Construction in Progress: Zach's Topfer Theatre, November 9

Zach Theatre Management Invites the Press and Media into the Topfer Theatre

November 10, 2011

by Michael Meigs

Building crews continue hard at work within the Zach Theatre's $22 million venture at Lamar and Riverside. Zach's producing artistic director Dave Steakley and managing director Elisbeth Challener invited press for a tour of the locale yesterday, in company of the architects Arthur W. Andersson and F. Christian Wise. Mort Topfer was there for part of the walk-though.

Andersson drew word pictures of the rain garden and plaza that would link the Zach's three theatres as of the formal black-tie opening of the plaza and the new Topfer Theatre on September 27 . The Topfer's western façade will feature thick glass panels evoking curtains and the "Juliet balcony" for which Zach is commissioning short drama pieces from Suzan-Lori Parks, Steven Dietz and others. Once the inaugural production of the full-orchestra musical Ragtime gets going, the Zach will provide free pre-show performances featuring the balcony, running from 6:30 p.m. and available to all passers-by. Steakley expects to announce the 2012-2013 theatre schedule for Zach in February, 2012.

The Topfer will feature all-LED lighting, an innovation pioneered by one other theatre to date, in London. Heating and air conditioning machinery is located in an immediately contiguous building, well insulated from the audience space and will feed the airflow into a large space beneath the seating area. Air will rise through the auditorium floor via vents located beneath seats.

The main stage is named for Zach legend Karen Kuykendal, whose ashes have been interred in its foundation. It features a full orchestra pit. The audience space will accommodate 427 spectators.

The management is undertaking a final push to complete funding of construction and set-up costs. To date $18.3 million of the $22 million needed has been raised. A mail-out just made to regular subscribers is asking for a commitment of $60 per year; the Zach is asking potential donors, both individuals and corporations, to pledge to the project, offering 'naming' opportunities for building features, down to the individual seats.

Click to view AustinLiveTheatre.com images from yesterday's walk-through of the project and links to other media reporting of the event. . . .

Austin Playhouse: A New Building, A New Blog

The ten-year-old Austin Playhouse led by the Toner family has launched a blog to involve its many supporters in the story of its move from rented space near St. Edward's University to a specially-built facility with two theatres at the Mueller complex off Airport Road. The company is promising a full season for 2011-2012 (The Lion in Winter, Boeing Boeing, Man of La Mancha, A Room with a View and Born Yesterday). The company has vigorously promoted season ticket sales, despite the uncertainty about the completion date for its new theatres, probably in early 2012. They expect to announce performance dates in the next few weeks.

Here are extracts from the first extensive posting at the new Austin Playhouse blog:

This summer has been full of fundraising meetings, planning meetings, architect meetings, and more fundraising meetings. In the midst of all the meeting madness we thought it would be fun to remember how we got here and exactly why we're doing this.

Austin Playhouse was founded by Don Toner and members of the Artistic Company in 1999. We’ve come a long way from our first season, where we were invited to perform Light up the Sky, Mahalia, and The Fantasticks at Concordia University. Our second season we produced four plays in various venues around town including Arcadia at Hyde Park Theatre, Blues in the Night at a downtown nightclub, and The Man Who Came to Dinner and The Seagull at McCallum High School. [ . . .]

During our years at Penn Field we enjoyed a strong growth of our audience base, but we also experienced skyrocketing rental rates. We started our stay at Penn Field paying roughly $5,000 a month. By 2010 the rate was $12,000 per month. Our growth as a company was severely limited by this monthly burden. Additionally, after a few seasons we found ourselves quickly cramped in the small space, without room for costumes, props, offices, rehearsal or scene building space. We also wanted to offer our amazing patrons a world-class facility and that simply was not possible at Penn Field. [. . . .]

The Austin Playhouse company has renovated warehouses and old movie theatres, but we’ve never had a brand new facility built just for theatre. We found a beautiful location in Northwest Austin along Spicewood Springs Road and began drawing plans and initiating a fundraising campaign. [. . .] Unfortunately, in the course of performing due diligence on the site it became clear that the land would not be able to support a theatre and adequate parking.

So the search continued as the rent continued to rise...

Click to view full text at austinplayhouse.blogspot.com . . . .