Theatre and Dance Building at Macalester College

Location
St. Paul, Minnesota

Owner
Macalester College

Team
Acoustics and AV - Threshold
Architect - HGA

Size
36,000 square feet

Schedule
Completed 2019

The Theatre and Dance building, as part of the Janet Wallace Fine Arts Center, is a new addition to the original 1960s building and includes, as its centerpiece, a highly flexible studio theater seating up to 250 patrons.

Threshold consulted on acoustics and Audio/Video (AV) systems. A common feature throughout the facility is “flexibility,” requiring deployment of AV systems for educational or performance purposes in nearly every space, and a supportive acoustic environment that is hospitable both to intimate dramatic moments and to loud and raucous experimental events. This flexibility has allowed the faculty to explore performance possibilities that were impossible to consider in their previous facilities and means there is acoustic and AV support for actors and audience regardless of the seating or staging configuration.

In addition to the mainstage theater, the building houses a large scale dance rehearsal/performance studio, a full scene shop, workshop-style teaching spaces for lighting/sound design, and a series of smaller studio spaces for rehearsal and intimate performance.