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| CHERRY
HILL'S VILLAGE THEATER OFFERS "BIG CITY" SOUND |
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Reliving the theater experience of "yesteryear"
was a goal in this reconstruction. |
Photo by: Christopher
Lark
The intimate setting of 400 seats provides
patrons with the feeling of having a front-row seat for
any performance. |
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| Cherry Hill, located
in western Wayne County, in the township
of Canton outside of Detroit,
it is not like other Midwest suburbs. That is, it's not a
typical subdivision that relies on the city for both commerce
and culture. The Cherry Hill area is a "new
urbanist" development with a personality and flavor all
its own.
Tim Casai, project designer and senior vice
president of TMP,
the architectural firm responsible for the design of the new
Canton
Performing Arts Center located within Cherry Hill,
described the concept: "The Cherry Hill area,
in the "new urbanist" context, is supposed to be
front porches and alleys and sidewalks and shops and restaurants
- all those things that go into making traditional communities."
At the heart of the blossoming neighborhood sits a small performing-arts
center that is equally unique. Designed to anchor the downtown
area, the Village Theater at Cherry
Hill blends into the streetscape and is reachable
easily by foot from any part of downtown Cherry Hill.
Casai likens the Village Theater
to Toronto's famed Pantages Theater, in that
both venues have a narrow facade on the corner of a main street
and blend into the downtown design: both theaters are clearly
visible, but not dominating.
THEATER OF "YESTERYEARS"
However, a far more poignant analogy exists. "When
we first started designing," Casai recolled,
"the Canton Township supervisor came to us and
said, 'Have you folks seen the movie, The Majestic?
There's a theater in that film, and that's what I'm going
for. I want that older, traditional flavor'."
Anyone who has seen The Majestic might recoll the
luxurious World War II-era movie theater. Plush seats, rich
burgundy carpeting, a classic proscenium, rich mahagony accents
and cherry wood décor contribute to what seemed like
an almost magical venue...
...Casai said that he watched the film again
to refresh his memory and then set to work putting together
the materials and design plans that would capture that same
aesthetic. He and his team didn't do it alone, however. Bloomfield
Hills MI-based TMP
worked closely with sound-design consultants, Kirkegaard
Associates out of Chicago IL: Temperance MI-based Phillips
Pro Audio, which installed the audiovisual systems: and
theatrical consulting firm Jarrett Boyd out
of Chicago, to ensure that the sound, lighting and video all
enhanced the old-world atmosphere...
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NOT INEXPENSIVE
The project wasn't inexpensive. The city of Canton dedicated
$4 million to the overall $11 million construction project,
with the balance of the money raised through private donations,
grants, foundations, corporations and individuals. The best
in audiovisual technology was selected by Kirkegaard Associates
to give this small theater big sound...
DIVERSE SYSTEMS
With such a broad range of performances to be held in the
theater, including traveling groups that will bring in some
of their own systems, flexibility was a major concern for
Kirkegaard
Associates, the sound designer and acoustical consultant.
Audio and video systems designer Jonathan Darling
noted that one of the main design challanges in the project
was to create a theater capable of holding the range of events
they thought might occur in the facility. "It
is a true multipurpose venue," he said, "with the
capability to host orchestral and band performances, amplified
music, community theater and business presentations."
Darling specified a left-center-right loudspeaker
system from Renkus-Heinz, consisting of a
CT5/94K
biamp speaker as the main center, and SR5/64
passive crossover speakers as the left and right mains. The
speakers are powered by Crown
amps. "We feel quite strongly that a left-center-right
cluster has the most flexibility in this type of applications,"
Darling explained. "It gives you the
option of high-quality speech intelligibility by using the
center cluster, solid stereo sound for amplified performance
and, in musical theater, the entire system comes into play."
A Symetrix
Symnet multifunction digital signal processor provided
all the sound-processing power required for the 400-seat,
slightly flared auditorium. The consultant added Renkus-Heinz
TRX121/9 and TRX81/9
floor monitor/portable effects speakers beneath the stage
as front fills to cover the first third of the seats for high
frequencies. These are powered by QSC
amplifiers....
...Technical director Phil Garcia commented
on the flexibility of the system. "There are
patch and bays and panels throughout the Village Theater.
This really allows for a lot of options...".
Dennis Phillips of Phillips
Pro Audio, the firm that completed the installation, summarized
it most succinctly: "They can do whatever they
want in the space." |
| EASE OF USE
Another major consideration for the audio designer was the
system's ease of use. As a community theater, the Village
Theater doesn't have a large technical staff nor a full-time
house audio technician. In fact, the tech staff consists of
Garcia and his assistant technical director,
Tommy Scott.
Darling selected a Soundcraft
Spirit LX7 32-channel mixing console as the main audio
mixer. He wanted a mixer that offered left-center-right mixing
capabilityes but would be relatively simple to use..."One
of the things we try to do, in the case of a community or
high school or middle school theater, is to design a system
with a lot of gain before feedback." The consultant
used EASE modeling
software during the design stages. "We find it
able to predict the direct distribution of sound with considerable
accuracy," he said.
REHEARSAL ROOM
In addition to the main auditorium, the Canton Performing
Arts Center also includes a rehearsal room, down a corridor
on the house left side, which can be used for small presentations,
band and orchestra practice, drama rehearsals, small recitals
and even overflow from the main hall.
Like the main auditorium, Darling said, "This
room was designed for a wide range of uses. It can even operate
as a performance hall." The room's systems include
an easy-to-use Yamaha
MV800 mixer, and a set of Renkus-Heinz
TRX121/9K speakers on Atlas tripods,
which permit the sound engineer or performance director to
move the speakers as required. Velour draperies provide variable
acoustics to create a less live environment during reinforced
sound applications.
OPENING NIGHT
The community theater opened, quite appropriately, with an
eclectic blend of performances by children, local singers
and community bands, which truly tested the capabilities of
the new audio system...
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