The opening of Steinmetz Hall: symphony hall, opera house, and the best party room in Orlando, was for me, a very special occasion... And I wasn’t even there!
This was pretty agonising, but Covid caution made my travel to Florida too daunting. However to me, Steinmetz is very special. Firstly it represents my ‘swan song,’ my last design with Theatre Projects. Second, of our many long-running projects the Dr Phillips Center for The Performing Arts must hold the record ... We began in Orlando in 1984! Third, this was another partnership with architect Barton Myers, who I’ve long regarded as the ‘best of the best.’ Finally the roots of this revolutionary space go back to the 1960’s and are the product of 60 years thought, research, and experiment.
When I began theatre consulting in those distant days, our theatre world was very different. We were fascinated by a new future: supersonic Concord was taking to the skies and new theatres had to be very different. Our heritage of theatre architecture by those such as Matcham in the West End or Rapp & Rapp on Broadway was dismissed: multiple balconies, side boxes, inadequate bars, squalid dressing rooms... Tradition had been broken... We sought a new world.
Wagner’s Bayreuth and the explosive success of cinema had created a new form of ‘engineered’ theatre: frontal seating, preferably on a single tier, with no stupid side boxes, had become mandatory.
The sterility of these new cinema-style theatres soon became apparent. Unless you were seated near the front it was quite hard to feel involved with the show onstage. Emotion and laughs were hard to find. Even the National Theatre of Great Britain that had been a dream in the UK for over a hundred years followed these ‘new’ trends. The two large theatres, the Olivier and Lyttelton, conceived by a committee of leading directors and designers with a brilliant architect inexperienced in theatre design, followed these new ‘rules.’ But the later addition, the studio Cottesloe (now named Dorfman) theatre was entirely different.
The Cottesloe was a courtyard theatre designed by my partner Iain Mackintosh. A flexible space surrounded by balconies. For me, this courtyard idea had been born with director Frank Dunlop’s Young Vic Theatre that opened in 1963. A few days before opening, Frank called me. “Richard I have a lighting problem.” He did, nobody had ordered any! I called my office at Theatre Projects Lighting and ordered a van full. Crisis solved.
But the Young Vic opened my eyes. It was a small thrust stage, but uniquely at the time, surrounded by a balcony. I met the architect, Bill Howell, and we went on to design together a new theatre for Christ’s Hospital School in Horsham, Sussex. On a larger scale we made a discovery. With half the seats on a balcony, if flexibility of staging was desired, only half the seats on the main floor had to be moved, to provide end-stage, thrust, arena, or flat floor. Seating towers, apparently solid, but movable, could change the shape of the room. Flexibility and intimacy rapidly achieved. The huge success of the flexible Cottesloe soon proved the validity of this multi-level form now seen in courtyard theatres around the world. Drawing inspiration from the theatres of Shakespeare, Lope de Vega, and Calderon in Spain, Molière in France, and traditional theatres in China, Japan, and the Far East, the courtyard combined flexibility with intimacy, and, due to its verticality with multiple galleries, the option to emotionally zoom from cosy space to epic.
The town of Northampton, north of London, realised something I had missed. They wanted a courtyard theatre but on a much larger scale. We were offered the consultancy if we could provide a concert hall, lyric theatre, and flat floor with 1500 seats, only if we guaranteed that every configuration was seemingly permanent, with no wobbly gymnasium-like seating.
In 1983, Derngate was a massive success, moving large chunks of architecture on air pallettes. For thirty-nine years it has been one of the most active and successful arts centres in Britain, changing its format two or three times a week: Simon Rattle with the Birmingham Symphony, mayoral banquets, the Royal Ballet, touring musicals, comedy, boxing and sporting events, trade show exhibitions, to rock and roll with mosh pit. 300 performances every year. The wealthy community of Cerritos in Southern California wanted one just like it, but even bigger. With architect Barton Myers we delivered an earthquake-proof version with equal success.
How had an English theatre consultant found himself in the USA? My friend designer Tony Walton introduced me to producer Harold Prince in 1962 to provide projections for A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum, with lighting by the legendary Jean Rosenthal. We opened at the Shubert in New Haven. A revelation for me. American theatres were different and even more intimate than their British equivalent. Balconies brought incredibly close to the stage and step-down boxes at either side apparently binding the stage and audience into one. Many decades later this inspiration led us to design many American theatres such as Steppenwolf in Chicago for drama or the Dolby (Kodak) in Los Angeles for the Academy Awards.
It was not until 1978 that I learnt another lesson. With our Derngate architects, Renton Howard Wood, led by Nick Thompson, we were theatre consultants on the renovation of the Theatre Royal, Nottingham. (1985 architect C.J.Phipps, remodeled in 1897 by Frank Marcham). On opening night, a comedian Ken Dodd had a packed audience in stitches. My heart leapt, the audience on three balconies and side boxes reacted as one. Laughter engulfed the entire room with the side seating seemingly an umbilical cord bonding every individual into that single beast: an audience.
Since that time we at Theatre Projects have sought to guide every architect toward three-dimensional multilevel spaces. Our passion for intimate space has led us to work around the world, with now over 1,800 projects in 80 countries.
While my lighting/projection life brought me to Broadway in 1962, I long felt that theatre consulting in America was firmly in the hands of those such as George Izenour whose ‘engineered’ frontally seated theatres seemed ubiquitous. However by the early 80s I began to feel that the time had come for the message about our three-dimensional theatres. We won the arts centre in Portland Oregon that brought us together first with Barton Myers. Other projects in Calgary Alberta, Toronto, Louisville, Seattle, Los Angeles, and elsewhere followed
Then Charlotte in North Carolina wanted a 2,100 seat multi-purpose hall for symphony, opera, and musical theatre. They already had an even larger ”Izenour-style” Ovens Auditorium, like a giant cinema but, being ‘modern,’ stripped of the usual movie-palace lavish decor.
Influenced by our 3-D theatres, I contemplated the classic opera houses of Europe: the Royal Opera, London, Garnier Paris, La Scala Milan, the Staatsoper Vienna. All these classic houses for several centuries has staged opera, but also hosted symphony concerts and indeed imperial balls. Why not, instead of a giant cinema-shape hall, revert to tradition? Multi-level with side boxes plus a shell to enclose the orchestra. The Belk Theatre, with architect Cesar Pelli, was a big success and led to others in Cincinnati, Dayton, and Madison.
Concert Halls also powerfully benefited from three-dimensional auditoria. We collaborated on wonderful music halls in Calgary, Philadelphia, Dallas, Los Angeles, and Singapore.
The challenge of ‘multiform,’ superlative music and theatre in a single space, still remained. Can the more conventional multipurpose hall be improved upon from the lessons we had learned? Since our early adventures with pioneer Russell Johnson, all our experience working with many acousticians showed a path forward. We knew 3-D spaces created better acoustics.
The classic formula had worked. A return to traditional principles has overtaken the world, even in the distant lands of Japan and China. Our Theatre Projects colleagues in London had the opportunity of two projects in the Middle East that further explored this multiform music/theatre combination; the Royal Opera House in Muscat, Oman, and the Dubai Opera, in the United Arab Emirates. Orlando encouraged us to reach even further.
Theatres are complex buildings. They combine elaborate technology, backstage factory, administration, a stage for the creation of art, and public spaces to delight and unite audiences. Good theatre are achieved only through real collaboration: informed client, keen-eared acoustician, aware theatre design consultant and architect determined to make a great theatre.
Barton Myers in certainly the best. His passion for theatre makes him determined to optimise every aspect of the building, while his imagination creates rooms that unite performers and spectators in thrilling unity.
For Steinmetz, Orlando challenged us all. World-class music, opera and musical theatre without any compromise. Phase One provided an exemplary large-scale Broadway-style house (Walt Disney Theater) for touring musicals and entertainment, with a courtyard theatre (Alex and Jim Pugh Theater) for the community. Barton’s architecture made magic with both. Phase two was to create another Orlando ‘destination.’ A place for music and theatre to match in quality any in the world to attract the world’s finest artists. And a place where Orlando performers might shine and reach fresh summits of achievement.
Richard Pilbrow, February 2022
Steinmetz Hall, Theatre Projects Team: Brian Hall, head of design; Scott Crossfield and John Runia, room design; Millie Dixon, project manager; Michael Nishball, chief engineer; Steve Rust, lighting.
Acoustics Damian Doria, Stages Consultants, LLC.
More on Steinmetz Hall: