RiverCenter for the Performing Arts
Encyclopedia
Downtown Columbus, Georgia
Downtown Columbus, Georgia, also called "Uptown" , is the central business district of the city of Columbus, Georgia. The commercial and governmental heart of the city has traditionally been toward the eastern end of Downtown Columbus, between 10th Street and 1st Avenue...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
Introduction
The center first opened in 2002 with the completion of Studio Theatre, a flexible black-box style experimental theatre that seats a maximum of 250 people. Other halls in the 240,000 ft² (22,300 m²) facility include Legacy Hall, a 450-seat concert hall with flexible acousticsAcoustics
Acoustics is the interdisciplinary science that deals with the study of all mechanical waves in gases, liquids, and solids including vibration, sound, ultrasound and infrasound. A scientist who works in the field of acoustics is an acoustician while someone working in the field of acoustics...
and a magnificent, $1,000,000 Jordan concert organ adorning the center of the second tier. The stage includes room for up to 60 orchestral musicians and 80 choral singers. The largest hall, Bill Heard Theatre, is a 2,000-seat three-level theatre. An orchestra pit and 100 feet (30.5 m)-wide stage are accented by enormous weaving ribbons of colored metal mesh that sweep across the theatre. Other spaces include an outdoor concert hall and rehearsal rooms in the Schwob School of Music. The Schwob School is a department of Columbus State University
Columbus State University
Columbus State University is a public institution of higher learning located in Columbus, Georgia. Founded as Columbus College in 1958, the university was established and is administered by the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia, and is fully accredited by the Commission on...
Bill Heard Theatre
The Bill Heard Theatre is a 2000-seat theatre with three levels: Orchestra, MezzanineMezzanine (architecture)
In architecture, a mezzanine or entresol is an intermediate floor between main floors of a building, and therefore typically not counted among the overall floors of a building. Often, a mezzanine is low-ceilinged and projects in the form of a balcony. The term is also used for the lowest balcony in...
, and Balcony. The theatre also includes six box-style booths on each level. Seats are accessed by side hallways on either side of the first two levels and from the back on all levels. The hall's namesake comes from primary donor and Columbus native, William Heard.
Performances
RiverCenter has held host to famous musicians, dancers, actors, comedians, and entertainers from around the world. Notable performances include Bill CosbyBill Cosby
William Henry "Bill" Cosby, Jr. is an American comedian, actor, author, television producer, educator, musician and activist. A veteran stand-up performer, he got his start at various clubs, then landed a starring role in the 1960s action show, I Spy. He later starred in his own series, the...
, Stomp
Stomp
Stomp may refer to:*Stomp , a downwards kick using the heel*Stomp , a percussive physical theatre troupe*Stomp Records, a record label now part of Union Label Group*Stomp Entertainment, an Australian entertainment group...
, Miss Saigon
Miss Saigon
Miss Saigon is a musical by Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil, with lyrics by Boublil and Richard Maltby, Jr.. It is based on Giacomo Puccini's opera Madame Butterfly, and similarly tells the tragic tale of a doomed romance involving an Asian woman abandoned by her American lover...
, A Streetcar Named Desire
A Streetcar Named Desire (play)
A Streetcar Named Desire is a 1947 play written by American playwright Tennessee Williams for which he received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1948. The play opened on Broadway on December 3, 1947, and closed on December 17, 1949, in the Ethel Barrymore Theatre. The Broadway production was...
, Blast!, Yo-Yo Ma
Yo-Yo Ma
Yo-Yo Ma is an American cellist, virtuoso, and orchestral composer. He has received multiple Grammy Awards, the National Medal of Arts in 2001 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011...
, Itzhak Perlman
Itzhak Perlman
Itzhak Perlman is an Israeli-born violinist, conductor, and instructor of master classes. He is regarded as one of the pre-eminent violinists of the 20th and early-21st centuries.-Early life:...
, The Moscow Boys Choir
Moscow Boys Choir
-History:Founded in 1957, the performing chorus is an all-boy choir under the direction of Leonid Baklushin.-Voices & Performances:Although most of the boys are sopranos, the adolescents also attain bass, baritone, and tenor range...
, David Copperfield
David Copperfield (illusionist)
David Copperfield is an Emmy Award-winning American illusionist, and was described by Forbes as the most commercially successful magician in history. Copperfield's network specials have been nominated for 38 Emmy Awards and won a total of 21 Emmys...
, Jessye Norman
Jessye Norman
Jessye Norman is an American opera singer. Norman is a well-known contemporary opera singer and recitalist, and is one of the highest paid performers in classical music...
, Chick Corea
Chick Corea
Armando Anthony "Chick" Corea is an American jazz pianist, keyboardist, and composer.Many of his compositions are considered jazz standards. As a member of Miles Davis' band in the 1960s, he participated in the birth of the electric jazz fusion movement. In the 1970s he formed Return to Forever...
and Bela Fleck
Béla Fleck
Béla Anton Leoš Fleck is an American banjo player. Widely acknowledged as one of the world's most innovative and technically proficient banjo players, he is best known for his work with the bands New Grass Revival and Béla Fleck and the Flecktones.-Early life and career details:Fleck was born in...
, and Dame Kiri Te Kanawa
Kiri Te Kanawa
Dame Kiri Jeanette Te Kanawa, ONZ, DBE, AC is a New Zealand / Māori soprano who has had a highly successful international opera career since 1968. Acclaimed as one of the most beloved sopranos in both the United States and Britain she possesses a warm full lyric soprano voice, singing a wide array...
. Annually, the center hosts the Miss Georgia Pageant and the Ledger-Enquirer's Page One Awards. The Bill Heard Theatre regularly holds performances of the Columbus Symphony, the Youth Orchestra of Greater Columbus, and the Columbus Ballet. RiverCenter operates under contract with Tickets.com and runs performances year-round. In a June interview with CMT.com, Garrison Keillor
Garrison Keillor
Gary Edward "Garrison" Keillor is an American author, storyteller, humorist, and radio personality. He is known as host of the Minnesota Public Radio show A Prairie Home Companion Gary Edward "Garrison" Keillor (born August 7, 1942) is an American author, storyteller, humorist, and radio...
called RiverCenter "a fabulous new auditorium that is as fine as any I've ever played in."
Design and Construction
RiverCenter's design team included internationally acclaimed Hardy Holzman Phiefer Assosiates (1981 Architecture Firm Award) and local firm, Hecht Burdeshaw Architects (credited with the AflacAflac
Aflac Incorporated is the largest provider of supplemental insurance in the United States, founded in 1955 and based in Columbus, Georgia. In the United States, Aflac underwrites a wide range of insurance policies, but is perhaps more known for its payroll deduction insurance coverage, which pays...
, TSYS
TSYS
Total System Services, Inc. is the largest processor of merchant acquirers and bank credit card issuers. Creators of TS2 and TS1. TSYS is located in Columbus, Georgia, United States. TSYS acquired a leading prepaid card processor, Clarity Payment Solutions, Inc...
, and Synovus
Synovus
Synovus is a financial services company with $29 billion in assets based in Columbus, Georgia. Synovus’ 30 locally-branded bank divisions provide commercial and retail banking, investment and mortgage services to customers in Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina, Florida and Tennessee through 308...
World Headquarters). For the theatre design, Theatre Projects Consultants of Norwalk, Connecticut
Norwalk, Connecticut
Norwalk is a city in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the population of the city is 85,603, making Norwalk sixth in population in Connecticut, and third in Fairfield County...
were contracted. Other design team members include Jordan, Jones, and Goulding (Civil Engineers; Columbus); Harrington Engineers, Incorporated (Structural Engineers; Atlanta); Newcomb & Boyd (Mechanical Engineers; Atlanta); Cline, Bettridge, Bernstein Lighting Design (Architectural Lighting; New York); JaffeHolden Acoustics, Inc. (Acoustical Consultant; Norwalk, CT); and Jones Worley Graphics, Incorporated (RiverCenter logo and "performers"; Atlanta). General Contractor of the building was handled by Beers Skanska, Incorporated or Atlanta. Pre-acquisition environmental and construction testing of the site was performed by employees of Building and Earth Sciences in Columbus. Most of the subcontracting work including stone, masonry, steel, fire protection, and staging were made locally.
Technology
The RiverCenter is one of the most technologically advanced performance spaces in the state. In Heard Hall, the lightingLighting
Lighting or illumination is the deliberate application of light to achieve some practical or aesthetic effect. Lighting includes the use of both artificial light sources such as lamps and light fixtures, as well as natural illumination by capturing daylight...
booth boasts an Obsession II control console, manufactured by world-renowned Electronic Theatre Controls
Electronic Theatre Controls
Electronic Theatre Controls is a privately held corporation with global headquarters in Middleton, Wisconsin, United States. An international manufacturer of entertainment and architectural lighting systems, ETC offers professional lighting fixtures, lighting control consoles, dimming equipment...
(ETC). Racks of Sensor+ Dimmer
Dimmer
Dimmers are devices used to vary the brightness of a light. By decreasing or increasing the RMS voltage and, hence, the mean power to the lamp, it is possible to vary the intensity of the light output...
s can handle loads in excess of one million watts (1000 kW). In Legacy Hall and the Studio Theatre, lighting is controlled on ETC Exspression consoles. Almost all lighting instruments are provided by ETC.
Sound is mixed on a now discontinued Crest Audio
Crest Audio
Crest Audio, Inc is an American company that produces professional sound equipment, including audio mixers, power amplifiers, and loudspeakers. Crest Audio was founded in the late 1970s by Jean-Pierre Prideaux in California...
V12 32 channel analog mixing console and heard on Eastern Acoustic Works Speakers. External processing (outboard- equalization, compressing, limiting) in the Heard Hall is done on Klark Teknik
Klark Teknik
1971 saw the start of Klark Teknik when brothers Phillip and Terence Clarke formed “Klark Equipment” a company that produced garage forecourt equipment; vending style vacuum cleaners, space heaters and other similar products....
units. All halls boast the ability to record audio and video.
The rear walls of the auditorium are fitted with motorized acoustic curtains that can be adjusted to better suit the type of performance. To further improve acoustics, a large three piece orchestra shell ceiling extends from the stage proscenium. The entire mahogany
Mahogany
The name mahogany is used when referring to numerous varieties of dark-colored hardwood. It is a native American word originally used for the wood of the species Swietenia mahagoni, known as West Indian or Cuban mahogany....
structure can be adjusted with motorized counter-weight rigging.
An orchestra pit seating up to fifty musicians can be raised to house or stage position, adding four rows of seating, or an extended apron.