May Issue - Stage Directions Magazine

Theatre Space
By Charles Conte
Victoria Station
ALL PHOTOGRAPHY BY JERRY LAURSEA,
COURTESY OF CITY OF RANCHO CUCAMONGA
An isolated West Coast community
gets a cultural boost thanks to a
new theatre complex.
The exterior of the Victoria Gardens Cultural Center
Interior view of the Playhouse
Along with Timbuktu, Bora Bora and Walla Walla, Washington,
Rancho Cucamonga, a city of some 170,000 42 miles east
of Los Angeles, carries on the proud tradition of bearing a
quirky name that’s guaranteed to make people smile.
Far from hiding its heritage under a bushel, the city of Rancho
Cucamonga embraces it. In 1993, the city erected a statue of
Jack Benny (the comedian used the city name as the punch
line in a running gag on his radio show) outside The Epicenter,
home of baseball’s California Angels Class A affiliate, the Rancho
Cucamonga Quakes. The statue was actually commissioned to
encourage the creation of a performing arts center in the city.
Today, that statue sits in the lobby of the 536-seat Lewis
Family Playhouse, the focal venue of the Victoria Gardens
Cultural Center, along with the Victoria Gardens Library.
Completed in August 2006, the Cultural Center is a major
anchor to the 1.5 million-square-foot Victoria Gardens
retail center.
The city enlisted WLC Architects and Pitassi Architects (both
with offices in Rancho Cucamonga) to interpret the city’s vision
for a facility combining a community-gathering place with a
playhouse and a library. The city wanted to create a place that
inspires, entertains, educates and sparks the imagination. The
architects and the Berkeley Calif.-based design firm, Flying
Colors, Inc., delivered on all counts.
Auerbach Pollock Friedlander collaborated with the architectural
team as theatre, sound, video and communications
consultants. They also provided the design for all of the
theatrical systems. The firm’s architectural lighting design
division, Auerbach Glasow, provided lighting design services
throughout the public spaces.
In the Lewis Family Playhouse, home to the resident
MainStreet Theatre Company, the Auerbach-specified FOH
system is based around a Yamaha M7CL-48 digital audio console
and loudspeaker arrays from NEXO.
The Lewis Family Playhouse
The Lewis Family Playhouse is a flexible proscenium theatre.
As Auerbach’s project manager, Mike McMackin, explains, “A
flexible platform system is configurable for use as a thrust stage,
additional audience seating or as an orchestra pit. In-house side
stages and side balconies provide an extension of the performance
area into the volume of the audience chamber.” The
proscenium opening is 40 feet wide by 22 feet high by 34 feet
deep. The stage is fully trapped to accommodate entrances and
exits from the space below.
Sound system design for the theatre presented a number of
challenges. First of all, the theatre would host a variety of performances:
theatre for young audiences, professional theatre, classical
music, musicals, pops performances and large format DVD
presentations. Secondly, though line arrays were preferred for
delivering the best possible left/center/right image to every seat,
according to Auerbach sound system designer Greg Weddig, “We
struggled with long line arrays, trying to integrate them into the
architecture.”
The NEXO Geo Series presented an interesting solution: their
GEO S830 loudspeaker could be vertically or horizontally mounted.
“Essentially, we turned a vertical line array on its side,” says
Weddig. The center cluster consists of five GEO S830s, with appropriate
(NEXO) processing, each delivering a 30 degree dispersion
pattern. Vertical arrays consisting of three S830s each, left and
right of the proscenium arch, are nearly invisible: the speakers
measure approx. 16 inches by 10 inches by 6 inches.
Two NEXO subs located at catwalk level above and slightly
downstage of the center cluster are angled down and out toward
the center of the house to minimize the sound energy being
directed toward the stage. Three NEXO delay loudspeakers,
used primarily for high frequency fill to the balcony seats, are
mounted at the rear catwalk rail and delayed against the mains.
Loudspeakers are driven by 12 QSC amps.
24 May 2007 • www.stage-directions.com