For quite a few months, the construction on the former Center Theater, to be unveiled Wednesday as the new Lansing Porter Moore Theater has been somewhat mysterious. Even when the Maly Theatre of St. Petersburg christens the stage tomorrow with their acclaimed performance of "Guadeamus," much of the new technology will not be immediately apparent to the audience. Here is an in-depth look at the technological advances of which the Moore theater can boast.
The cosmetic differences in the theater will be the most obvious change to theater-goers. The seats have been completely replaced for the first time since the building opened in 1963. No longer Bordeaux blue, the Moore Theater seats are a maroon that matches the stage curtain as well as the seating area in the lobby of the Hop.
In addition, new wheelchair positions have been added on floor level and in the balcony by creating removable seats and platforms, making the theater compliant with current handicap access codes.
Another cosmetic change is the location of the stairs in the Hop lobby. The stairs were moved to the Hinman Box side of the lobby to create a better flow for students who primarily go to their H.B.s or to the Courtyard Cafe. The new seating in the lobby and redirected flow of traffic makes possible a gathering area for the theater's productions without interruption by people randomly wandering through.
Finally, the lobby and the Top of the Hop have been painted a warm cream color, which should be more hospitable than the former gray. The furniture in the Top of the Hop has been reupholstered, and new carpeting is in place.
Flying More Scenery
"That's about all, I think, that a typical member of the audience would notice. Functionally is where the major changes have gone in," Drama Professor Paul Gaffney said. The biggest single functional change in the theater is in the rigging system, by which lighting and scenery are "flown," or raised and lowered. The old rigging system, made of synchronized electric widgets, frequently broke down, even grinding to a halt during performances.
"The bottom line was that they became very unreliable, and the more unreliable they became, the less useful they became as a means of moving scenery," Gaffney said. In addition to tentative dependability, the batons, long metal pipes used to hand the scenery and light equipment across the stage, had limited weight capacity.
The solution to this functioning problem is the newly installed counterweight system. The counterweight system consists of long metal racks against the stage wall, filled with stacks of pig-iron, which are connected by aircraft cables and pulleys in the ceiling to new batons stretching across the top of the stage.
One person can raise 3,000 pounds worth of scenery or curtains with the counterweight system since the weight on the baton and the weight of the pig-iron on the stack are the same.
Gaffney explained the benefits of this system: "So now we can fly scenery, we can fly more of it, we can fly it more reliably, we can put more lighting instruments in the air, improving our ability to light the performances...." To help the building support the counterweight system, several steel columns reaching down to the bedrock under the Hop were installed.
New Cycloramas and Lighting
The second major functional change is the replacement of the hard cyclorama in the back of the theater with a fabric cyclorama. The hard cyclorama, a white steel and cement wall 35 to 40 feet high used to make colored background with lights, was inconvenient for several reasons. Immovable, the hard cyc limited the movement of scenery from the wings of the stage. Dancers were limited because they could only use the front portion of the stage as entrance areas.
The new fabric cyclorama is much more flexible and allows the space on stage to be used more efficiently. It can be flown in and flown out according to the needs of the production.
Additional lighting positions have been added in the house, or audience area, of the theater. Instead of the portable light trees full of complicated and ugly cables in full view of the audience, two lighting boxes have been added in the balcony. These boxes hide lights that shine at optimal angles onto the stage. They are permanent and easily accessed.
Another new lighting area has been added directly over the stage but out of view of the audience. Replacing the narrow catwalk that held a limited amount of instruments and people, with the wrong light angles, a metal and plastic grid system over the stage enables more people to walk in a large space and to position lights at angles for the best stage effects.
Hopkins Center Director Lewis Crickard pointed out the butterfly shape in the architecture over the stage, and said "to maintain the architecture and the integrity of the original design," the lighting grid eliminates the necessity to tear out the artistic line of the theater.
Overall, the electronics of the lighting system have been upgraded to include circuits, dimmers and the computer that controls the lights. Everything is easier to use, more flexible and faster, enabling better lighting control.
No More Leaky Hydraulics
One more major change in the theater is in the stage elevators, which are located between the audience and the main stage. Three sections of elevators are normally used to either create an orchestra pit, to rest at floor level and hold additional seating, or to rise to the level of the stage.
The former elevators, hydraulic piston-driven platforms, were unreliable. When they leaked, they would sink. Once a piece of scenery was left half on the main stage and half on the elevator, and when the elevator sank an inch overnight, the scenery broke because it had lost half of its support.
The new lifts are motor driven, using the cutting-edge engineering design of what looks like four giant slinkies which support the elevator platforms, corkscrewing in one direction to lift the platforms up, and in the other direction to let them down. The machinery involved is state-of-the-art, and much more reliable, safe and quick.
One last major functional change is the replacement of the stage floor. Instead of the cracked, warped floor that tripped actors, dancers and scenery platforms, a special kind of linoleum now covers the stage, smooth and releveled from any sinkage of the 31 year-old building.
With the exception of the new seats and paint job, the average member of the audience will not notice a shocking change from Center Theater, which is somewhat frustrating. Rahmann said, "It makes me sad. For what people went through, people should be able to walk in and see solid-gold walls."
Still, the new technology and increased accessibility of equipment is exciting to those behind the scenes of the magic of theater. Gaffney made the point that the theater, for Drama faculty and students, is a laboratory. Dartmouth's Drama laboratory is now much more sophisticated in art, machinery and electronics.
Gaffney said, "That's what really excites me-- to have a better performance space, that's all well and good, but we have a much more flexible teaching laboratory now, and that really is going to help."
