Project Description
Situated on the central quadrangle of the academy. The Kellner Performing Arts Center is arranged around a theater seating an audience of 350 attending the School’s programs of musical, drama and oratory performances and rehearsals, and combines the intimacy between players and audience of the Elizabethan “courtyard” type with the constructional frugality of a modern workshop theater.
The house designed in consultation with Ian Mackintosh (of Theatre Consultants in London and Connecticut) works in proscenium or thrust-stage stage mode or as a flat floor space and has the rigging, sound and communication equipment needed for a teaching and performance facility.
Adjoining the theatre and serving as a formal lobby is a double height atrium which also serves as a “commons” for the use of faculty and students. A small experimental theatre, dance studio, orchestral and choral rehearsal spaces, music practice rooms, scenery and costume workshop and support spaces are provided in the building.
At the exterior the barn-like form and the materials of brick and lime stone trim are related to the architectural tradition of the campus in contrast to the frankly modern spaces and technology of the interior.
