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[an error occurred while processing this directive] (none) The New Theatre Hank Kranzler The interior of the Black Swan, designed by Richard L. Hay as seen in the late 1970s. By Myles Murphy Ashland Daily Tidings Oregon Shakespeare Festival patrons next year will have the unique opportunity to break in a brand new theater. The new theater is being built on the corner of Hargadine and Pioneer streets, across the street from the existing Elizabethan stagehouse and Angus Bowmer Theater. "We felt strongly it needed to be part of the OSF Campus," OSF Executive Director Paul Nicholson said. The theater will replace the Black Swan, a small theater converted from a car dealership in the late 1970s. Undersized, with inadequate facilities for actors and staff, the Black Swan was meant as a temporary measure to ease the pressure brought on by large increases in Festival attendance at the other two theaters. The "temporary" theater served nearly a quarter of a century. The Black Swan, an intimate 138-seat house, was used as a venue to explore less mainstream plays, and the new theater will continue that tradition, according to Nicholson. While overall attendance at the Festival has been growing in recent years - 95 percent capacity in 2000 - attendance at the Black Swan has been consistently near 100 percent, according to Nicholson. The lack of available seats at The Black Swan has caused many patrons to miss out on the unusual plays offered through the years. The new theater, seating between 260 and 350, will still be relatively small compared to the Elizabethan Stage and the Angus Bowmer Theatre, which seat 1,190 and 601 respectively. But it will be more than twice as large as The Black Swan. According to Nicholson, the theater design meets the most important goals of the Festival. "It will give us the technical capacity to enable us to do our very best work and provide the proper level of support for our actors and staff," Nicholson said. For example, in the Black Swan, three essential staff members for each production - the sound engineer, the lighting technician and the stage manager - were forced to squeeze into a lighting booth little larger than a telephone booth. The new building will enable the Festival to continue its tradition as a true repertory theatre with the ability to put on different plays in the same theater on a daily basis. Versatility will be increased through an innovative movable seating arrangement. By changing the configuration of the seats, the stage will transform from traditional three-quarter thrust, with seats on three sides of the stage, to an arena-style stage completely surrounded by seats, or even avenue seating, with seats on either side of a long stage extending across the center of the theater. The true repertory style theater - in which a single theater can show different plays concurrently - is rare in the United States and virtually nonexistent in the rest of the world, according to Nicholson. For example, five different plays can be shown at the Bowmer Theatre nd two in the Black Swan. With the flexible seating configuration in the new theatre, the Festival can take advantage of that repertory style with the audience as well. "There are no other theaters in the world that `rep' the audience as well as the play." Nicholson said. "With the new theater we can do that twice daily." Another goal of the project is increased parking, which will be attained by the three-level parking structure, Nicholson said. The parking lot that previously existed where the theater and new lot are being constructed had 84 spaces. When the new parking structure is complete, it will have 144 spaces. Finally, the Festival wanted the new theater and parking structure to fit harmoniously into the surrounding Ashland neighborhood. "We really tried, and I believe, succeeded in that," Nicholson said. However, the proposed theater has been the center of drama in Ashland politics, as its size and placement raised some residents' concerns about increased traffic and a clash with the ambiance of the quiet neighborhoods above the Festival. But Festival officials held a number of community meetings, and the design was eventually approved by the Ashland City Council. "We received feedback from a lot of people on the design," Nicholson said. "We held public meetings, talked with neighbors and took audience polls. We spoke with Festival staff and the OSF Board to determine their needs." When the Festival first proposed moving an historic building to make room for the new theater, some community members voiced their opposition and the Festival hunted for a different location. Following that, neighbors complained that a proposed fly loft on the theater was too high. Festival officials lowered the height. Thomas Hacker, chief architect of the firm which designed the theater, explained his intent in a prepared statement: "My focus in the design of the new theater is to enrich the overall experience by integrating the building and its outdoor spaces into the existing fabric of downtown Ashland with special emphasis on the relationship to Carpenter Hall. "The lobbies are open and inviting, adding to the audience's experience by providing views of other theaters and theatergoers, the active streets of the community, and the distant views of the valley and hills beyond." To pay for the project, the Festival began a capital campaign about three years ago. The Festival met its goal of a little more than $20 million, about $11 million of which will fund the new theater. The other $10 million will go into an endowment fund for the Festival. A model of the new theater is on display inside the Angus Bowmer Theatre. Actors' Theatre Alexs Restaurant Ali Ross/ Real Estate Agent Allyson's of Ashland Aphrodite's Salon Asante Health Ashland Community Food Store Ashland Community Hospital Ashland Homes Real Estate Ashland Springs Spa Associates for Oral & Maxillo Beasy's On The Creek Big Kahuna in the Park Bloomsbury Books Bookwagon New & Used Books Charter Communications Chateaulin Restaurant Conversations With God Center Cycle Sport Denny's Restaurant Earthly Goods Womens' Apparel Enchanted Attic Energy Outfitters Gateway Real Estate Grants Pass Visitor's Bureau Greenleaf Restaurant Hellgate Excursions Hot Spring Spas Jacksonville Inn John L. Scott Real Estate of So. Oregon Kat Wok Restaurant Klamath First Federal La Fiesta Mexican Restaurant Lithia Artisans Lithia Real Estate Martino's & Macaroni's Ristorante McDonalds Out of the Blue Patricia Sprague Real Estate Pizza Hut Remax Realty Group St. Mary's School Sara Walker/ Real Estate Agent Scheffels Toys Shop'n Kart Tamale Dog Taqueria The Apple Cellar The Galice Resort The Living Gallery Tudor Guild Gift Shop Twenty-four Pont Home Textiles Two Pines Unicorn Gifts and Toys Winchester Inn Windermere Van Vleet & Assoc. Real Estate Windmill Inn Ashland Daily Tidings 1661 Siskiyou Blvd. Ashland, OR 97520 Telephone 541-482-3456 © Copyright 2001 Lee Northwest Publishing