SHAPING THE SPACE OF REGIONAL THEATRE

The Regional Theatre Movement has grown over the past sixty years with the belief that every city of sufficient size across America should have its own resident theatre culture. It took time and tremendous effort, but Philadelphia has succeeded in creating a vibrant theatre scene and taken its place on the national map of American regional theatres. Companies in the city and the surrounding region produce an incredible range of work from every historical period, as well as exciting new plays from Philadelphia and around the world.

Each of these companies possesses a particular theatrical mission and a distinct history.

Collectively, they have grown to become an indelible part of the city’s cultural — and for some theatres — architectural landscape. Three Center City companies — the Wilma Theater Company, the Philadelphia Theatre Company, and the Arden Theatre Company — started out in small “found” spaces and at a certain point determined they needed larger, purpose-built homes to fulfill their artistic missions. The resulting theatre structures are a manifestation of these missions, and their design required a collaborative effort with an architect who understood the principles necessary to support their artistic goals.

The founders of the Wilma Theatre Company, Blanka and Jiri Zizka, began their life’s work in the theatre in Prague, Czechoslovakia. They believed theatre must challenge its audience with harsh truths and hard political choices, a dangerous proposition under Communist rule. The Zizkas left Czechoslovakia in political exile and came to Philadelphia in 1979 when Jiri, who was trained in film and video technology, found a job in the city. They joined a small feminist performance company called the Wilma Project, named after the imagined sister of William Shakespeare in Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own.

In 1981, Blanka and Jiri took on the leadership of the Wilma Project and moved the group into a vacant garage on the 2000 block of Sansom street. They renovated the space themselves, sandblasting the crumbling plaster to expose the rough factory brick to anchor their theatre in a real-world workspace. They constructed a small box stage fronted by seating for a hundred spectators. The seating was steeply raked to allow spectators to lean forward and closely scrutinize the action unfolding below (somewhat like an operating theatre). The small space ensured actor/audience proximity, which Blanka refers to as the “envelope of art.”

The Zizkas built a reputation for performances of great theatrical invention and challenging political ideas. They produced a wide range of modern European playwrights such as Eugène Ionesco, Bertolt Brecht, Athol Fugard, and their fellow countryman, Václav Havel. These writers wrote with powerful intellectual authority and sophisticated theatrical imagination to expose worlds trapped under autocratic tyranny or in dystopian nightmares. Assisted by Jiri’s expertise with film and video technology, the Wilma’s productions gained wide acclaim for their theatrical invention. The popular and critical success of these productions convinced Blanka and Jiri that they needed to expand their theatrical possibilities and make room for their growing audience base. They chose to build their new home on Broad Street, or the Avenue of the Arts, which the city had recently renamed as part of a major initiative to promote the performing arts.

They were fortunate to partner with architect Hugh Hardy, who had gained national recognition for his stunning restoration of two derelict theatres on New York’s 42nd Street, now called the New Victory and the New Amsterdam. In his book Theater of Architecture, Hardy articulates a core principle of his design work. He uses the term “theater” not to evoke spectacle or elaborate decoration. He considers the primary purpose of a building to provide a meaningful experience of place. As Hardy writes, that experience enables “members of the public [to] become citizen-performers in a theater of community.” Actors and spectators are partners in a shared experience, and proximity is key.

The Wilma Theatre opened its doors in 1996. Theatregoers enter the lobby directly from the sidewalk. There is no attempt to separate the theatre from the city with an elaborate promenade. Audiences do not come to the Wilma for theatrical transport or emotional uplift. They come to be engaged and confronted by what is happening in front of them and, by extension, the world around them.

Within the auditorium, one’s attention is immediately drawn to the large, curved stage. The raked seating replicates the configuration of the Sansom Street theatre, but with three times the capacity. The seats are arranged in a wide, shallow curve that follows the shape of the forestage. The stage space is expansive, and the high ceilings offer unlimited theatrical possibilities. But that does not prevent the actors from fully occupying the stage and ensuring contact with their audience. Continuity with the original space on Sansom is manifest in the bold sophistication and political seriousness of the productions.

When the Wilma Theater was completed in 1996, the dramatic increase in size presented a serious challenge to the directors. According to Blanka, “the stakes are higher in a bigger space…the question is, can you actually take risks the way you do in a small theater when you are risking people’s jobs when you do something too crazy or too experimental?” The Ziskas indeed rose to the challenge and now, 25 years later, as Blanka passes the Wilma’s leadership to Philadelphia playwright James Ijames, the audience can expect to be further challenged in unique and unsettling ways.

The Philadelphia Theatre Company (PTC) also began its life in a small space. Originally called the Philadelphia Company, it was founded by Robert Hedley and Jean Harrison in 1974, and they performed in several Center City locations. Sara Garonzik became Artistic Director in 1982 and the name was changed to the Philadelphia Theatre Company. Sara believed Philadelphia audiences would want to see the best plays written by a new generation of American playwrights. From across the country, writers such as Sam Shepard, August Wilson, Marsha Norman, and David Mamet often set their plays beyond —or on the ragged fringes — of major urban centers. Their characters may live small lives, but their stories reverberate across national culture. The plays gave these characters a close hearing, focusing on the painful personal crises of gender identity, race, and poverty they were facing in their lives.

Sara sought to “capture this new regional American voice that was appearing throughout the country.” She was right that Philadelphia audiences were ready to hear that voice, and she also knew that PTC would need a larger stage and more seating to respond to the growing demand. In 1982 the company moved to Plays and Players Theatre on Delancey Street. It was built in 1913 as a “Little Theatre” with a large proscenium stage and a balcony with 324 seats. For the next 25 years, PTC would be the primary resident company of Plays and Players.

But the theatre was nearly a century old and as PTC evolved, the company sought the expanded possibilities a new structure could offer. A theatre that produced contemporary American plays would require a modern home. PTC partnered with KieranTimberlake, who had previously designed the F. Otto Haas Stage for the Arden Theatre. KT’s theatre portfolio was not extensive, but their exquisitely designed structures for a variety of public gatherings resonated with PTC. According to Richard Maimon, partner of KieranTimberlake, the goal was to design a space that would provide audiences “a contemporary, urbane, and intimate experience.” PTC explored many potential sites with their architect and decided that the company’s new home should be in a “highly visible location.” PTC chose to locate on the Avenue of the Arts in the Symphony House, a residential high-rise developed by Dranoff Properties and designed by BLT Architects.

The theatre opened in 2007 as the Suzanne Roberts Theatre to honor Ms. Roberts who, together with her husband, Ralph Roberts, founder of Comcast, were long-time benefactors. The lobby shares key elements with the Wilma. It is a very open, high-ceilinged, white space entered directly from the street. Both lobbies are fronted by expansive windows which allow visibility between the people inside and those walking by on Broad Street – sharing the same urban space. The lobby finishes are minimalist, but the carpet of richly colored, interlocking rectangles conveys sleek movement. A wide central staircase leads up to the open mezzanine which surrounds the lobby and provides a sense of processional arrival for the theatre’s patrons.

Entering the 365-seat auditorium, one’s attention is drawn to the open, expansive stage. Stepped seating is reminiscent of the configuration of Plays and Players, but that is where the similarities end. Acoustics are as critical as space in the telling of PTC’s stories, and every character’s voice must be heard. The auditorium walls have a theatrical flair with undulating gypsum panels hand-stained in deep tones of red. The panels provide optimal acoustics for the human voice while contributing visual depth and richness. The entire theatre was constructed to minimize noise and vibrations from the street and the subway below.

The Arden Theatre began in circumstances not unlike those of the Wilma and PTC. Founded in 1988 by Terry Nolen, Amy Murphy, and Aaron Posner, their first space was the 70-seat Studio Theatre at the Walnut Street Theatre. In their second year they co-founded the St. Stephen’s Performing Arts Center at the Episcopal Church on 10th Street. Here they re-shaped a meeting room into a small theatre with both a proscenium and a thrust stage surrounded with raked seating on three sides. The unusual arrangement enabled the Arden to create complete scenic worlds and architectural structures. The thrust stage projected outward to create additional performance space and ensure proximity of actors and spectators.

In a very short time, the Arden achieved recognition for producing a wide range of stories in a variety of theatrical styles, “classical and contemporary, intimate and epic, musical and dramatic.” They became especially popular for their musical productions, due to Terry Nolen’s expertise as a director of musical theatre. Terry, Amy and Aaron saw very quickly they needed a comfortable, modern space to accommodate their rapidly growing audience. The St. Stephen’s space could be accessed only by stairs and was not air-conditioned, much needed for a theatre in Philadelphia’s hot summer months.

The Arden did not seek an elaborate state-of-the-art building. Rather, they saw themselves as the city’s “hometown” theatre. In 1991 the company relocated to an historic building on 2nd Street in Old City, which includes a warehouse structure of the 1880s with an early 20th century storefront addition. For the initial phase of renovations, they partnered with architect David Slovic, who had designed sets for the Arden. The project focused on the front of the building, with the first floor reconfigured as a lobby and with a 175-seat theater, called the Arcadia, one floor above.

When the Arden decided to expand their production and audience capacities, they hired KieranTimberlake to design the F. Otto Haas Stage. Despite the increased size of 375 seats, the theatre is a reconfigurable “Black Box.” Continuing the flexible format of their earlier space, the Haas allows a range of configurations, including proscenium, thrust, and in-the-round, all of which maintain an intimate feel. The expanded spatial opportunities of the two theatres provided the catalyst for creating the Arden Children’s Theatre in 1998, the first resident professional children’s theatre.

The construction of a new, permanent home is a dramatic moment in the life of a theatre company. It is a daunting enterprise that requires a deep commitment by the company’s members, their audiences, funders, and the surrounding community. It is an opportunity to shape an architectural space in a way that enables the company to fulfill its unique artistic mission. The homes of the Wilma, the Arden and PTC are embodiments of their missions and share two fundamental principles. The stage spaces are sufficiently large to allow a great range of theatrical visions and scenic designs. Equally critical is the direct contact of actors and audience afforded by the theatre’s design. The mission of Regional Theatre is not to provide an escape from daily life or consumable entertainment experiences. It is to connect with the audience, provide challenging encounters, bring theatre into the community, and become an integral part of the region’s vibrant cultural life.

Citations:

1.          Hugh Hardy, Theater of Architecture, Princeton Architectural Press, 2013, p. 133

2.          Peter Dobrin, Wilma Theater Guding Spirit Blanka Zizka is Stepping Down, Philadelphia Inquirer, June 30, 2021.

3.          Interview with Sara Garonzik

4.          Interview with Richard Maimon

5.          Arden website: ardentheatre.org. Accessed 02/2020

James Schlatter served as a member of the Theatre Arts faculty at the University of Pennsylvania for thirty years, teaching a wide range of practical and academic courses and directing many stage productions. He received his doctorate from the City University of New York in 1992.