Performing Arts, Inc." .Rothstein, Mervyn. This research will examine the eight top American theatrical centersin the U.S. The Kennedy Center, established in 1971, can be interpreted as asuccessor organization of the ANTA, which was originally conceived as aneducational bridge between professional and amateur theatre and whichduring its brief life produced educational materials on theatre management,play production, dramaturgy, and the like (Hewitt 486). Equally significant, however, are the extensivebanquet and retail facilities, which makes the center suited to conventionand other meeting proceedings associated less with the arts per se thanwith the preoccupations of the mass market. The fruits of this ethos can be discerned in avariety of attributes of the OCPAC, which can be readily compared to theattributes of the MCLAC. "NJPAC Gets Major Boost of Creativity." Newark Star-Ledger 25 February 1997: 1."TRW Sponsorship Brings Art Start Programs to South Bay Preschoolers." Performing Arts (January 1997): MC-8."Tulsa Performing Arts Center." ."Welcome to the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center." . For example,the Verdi was sponsored by the newspaper Tulsa World, Merrill Lynch, andlocal radio and TV stations. To adequately appreciate the standing that a performing arts centerhas in any major urban area, it may be useful to look at the socialfunction that the concept of performing arts has served in the U.S. However, there is evidence of a deliberate and programmatic ethosat work in the history of Southern California's Orange County aimed at theproject of establishing a cultural identity distinct and apart from itsneighbor just to the north. But whereas Lincoln Center has its Avery Fisher Halland Vivian Beaumont theatre; Los Angeles its Taper Forum and ChandlerPavilion, and Orange County its various Segerstrom theatre and hall plants,the Kravis Center per se--not just one or two specific venues--is named forits primary patron and not named according to more or less conventionalcivic protocols. While NJPAC isundoubtedly still in its early days, it is not too soon in its history toobserve that the focus on classical music (with the New Jersey SymphonyOrchestra the main resident performing company), jazz, and dance thatmarked the center's opening night was to prevail afterward. A third characteristic is the visibility of philanthropicgifts of significant size--ranging from gifts of land and refurbishingfunds to various endowments meant to foster the continuation of the life ofthe facilities. In sum, the theatre and the arts were by and large consideredan expensive extravagance. What must be noted here, however, is that even ina second-tier metropolitan area such as Tulsa, the multimillion-dollarphysical plant of the relevant performing arts center appears to be equalto the technological task of showcasing major-market commercial theatricalsas well as local talent. Ironically, this kind of structure meant that theform a production took was "often . By the 198 s and 199 s, however, there had emerged compelling evidenceof a broad-based shift in attitude toward performing-arts venues, if nottoward the costs of staging performances in such venues. Research for this project has led to the conclusion that as of thelate 199 s the following can be considered, if not the most influentialundoubtedly very typical performing arts centers in U.S. Over the next 18 years plans faltered in the face ofcommunity-infrastructure resistance to being located next to a performancecomplex. This undoubtedly reflects the pattern of the greatest weight ofeconomic activity in the U.S. In the 198 s, with fund-raising effortsproceeding in the background, two smaller theatres and a multipurpose 3, -seat performing-arts hall were constructed. Some $73 million, all from privately donatedfunds, was completed in 1986, and for some 12 years thereafter, the centeroperated at a profit. On the other hand,the Music Center's Education Division, with the help of corporatesponsorship also hosts a range of arts-education programs for school-agechildren ("TRW" MC8).Orange County Performing Arts Center, Costa Mesa, Calif. Capitol Building, charge noadmission fee. . Williamstheatre is no less technologically equipped, making it suited to chambermusic, film, solo performances. "Nickelby's Profits." Saturday Review. Some live-theatre performances, notably at theMillennium Stage, established in 1997 first in the foyer of the maintheatre and later on the grounds of the U.S. That is, NJPACprovided a showcase for these performers that would not necessarily havebeen available elsewhere (Sudol 1). The high art, except for the touring appearances of major concertstars, appears to be very much home grown. . The overarching purpose of the OCPAC was to fulfill the vision ofOrange County's "awakened maturity in the performing arts . Lincoln Center operates of theLincoln Center Institute, which provides educational programs for children,and the Performing Arts Library, containing collections on music, theatre,and dance. There is a widelyheld view that no other center of its kind exists anywhere in the world oroffers such variety, quality, and quantity of performances (Rothstein 374).Lincoln Center was established in 1956 and has a permanent paid staff ofsome 5 . What thiscame down to was that in both America and Europe at the time, "to become anactress was to lose one's reputation" (Hewitt 41). First thereis the fact that, with the exception of the NJSO, programming plans appearto rely heavily on inputs from nonresident performance companies, somebased in New Jersey and some in New York. In 1986, the combination of a $5-million gift of funds in Kravis'sname plus the city of Palm Beach's grant of a 5-acre downtown parcel madegroundbreaking possible. New York: Samuel French, 1951.Jacobs, Bernard B. In other words, thecenter in general and its constituent parts in particular are to beassociated with specific philanthropic givers. Thus if forno other reason than to provide the middle of the country with somerepresentation, it is appropriate to look at the emergence and character ofa performing arts center situated somewhere besides the cities of urban-provincial America. A secondcharacteristic in common is that a performing arts center is the home of atleast one resident company of players, either theatrical or musical, butusually musical. March 1982."Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts." Encyclopedia of Associations, Associations Unlimited. At the same time, there are elements of performingarts centers at their most commercial that make them unlike commercialtheatre on Broadway. However, Broadway absorbedmuch of this activity over the next 2 years, which did nothing to loosenthe commercial concentration in New York. The research will set forth the background for theestablishment of performing-arts centers in certain major urban areas ofthe country and then discuss the focus of each such facility, with a viewtoward identifying the attributes of each center's operation and the scopeof activity in which each center engages. "Front and Center." Wine Spectator 3 April 1998: 374- 379.Sherman, Ted, and Valerie Sudol. . The Kravis Center can be viewed in at least one key respect as aconceptual adumbration of the ethos informing virtually all performancearts facilities in the U.S. A more controversial aspect of NJPAC is what could be called itsentrepreneurial focus (Sherman and Sudol 1). Opera, and L.A. For example, the Manhattan-basedAlvin Ailey Dance Company was described as a "resident affiliate."Theatrical troupes from New York (e.g., Papp's Shakespeare in the Parkseries) and New Jersey (e.g., Princeton) were made a part of the program. Detroit: Gale Research, 1997."Metropolitan Opera Guild." Encyclopedia of Associations, Associations Unlimited. Part of this double vision can undoubtedly beattributed to the Revolutionary War, but the residue of influential andanti-theatre New England Puritanism on American social mores. The shopping center (South Coast Plaza) itself wasconstructed in the 196 s on land developed by a prosperous farming familysurnamed Segerstrom ("Center History"). Today, live audiences numbering about two million,together with broadcast audiences estimated at 2 million, patronize theKennedy every year. Indeed, the Metropolitan OperaCompany, which has been in existence since 1935 and which has an annualbudget of $17.5 million ("Metropolitan"). Limited alternatives to American commercial theatre in the 192 ssprang up in New York in amateur theatricals promoted on the fringe ofBroadway by the intelligentsia and would-be professionals, notably in theTheatre Guild, the Washington Square Players, and the ProvincetownPlayhouse (the first venue for O'Neill's plays). A key characteristic that performing-arts centers share is thatthey house more than one theatre, concert hall, or other performance venue,and tend to be either adjacent to or near multiple pre- or post-entertainment eating establishments and similar facilities. This kind of physical plant is areflection of the city's standing as a center of American economic activity--in the case of Tulsa, well known to be dominated by oil money. This economic growth in general, together with the growth oftourism in the area in particular, fueled the development of the $57-million facilities, located on nine acres of downtown Tampa. The 437-seat John H. The Kennedy Centerappears to have been the brainchild of President and Mrs. John F. Kravis Center for the Performing Arts, West Palm Beach, Fla. ingeneral. and the vigor with which community artscouncils promote their performance centers. Two distinguishing features of this center may be immediately noted.The first is that the existence of the center owes much to theextraordinary economic growth of the twin cities of the west coast ofFlorida, Tampa and St. More than this, theindustry where major theatrical performance occurred was concentrated in afairly small area in and around New York City's Times Square, not leastbecause of the power-sharing dynamics of producers, directors, actors,trades unions, investors, and theatre owners who themselves wereconcentrated in New York. . Theremaining five top theatrical centers in the U.S. The Tulsa Philharmonic, thecenter's principal resident company, celebrated its 5 th anniversary in1999 with a performance (requiring orchestra and chorus) of Verdi's Requiem("Tulsa"). Since itsopening, the Mark Taper Forum, also referred to as the Center TheatreGroup, has historically been a venue for more experimental performances("Music Center"). Six years and $63 million later, the Kravis Centeropened, with facilities including a 2,2 -seat and nearly 1 , -square-foot stage concert hall (Alexander W. "Performing Arts Library Moves Temporarily for Renovation." Dance Magazine 72 (July 1998): 3 .Freeman, Allison. 1981: 8 ."Breathing New Life Into Cities." Futurist 32 (November 1998): 14."Center History: The Segerstrom Family and the Orange County Performing Arts Center." .Dionne, Alexandria. The result is an apparently consistent and optimalfacilities use, marked by a merging of high art and popular culture on onehand and by public- and private-sector partnerships on the other. . the accidental product of severalconflicting aims, ideas, attitudes, and personalities. The principal focus of Lincoln Centerappears to be on dance, music, and opera. The Florida Philharmonic is theresident company, and concert rather than theatrical performance, asindicated by the facilities allocation, is the principal focus at theKravis.Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, Tampa, Fla. The resident South Coast Repertory theatrecompany, which presents classical plays every year, has also won awards asa distinguished regional theatre, including a Tony Award in New York in1988.New Jersey Performing Arts Center, Newark, N.J. A three-theatre complex in downtown Los Angeles that is the home ofthe Los Angeles Music center opened in 1964 with the largest of the threetheatre plants, the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. In general, affordability (at least vis-à-vis Broadway)seems to be an index of arts centers' popularity. Works Cited"And Another Boffo Season." Time 5 Oct. moving us .. The Chandler is the home ofthe resident Los Angeles Philharmonic, L.A. Popular culture has been in evidence at TPAC in the shape of themuch-franchised touring companies of Broadway musicals Les Miserables, ThePhantom of the Opera, and Cats (each an import from Britain and the pen ofSir Andrew Lloyd Webber). Thus several African American performancegroups considered secondary or offshoot troupes in Brooklyn and elsewherewere scheduled as centerpiece offerings of the NJPAC. The case of Tulsa is perhaps not remarkable inthis regard, except for that city's apparent ability to support what itdescribes as "internationally recognized local arts groups" ("Tulsa") andto distinguish between the work of these groups and the shows and artistson offer from outside the city: "Entertainment promoters also stage eventsin the Center's four theatres. exhibitions of shews, plays, and other expensivediversions" (Hewitt 3 ). Under suchconditions everyone could bewail the state of the theatre and everyonecould blame everyone but himself" (Hewitt 485). It was during this period, too, that Orange County entered thepopular imagination as a major financial and commercial center in its ownright in Southern California. The first structured response tothis commercial concentration came in 1946, with formation of the AmericanNational Theatre and Academy (ANTA), which sought to break the strangleholdthat "confined professional theatre to a few blocks around Times Square"(Hewitt 486). CD-ROM. Donations of land adjacent to thatcenter, initially spurred by enthusiasm for the Philharmonic Society ofOrange County (an orchestra), have been forthcoming from the Segerstromsover the years, beginning in the mid-197 s and continuing through the199 s. The Kravis Center traces its origins to the formation in 1968 of theFine Arts Festival, Incorporated, which intended to raise funds entirelyfrom the private sector to build an arts center for major opera, orchestra,ballet, and theatre. In the background of the Tulsa Performing Arts Center is a dynamicthat seems typical of such centers around the country: a generally feltsense that promotion of and access to the high arts is a proper province ofcivic and community life. By the late twentieth century, the social climate had been transformedseveral times over, with a whole range of attributes influencing theestablishment of theatrical companies and performance venues around thecountry. . The performing-arts focus at the Music Center appears to be fairlyevenly divided between legitimate and musical theatre at the Taper and theAhmanson, and a variety of musical and dance programs, anchored by thePhilharmonic as the resident company. . This is all the moreinteresting because the long-term history of the center has been connectedto a more general ethos of community pride and disinterested service on thepart of wealthy patrons. Master Chorale.The Mark Taper Forum and Ahmanson Theatre opened in 1966 and 1967,respectively. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1959.Hughes, Glenn. arts . Where are Seattle, Kansas City, Chicago,Minneapolis, Salt Lake City, Atlanta, St. Rinker Playhouse), a hall suitable for gourmetcatering (Eunice and Julian Cohen Pavilion), and a 1,6 -seat amphitheatre(Michael and Andrew Gosman Amphitheatre). This is noteworthy because of the location of the centerin a community well known for its affluent population. The Ahmanson's premiere production was Eugene O'Neill's MoreStately Mansions, a choice that, as indicated by Hewitt, reflected thetendency of theatre companies outside Broadway to present classic orrevival plays rather than commercial plays; the Ahmanson has been the siteof a number of touring and preview-company Broadway shows. is not a matter ofuniversal agreement. The high profile of Los Angeles in general and Los Angeles County'sMusic Center in particular in Southern California would seem to argueagainst the idea that a second performing-arts center of stature andambition equal to that of Los Angeles could be found in the adjacent OrangeCounty. One does not have to be an aficionado of the Rocky Mountains to seethat the centers cited thus far are evidence of a coastal metropolitanbias. As ifto balance the popular-culture focus of the center, an Insights series ofinformal lectures is touted as an educational program, scheduled inconjunction with performances in the manner of audience-participation talkshows featuring academics and performers.Tulsa Performing Arts Center, Tulsa, Okla. The marriage of public and private sectors in Tulsa, as in otherperforming arts venues, is reflected in the active and high-profilecorporate sponsorship of both local and touring programming. From the earliest designperiod, NJPAC's complex was mean to "maximize the revenue-producing space."Thus the main lobby, a mezzanine rotunda, and even the facility's mainrehearsal hall could be made available for banquets, weddings, and the like--with a minimum $1 , hall-rental price. Detroit: Gale Research, 1997."Music Center LA." ."The Raymond F. Louis, San Francisco? . The east coast counterpart of the OCPAC must be considered the NJPAC,which opened in Newark in late 1997. Hewitt cites a resolution of the firstContinental Congress in Philadelphia in 1774, which vowed to encourage"frugality, economy, and industry, and . TPAC has four separate theatre venues, each suitedto a particular kind of performance and three of them named forphilanthropic patrons: the 2,367-seat Chapman Music Hall, which canaccommodate the full range of popular entertainment from opera to ballet,orchestras, plays, meetings, and film. Studio IIis TPAC's rehearsal hall per se. From the acting company formed by William Hallam in 1752 inWilliamsburg, Virginia (Hewitt 12-12), to the present day, theatricalperformance appears to have held popular appeal with the public at large.On the other hand, there appears to have been a historic pattern ofsuspicion toward the social integrity of theatrical performers andimpresarios, and more generally toward the very notion of theatre asextravagance. The educational outreach of ANTA appears to have been preserved in theKennedy Center's mission, in the shape of eight regional offices for thecenter's National Advisory Committee, located in Providence, R.I., KansasCity, Kan., San Francisco, Calif., Bethesda, Md., Nashville, Tenn., ParkRidge, Ill., and Olympia, Wash., as well as in Washington, D.C.Music Center of Los Angeles County, Los Angeles, Calif. One key influence in this regard was that by the twentieth centurythe professional theatre had become an industry. The record of Broadway offerings,particularly at the Ahmanson, over the years (e.g., Rent, Miss Saigon, Give'Em Hell Harry) makes it difficult to distinguish the Music Center'sprograms sharply from those of the New York commercial theatre or indeed ofthe more immediate commercial theatricals of Hollywood. seems to be something ofa matter of opinion. That is the association of center facilitieswith a specific name. A History of the American Theatre, 17 -195 . Music, dance, opera, theatre, Broadway,film, lectures, comedy shows and a range of events are presented year-round" ("Tulsa"). This does not mean that as individuals these public andofficials were immune to the charms of the performing arts. after the topthree, which are indeed at the top of broad-based American attention tohigh arts and culture: New Jersey Performing Arts Center, Newark, N.J.; theKravis Center, West Palm Beach, Fla.; Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center,Tampa Bay, Fla.; the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa,Calif.; and the Tulsa Performing Arts Center in Tulsa, Okla.Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, New York City Lincoln Center is not only the most famous cultural center of the cityand the U.S. Petersburg, in the latter part of the twentiethcentury. It is undoubtedly the case that Newarkcan be considered part of the greater New York metropolitan area.
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