AUERBACH + ASSOCIATES
PROVIDES THEATRE DESIGN FOR
THE EXPANDED HOME OF
BERKELEY REPERTORY THEATRE
PROVIDES THEATRE DESIGN FOR
THE EXPANDED HOME OF
BERKELEY REPERTORY THEATRE
New Space is an Evolution of Berkeley Rep's Community Spirit
SAN FRANCISCO, CA (March 6, 2001) The theatre consulting firm of Auerbach + Associates has just completed work on a new proscenium theatre, for one of the crowning jewels in America's network of repertory theatres--the Berkeley Repertory Theatre. Auerbach + Associates' consultation and design for the Berkeley Rep's new 600-seat proscenium theatre in Berkeley, California caps the firm's two-decade relationship with the Repertory Company. The Berkeley Rep is widely known for its community-oriented, interactive, intimate theatre style.
The theatre forms the keystone of a new arts center for downtown Berkeley, which includes the Berkeley Rep's existing 400-seat thrust-stage theatre, a new drama school, and other performance spaces. Auerbach + Glasow, the architectural lighting division of Auerbach + Associates, was the architectural lighting consultant for the building.
The new theatre space enables the Berkeley Rep to present a wide range of plays, augmenting their repertory and allowing them to reach a larger audience, drawing from the entire San Francisco Bay Area. It adjoins the 400-seat theatre that S. Leonard Auerbach, Principal of Auerbach + Associates, consulted on in 1980.
Auerbach + Associates played a major role in the consulting and design of the new theatre. The scope of work included:
- Collaboration on the design of the theatre with the architect, ELS Architects
- Collaboration with the Berkeley Rep staff on the overall planning and design of the theatrical systems
- Design of the rigging systems and the theatrical lighting control systems
- Documentation of theatre systems designs for construction
The new auditorium opens March 13, 2001 with a performance of "The Oresteia" by Aeschylus, the rarely produced classical Greek trilogy considered by many to be the foundation of Western theatre.
"The new Berkeley Rep theatre continues the spirit of the company and the existing performance space, and transfers that spirit to the new proscenium theatre," said S. Leonard Auerbach, ASTC, President of Auerbach + Associates and Principal in Charge of the project. "The Berkeley Rep has always had a unique, interactive approach to the community. The new theatre will keep that spirit evolving while it provides for expansion for the company's artistic opportunities."
Mr. Auerbach has a long history with Berkeley Rep, and in 1980 helped bring the theatre from its original space in a 99-seat storefront on College Avenue to its first formal theatre space, the existing thrust-stage theatre. Mr. Auerbach also helped Berkeley Rep first conceive plans for the new proscenium theatre in 1994. The new proscenium theatre represents the next stage in the evolution of the theatre company.
This collaboration was further strengthened by the presence of Tom Neville, Auerbach + Associates' project manager. Mr. Neville was the former production manager for Berkeley Rep, a post he held for four and a half years before joining Auerbach + Associates in 1996.
"The work Auerbach + Associates did on the new theatre carries on the tradition of the Rep and the spirit of the company," said Neville. "It was a total collaboration with the people at the Berkeley Rep, from the Board down to the staff. We combined our consulting and design ideas with those of the Rep staff so the intimacy of the thrust stage could be integrated into the new theatre."
Theatrical Systems
One of the limitations of the existing thrust stage was that, while providing a sense of intimacy, it sometimes limited artistic options. The new proscenium stage, jointly devised by Auerbach + Associates, the Berkeley Rep and ELS Architects, allows for much more performance flexibility while maintaining audience intimacy.
The stage, built of structural floor modules, is completely removable from its front edge to the rear wall. It can be deconstructed and configured in many ways, allowing for the audience and actors to interact. The stage allows designers to work steps and other scenery into the front edge of the stage instead of being limited by the conventional fixed stage floor. The stage is completely trapped, so actors can be raised from beneath the stage to "appear" before the audience.
The stage is mounted on jacks that can be raised and lowered between productions so that platforms and turntables can be integrated within the stage. Even though the active surface may be raised by many inches, the unique configuration of the stage allows this to happen without compromising the sightlines designed into the theatre seating.
Auerbach + Associates designed a unique proscenium opening and fire curtain, enabling a more flexible integration of the stage with the audience. Proscenium theatres normally have a fire curtain that will drop down to the stage floor in an emergency, separating the audience from the stage and backstage areas with a fireproof surface. The new fire curtain designed by Auerbach + Associates goes all the way down to the audience floor in front of the flexible stage.
The theatre has a fully counterweighted rigging system, with 54 individual line sets and a capacity of over 100,000 pounds of scenery.
Auerbach + Associates designed a complete 100 base-T Ethernet computer network for lighting control. This includes 18 tap locations. Each tap location allows computer controlled lighting equipment such as color changes or moving lights to be integrated into the computer lighting system.
There are 13 computer-controlled relays, giving the light board operator complete control over all of the work lights in the theatre. The theatre has 564 individual dimmable circuits. Thirty of the dimmable circuits are for the architectural lighting in the lobbies. A significant effort was made in this area to design a lighting system that met performance demands and specifications and at the same time stayed within budget.
Audience Chamber
Auerbach + Associates worked closely with ELS Architects and the Berkeley Rep's artistic staff to make sure that the 600-seat audience chamber maintained the interactive, intimate quality of the existing theatre. Seating configurations were an integral part of this goal. Consequently, the front of the balcony is only 38 feet from the front edge of the stage, and the furthest seat in the balcony is only 58 feet from the front edge of the stage. The furthest seat in the mezzanine is 49 feet from the front edge of the stage.
Good audience communication was considered very important to the design. The sightlines were developed so that all seats and the side loge boxes in the new space are positioned to enable the audience members to have other audience members in their view and to sense laughter and applause. The house also has unique distributed disabled seating sections that pull in or out like a tray to accommodate patrons who use wheelchairs.
