ABSTRACT: The recently completed, multi-million dollar CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS at Carmel High School was designed by architects Peter Kasavan and Bart Wolfe and built by general contractor DMC Construction. The state-of-the-art facility features a new theater of 360 seats, including "plush red seats and matching carpet, an orchestra pit, control and sound booth, dressing rooms and broadcast studio" and a Black Box theater of 100 seats. It will host “a variety of visual and performing arts, including choral groups, instrumental groups, plays and student-produced film screenings by means of an overhead projector.” INFORMATIONAL HIGHLIGHTS ON CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS AT CARMEL HIGH SCHOOL are presented from recently published articles, including New Performing Arts Center at Carmel High School (Peninsula Reviews), IT'S SHOWTIME: Carmel High School introduces performing arts center (The Monterey County Herald) and Packed house greets performing arts debut (THE SANDPIPER).
INFORMATIONAL HIGHLIGHTS ON CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS AT CARMEL HIGH SCHOOL:
• The new theater at CHS seats 360, plus there is a “black box” multi use space for smaller theatrical productions. The electronic capabilities are fabulous with state-of-the-art sound boards for lighting, amplification and recordings in both theatrical spaces. One other component of the Performing Arts Center is skillful melding of an adjacent building that contains three class rooms, which can also be used for dressing rooms for large choral or instrumental ensembles, or for theatrical casts.
• District Superintendent Marvin Biasotti said the $10 million theater project was made possible by passage of a $21.5 million bond issue in 2005.
• ...the extraordinary coordinated civic and community effort it took to get a major bond issue approved, plus the raising of substantial additional funds through FOCUS (Friends of the Carmel School District)...two plaques honoring Carmel Unified School District Board members
and also, individually, Bertie Bialek Elliot, whose generous initial contribution of $500K in seed money to jumpstart the funding project was trumped by her later donation of $1M, representing approximately 10% of the cost to build the new Performing Arts Center.
• The imposing theater, built on a rise at the entrance to the campus, was designed by architects Peter Kasavan and Bart Wolfe. It was built by general contractor DMC Construction of Monterey.
• The facility features plush red seats and matching carpet, an orchestra pit, control and sound booth, dressing rooms and broadcast studio.
• It will be able to host a variety of visual and performing arts, including choral groups, instrumental groups, plays and student-produced film screenings by means of an overhead projector.
• The facility also has a Black Box theater that seats 100 for more intimate, smaller-scale productions.
• “We wanted to be able to seat at least half the school,” Wolfe (chief architect Barton Wolfe of Kasavan Architects) added. “There are 360 seats in there, and we arranged the seats in curved rows. You begin to get a sense of interacting with other people, and it becomes more of a collective experience.”
• “You kind of wish that as grand as this thing is, there would be more seating,” board member Matthew Fuzie said. “It’s the chief complaint I hear—‘It can’t even accommodate all of the students.’
SOURCES:
NEW PERFORMING ARTS CENTER AT CARMEL HIGH SCHOOL
Posted: Apr 4, 2011
Category: Reviews
By Lyn Bronson
IT'S SHOWTIME: CARMEL HIGH SCHOOL INTRODUCES PERFORMING ARTS CENTER
By JOHN SAMMON Herald Correspondent
Posted: 03/16/2011
Packed house greets performing arts debut
Written by Mackenzie Dooner
Friday, 18 March 2011
THE SANDPIPER
carmel high school student newspaper
ADDENDUM:
Kasavan Architects
Performing Arts Building & Media Arts Center
Carmel, CA
(Includes Exterior and Interior Photographs)
New performing arts building with a 350 seat theater, 50-100 seat black box theater, TV studio, control room & productions classrooms.
Carmel High
A California Distinguished School
2 comments:
This looks like a marvelous theater and a great addition for our community's theater arts. Does anyone know if outside groups will be able to rent it or put on independent theater productions?
CHS is “not prepared to offer the Center for the Performing Arts to the public yet. We hope to begin letting outside groups begin scheduling next school year,” according to Tom Parry, Assistant Principal - ROP Coordinator Carmel High School. Parry referred to Holly Briggs, Theater manager, who is responsible for handling the calendar for the CPA. Parry concluded by writing “Perhaps in the near future we will be equipped to rent the facility.” Contact information for Holly Briggs, e-mail: hbriggs@carmelunified.org.
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