Stage tor All Purposes

New Zealand Listener, Volume 31, Issue 791, 17 September 1954, Page 16

Stage tor All Purposes

« ARCHITECT'S sketches of the projected Lower Hutt town hall showing (at right) the stage set for drama, with sidepanels out; and (below) the full stage width available for choral concerts

HE Lower Hutt City Council is building a Town Hall and it looks as though certain innovations in its planning may go some way towards overcoming one of the biggest disadvantages affecting the performance of music. A Town Hall has to serve all interests in the community. It is a place for drama, music, dancing, wrestling, boxing, and all sorts of meetings. What usually happens is that it turns out to be a place fulfilling all these functions but none of them wholly satisfactorily. And music nearly always comes off worst. One of the musicians’ chief com--plaints is that the stage or platform is never large enough to accommodate choirs or orchestras whose end men find themselves uncomfortably pushing against the inflexible pillars of the drama’s proscenium. Alternatively, there is a vast oasis of space which dissipates the sound before it has a chance to become music. Whatever the result to the audience, the performer who has to make music under these conditions very soon has the shine taken out of his enthusiasm. The new Lower Hutt hall will still have to serve all purposes and will, no doubt, still have to be something of a compromise; but certain modifications in stage design will make the singer or the player much happier. At first sight, the proscenium may appear little different from any other. The opening is 27 feet across, adequate enough for drama, and the depth of just on 26 feet should leave enough room for even the most

extravagant histrionics. Take off your actors, however, and put on the choir, and the stage immediately presents a spacious front of 45 feet. The accomplishment of this is a very simple matter. All that happens is that the proscenium sides which turn out to be each three staggered panels, slide back easily and neatly into a nest, leaving the whole stage open, if this still does not leave enough room for the choir, the orchestral well (28 feet by six feet) can be raised to stage level to form an apron. As for the sound, it is proposed to have a sort of movable canopy which will make a ceiling and a solid backdrop. This should have the effect of projecting all the music into the auditorium. While this will reduce the stage space, it will still leave enough room for about. 120 singers. There will be ample dressing-room accommodation and an orchestral room. The hall itself will seat about 1200.