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Work continues on GMU's Performing Arts Center
It's still 16 months away from completion, but the Hylton Performing Arts Center at George Mason University is beginning to take shape.
On Dec. 9, local officials donned hard hats for a floor-by-floor tour of the facility that will serve as a performance hall for GMU and the entire Prince William community.
The project is a three-way venture between GMU, Prince William County and the City of Manassas. The center will consist of three performance and rehearsal venues to showcase community music, dance, choral and theater productions, as well as visual arts exhibits.
The structure will be a nine-story building visible from the Route 234 Bypass on the GMU campus.
“You can already see it from 234 but you'll be able to really see it from 234 shortly,” said Brian Marcus as he led a tour through the building's shell, which currently stands at six stories.
Marcus is associate dean of GMU's College of Visual and Performing Arts, and he also serves as project director for the center.
As he and his tour group carefully picked their way through the half-finished building, he explained that the main theater will seat 1,166 people. About 500 of those seats will be at the orchestra level and the remaining will be situated in boxes of six to 56 seats each, arranged around the upper levels of the theater.
The theater is still open to the sky and the orchestra pit is full of dirty water and construction trash, but the outline is beginning to take shape. From a vantage point on the stage, it's easy to visualize the end product.
The concept is a European design, which is more performer-friendly than the typical American theater.
In most American theaters, the audience seating goes straight out from the stage. That makes it hard on performers, who have to emote well enough and loudly enough to affect the patrons sitting in the very back — hundreds of feet from the stage.
In the European-style theater, the audience seating is bent like a horseshoe around the stage, which means that patrons sitting at the very back of the theater are still much nearer to the stage than they would ordinarily be.
Ballet takes up the most physical space of any art form, so the stage will be built to accommodate a ballet performance. That means it will also be big enough for a 150-member orchestra and a 100-person choir at the same time.
“That will allow us to host the state band competition,” Marcus said.
In addition to the main theater, the center will also include a flexible theater that can be used as a rehearsal hall. The original concept called for a rehearsal hall with plans to build a flexible theater later, but officials decided that the flexible theater is an immediate necessity for community groups so the plans were changed, Marcus said.
That flexible performance space will seat 300, but all of the seating can be moved around to accommodate different types of performances. The main theater and flexible space will be constructed so that the sound won't carry from one room to the other.
The center will also include an art gallery with rotating exhibits and a “scene shop” where sets will be built for community theater groups as well as GMU performances. It will also be a place where high school students studying theater can learn how to build sets.
The outside of the building will be covered in copper plating, which means that the structure will start with the brownish hue of a penny. Over the course of 25 years, the copper will slowly begin to corrode, turning the building to a mottled brown-and -green color and finally to green.
The price tag for the center has grown with the rising costs of construction materials. In 2006, the cost was set at about $36 million, but that number has crept up to about $40 million for design, construction and equipment.
Prince William County will cover 60 percent of the cost and GMU's share will be 30 percent. The City of Manassas will kick in the remaining 10 percent.
But on top of that, GMU needs to raise $16 million more for its operating budget.
So the Hylton Performing Arts Center Campaign Committee has been looking for private sponsors on several levels.
So far, the effort is going well, and during the tour, Marcus pointed out the Buchanan Brothers Art Gallery, the Didlake Grand Foyer and the Gregory Theater, all named for donors. And of course, the entire center is named for the Cecil and Irene Hylton Foundation, which is donating $5 million for the project.
If the name sounds familiar, it's because the foundation also got naming rights for Hylton Memorial Chapel and Hylton High School in eastern Prince William.
Then there's the Take-A-Seat Campaign. For $2,500, a patron can be immortalized with his or her name on a brass plaque behind one of the main theater's seats. The entire project got underway in February 2008 and the center should be ready to open in spring 2010.
“It's very exciting after all the planning,” Marcus said.
For more information, to make a donation or to buy a seat, visit www.communityperformingartscenter.com.
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