Black Box Theater[/caption]

Round Rock city staffers are working on a plan to create a theater space in the Allen R. Baca Senior Center downtown while city leaders mull a larger-scale arts facility for the future.

Council Member Kris Whitfield said the space within the Baca Center, which is known as a black-box theater, would provide much-needed space for Round Rock’s performing arts groups in the immediate future.

“We currently have nothing for these groups,” Whitfield said.

Scot Wilkinson, city of Round Rock director of arts and culture, said the Baca Center’s downtown location will help support local businesses downtown as well.

“We have ArtSpace and that draws 60,000 people [per year] to see visual art,” Wilkinson said. “We’ll now have a performing arts element downtown.”

Ryan Crowder, producing artistic director for the Penfold Theater Company, based in Round Rock, said the black-box theater will allow his company and other groups to develop their work and build a local audience.

“There’s talk about the really big facility, but that’s probably many years down the road,” Crowder said. “Something we can get into and start doing work in now is just huge. It’s going to open a lot of possibilities on what we can do.”

Building the black box

The black-box theater, which would hold about 200 seated guests, would be converted from the 3,000-square-foot Grand Room in the senior center.

According to a plan presented before City Council in November, a black-box theater is a bare room with a movable seating area, retractable curtains and a flexible lighting system. A black box is used for smaller productions, including plays, chamber operas and recitals. According to the plan, the Grand Room could be converted back at any time by removing the theater’s features.

“We want the space to be as flexible and multiuse as possible,” Whitfield said. “It kind of upgrades [the Grand Room’s] usage.”

Whitfield said a kitchen is next to the Grand Room, which would allow the black box to have concessions or dinner theater.

She said the theater would be acoustically sound and feature professional equipment.

According to the plan, converting the room into a black box—which includes installing tracks, lighting, new electrical wiring, risers and purchasing the seats—would cost the city about $300,000.

“When the city does a project, they want to make sure it’s done right,” Wilkinson said.

Wilkinson said the city is currently looking to hire an architect to do the conversion, and he hopes the theater will be open by October.

Long-term goals

Large performing arts venue[/caption]

Whitfield said the black-box theater would hopefully build audiences for local performances and bring with it demand for a larger-scale performing arts venue within the city.

In July the city was presented with a plan from architecture firm Corgan that recommended a 70,800-square-foot performing arts facility that could range in cost from $46 million to $49.8 million.

The recommended facility would have two levels and feature a performance hall, flexible theater and multifunction rehearsal space.

Whitfield said she and other residents who are interested in seeing the large-scale venue built have formed the Round Rock Foundation for the Arts to raise awareness and funds for the venue.

“Our goal is to raise private money, and [fundraising] will spark more interest in the community,” Whitfield said. “If we do go out for a bond [to fund the large-scale theater] that way it’s not a big surprise and people are saying, ‘What? Why do we need this?’ We’ll be vocal and out there.”

Additional space

Whitfield said although the black-box theater will help the arts groups, it will not fill the space needs of larger groups such as the local symphonies.

Crowder said he has talked with Wilkinson and other city officials about the plan for a black-box theater, and he says it is “ideal” for a theater company of Penfold’s size.

“We’re just beside ourselves, but some of the groups aren’t going to benefit much at all [from the black box],” he said. “As a community we need to find something that will work for everyone. [In the larger arts facility], they’re planning a larger black box there as well. This could be a stepping stone to something that’s even nicer.”