Marking a milestone in the history of Santa Monica College’s renowned drama program, the theatre arts department is getting ready to open its last production in the 1950s-era Main Stage before the building gets a $6.6 million major overhaul.
“Marat/Sade,” under the direction of theatre arts department chair Adrianne Harrop, opens Friday for a two-week run in the 300-seat Main Stage, which was built as a children’s theater in the early 1950s.
The renovation project — a cutting-edge, 280-seat facility — is scheduled to begin in December and be completed in mid-2005. It is being funded by Measure U, the $160 million bond measure approved by Santa Monica-Malibu voters in 2002.
The project is a new chapter for a department known for its list of distinguished alumni that includes two-time Oscar winner Dustin Hoffman, James Dean, Doug McClure and Oscar nominee Gloria Stuart of “Titanic.”
“We are thrilled to be getting an architecturally stunning facility that will open up all kinds of new theatrical and educational experiences,” Harrop said. “We’ll finally have a real sound booth, a real light booth, actual fly space, and everything that an instructional theater is supposed to have. The new space will have an unfinished, raw and dynamic quality that will shove the audience right into the action of the stage. This will be a jewel that people will talk about all over Southern California.”
In addition, it will come with fully-equipped shops for props, make-up, costumes and sets, three studios, showers and dressing rooms.
The project has been designed by Los Angeles-based architect Leo A. Daly in close consultation with Harrop and the department staff.
The project will involve an almost complete demolition of the existing Main Stage. The department will move out by the end of the summer, with asbestos removal and other pre-demolition preparations occurring in the fall.
SMC has transferred drama students to outstanding universities worldwide, including Juilliard, New York University, and the Guildford School of Drama/University of Surrey in England, school officials said.
In recent years, the college has garnered top honors in the prestigious Kennedy Center/American College Theater Festival. Last year, “Slavery,” a play with music by SMC student Jonathan Payne, was selected from more than 360 plays at colleges and universities throughout the nation for the festival. In 1997, the SMC production of “Once on this Island” also made it to the Kennedy Center finals. In both cases, the plays were the only community college productions to be selected for performance at the BRIEFS, from page 3
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on May 8, 2003. Read the original PDF.