Performance and Architecture

Training and Performance

My training as both a classical cellist and indie rock musician taught me a lot about what it is to be a performer on a stage. It taught me about acoustics, technical systems of sound amplification and lighting. When it works, you don’t think about it and can focus on getting the best results with your fellow players. When it doesn’t, it’s hard not to be distracted and can diminish the hard-earned magic we’re trying to create for the audience.

Performance is all about connection. And as with most things worth doing, to make it all look easy takes endless hours of planning, skill and teamwork.

Which brings me to the next point. The experience of working as a musician also taught me about the many aspects that happen backstage, load in zones, storage, changing areas and green rooms, along with flows to allow the many players and stagehands to not fall over one another. The Back of House is equally essential to a successful performance venue as the Front of House.

Architecture

All of this early life experience was later formalized throughout the six years of practice and consultation in the Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects performing arts division. I had the honor and joy of working on any number of venue types- from a black box theater with its seemingly infinite flexibility – to a full-fledged proscenium theater that could host Broadway productions. And this opened my eyes to the many possibilities and details that enhance the experience of the theater goer as well.

The Isthmus Playhouse was one of these venues. We completely reshaped the seating area and stage from an awkward asymmetrical configuration into a comfortably sized thrust stage setup. This means the stage extends into the audience, with seats on 3 sides of the stage. It allows the viewer to experience a highly intimate and immersive environment. This concept was also famously used at Shakespeare’s Globe theater – a space Robert and I were excited to visit with our family last summer.

Our daughter has been studying with the Shakespeare Conservatory and Team, part of the Heart of America Shakespeare Festival, for the last several years. Her love for theatre has reignited my own passion for performance and the spaces that house and engender them.

Positive Impact Design

Working and reconnected with the expert acoustical consultants from Kirkegaard on DRAW’s renovation of the Kemper Museum of Art for the Stan Douglas exhibition was incredibly gratifying.

And now we venture together, along with Next Stage- a world class theater consultant team, into envisioning the Englewood Theatre in the charming Arts District of Independence, MO. A theater that evolved to a rock and country performance hall called the KC Opry and then SCI-fi movie venue, the Englewood Theater has so many stories over its a rich history! This narrative is on exhibit now at the Midwest Genealogy Center, 3440 S Lees Summit Rd, Independence MO 64055.

Spaces where we can be together, feel something together, and share a story, music or artistry that touches our humanity is more important now than ever.