RTP-area local music and culture

[<info AT durhamloop.org>]

>How big is the Dean Dome?  I'm too lazy to go look it up.

Below is an excerpt from a post on the Downtown Durham listserv. It includes
sizes of many venues, plus a lot of other research on the "Event Center."

- Caleb


***

When I first learned of the downtown theatre, (event center, whatever) I
thought it was a great idea.  First off, I had heard that ADF wanted a
larger space, and I would hate for Durham to lose the ADF.  Secondly,
growing up in Asheville, I had seen what Thomas Wolfe Auditorium had done
for downtown, and thought that a similar venue in downtown Durham could help
anchor a district in the same way.  So, from the outset, I've been inclined
to support this project.

However, with the proposal as it now stands, I can't bring myself to support
it.  There are simply far too many flaws in the current plan for me to see
this as a good thing.  The size, design, location, management, and
prioritization are simply all out of whack here.

1.  SIZE

Like many other people, I imagine, when I heard the number 4,000 as a
seating capacity, I had no idea what that meant.  So, in order to get a grip
on how big is big, I went hunting for some comparison numbers.  Here are a
few local venues and their seating capacities that folks may be more
familiar with:

Durham Carolina Theatre -- 1,016
Raleigh Memorial Auditorium -- 2,300 (noted for bad accoustics) BTI Center
-- Meymandi Hall -- 1,700 Duke's Page Auditorium -- 1,232 UNC's Memorial
Hall -- 1,500 Asheville Thomas Wolfe Auditorim -- 2,400

So far, nowhere near 4,000.  That's okay, I thought, you have to make the
jump to the big time at some point.  So, let's take a look at some certified
"big time" venues.

NYC Carnegie Hall -- 2,804
Sydney Opera House, main concert hall -- 2,679 
Cadillac Palace Theatre, Chicago -- 2,500 
Concert Hall at the Kennedy Center, Washington, DC -- 2,750 
St. Paul's Fitzgerald Theatre, home of Prarie Home Companion -- 996 
Paris Opera -- 2,156 
La Scala Opera House in Milan, largest opera house in Europe -- 3,600

Now, remember, the current plan for the Durham Event Center will hold 4,000
people, far bigger than any of the above venues.  SURELY, I thought, there
MUST be some venues bigger than 4,000 before you get into the stadium-sized
places, like the Dean Dome (22,444) or the RBC Center (~18,000), or the big
amphitheaters like Walnut Creek (20,000) or Cary's Regency Park (6,508). 
Well, eventually I found them, although I can't say the results were
encouraging.  The Lincoln Center in New York has a concert hall that holds
3,800.  Radio City Music Hall holds 5,990.  Between the two, there are about
10 theatres nationally that run the gammut in size, such as the Fox Theatre
in Detroit (5,000) to the Uptown in Chicago (4,320)  And that's it. 
These are almost all giant old vaudeville/movie palaces, still standing
because of the ostentatious architecture and decor that they were built
with.  Most of them make their money either on massive national showbiz
events, like the Oscar ceremonies, or by renting them out for giant,
expensive corporate parties.  They were built for an era when the baudy,
showy spectacle of vaudeville ruled.  They thrived by putting up massive
movie screens in the days before color television.  Now, they are more
architectural and cultural landmarks than profitable venues.

With the numbers in hand, here's the mental experiment to play:  Folks on
this list have probably sat in the back of one of the 2,000 some capacity
venues listed above.  Think about how close you felt to the stage, how well
you could see the performers, and how much a part of the event you felt.  I
remember getting back row seats to a concert in Thomas Wolfe at one point,
and feeling like I'd wasted my money, because for all I could see, I might
as well have been sitting at home listening on the radio.  Much further
back, and I'd just want the great big TV screens to watch on, like they have
at Walnut Creek.  Again, that's a 2,400 seat theatre, and we're talking
about building one that's 4,000.

Here are the lessons I take from these numbers:
   * Somewhere around 3,000, a theatre goes from grand yet intimate to
cavernous.
   * 2.5-2.8k really can make for a world-class theatre
   * It really is possible for a 1k theatre like the Carolina to host
national events if it's kept up.


2.  DESIGN

More than anything else in the design, the whole notion of a "convertable" 
theatre worries me.  Sure, it always sounds good that we'll just design the
thing so that it can be cut in half to serve the ADF.  However, whoever came
up with this idea never talked to anyone with any familiarity with the
technical side of performing arts.  Almost as a rule, venues that are
designed to be "good for everything" are in reality good for nothing.  In
contrast, venues that are built to be excellent for one purpose excel, and
can be modified to fit other tangential purposes. While Raleigh's Memorial
Hall generally gets panned, Meymandi Hall has earned national praise as a
center that was built for a symphony, just for a symphony, and only for a
symphony, and not for rock and roll shows or anything else.  Now, as I look
over at their website, I notice they've had no problems booking major acts,
such as Bobby McFerrin, Yo-Yo Ma, and k.d. lang, just in the next few
months.

In short, let's not build a theatre for everything imaginable, and then
figure out what we're trying to attraact.  Let's figure out what we want
first, and then build a theatre for that.

Secondly, it is VITALLY important that all of the design work not just go
towards a big box with lots of comfortable seats.  If we want this to be a
first class peformance venue, we MUST spend the time and money to ensure
that the lighting system is top notch, the accoustics are good, the sound
system is powerful, the fly system is both strong and has the space to lift
scrimms, drops, and curtains, and that there is plenty fo wing space, just
to name a few.


3.  TARGET EVENTS

To build upon a previous point, exactly who are we building this thing for. 
Or rather, if we build it, who will come?  One obvious answer is the ADF,
but they currently have difficulty filling Page for most shows, so 4,000
seats for them sounds a bit odd.  Before we get into a deal with Clear
Channel, I'd like for them to tell us 15 shows that they would have brought
in in the last year to this venue had it been standing.  And furthermore,
I'd like to know which of those shows wouldn't be viable in a 2,600 seat
theatre.  I'm no music business guru, so perhaps we really do need this
theatre to get major Broadway shows down here (although Rent did just fine
in Page).  However, if all we're really doing here is allowing Clear Channel
to steal Brittany Spears and Disney on Ice from the RBC Center, I'd rather
spend our public dollars elsewhere, thank you.

Specifics, please.


4.  LOCATION

As I understand it, the goal if this project is more than just to build a
performance venue to draw acts to Durham, for the enjoyment of its citizens
-- we also want to help cultivate arts and nightlife downtown. If so, one of
the focuses should be on what synergies the theatre can create with the
surrounding development.  Looking at the currently proposed location, the
event center would sit between a baseball field, the jail, an office
development (however beautiful and historic), and the railroad tracks.  Not
much synergy going on there, if you ask me.

I realize that we may be past the point of no return on this, but if I'm
allowed to dream and pick an ideal location, I'd say let's push over the
South Bank building, the biggest eyesore in downtown (okay, after the jail),
and put it right between the thriving Brightleaf nightlife district and the
other two architectural artistic gems, the Carolina Theatre and the Royall
Center.  That would cement the Five Points area as Durham's "theatre
district," and really build on the synergies down there.  Again, I know I'm
probably just dreaming here...


5.  MANAGEMENT

The problems with Clear Channel have been well documented so far, so I'll
just say this -- I'd be hard pressed to think of a company with a worse PR
problem right now among independent musicians and artists.  Durham has a
budding nascent arts community, and is starting to be able to keep its local
bands here, instead of sending them to Chapel Hill and Raleigh to find
venues to play in.  Putting up an expensive public building and plastering
Clear Channel on the side of it would be tantamount to rolling up the
welcome mat for local artists.  If we really want the "creative class"
downtown, then Clear Channel is the enemy.  A few weeks ago, I watched a
great production of Goethe's _Faust_ on Parrish Street, put on by our own
Shakespeare and Originals.  Let's make sure we're not making a Faustian
bargain on this theatre.


6.  PRIORITIZATION

This one has been said over and over, but it's really quite simple.  Until
we demonstrate that we can maintain our existing publicly owned arts spaces,
we have no business building more.  The Carolina is an architectural jewel
that is horrible to be in, because the accoustics are bad, the seats are
uncomfortable, the lighting system is prehistoric, the sound system is week,
and the stage is highly limited in its capabilities. . . . Make the Carolina
work before we go and build something new.