School of Theater officials are looking to further improvements to theater facilities.
Gold Star Memorial Building has been undergoing renovations since February 2017, including safer flooring, soundproofed walls and a new heating and air conditioning system.
Brian Parsons, associate dean of the school of theater, said a yearlong feasibility study is underway to consult theater faculty and, potentially, students on what they would like in a new building.
Theater officials received funding for the feasibility program last spring, and, at the end of this academic year, officials ideally will know what new building could be built, Parsons said.
Theater officials are considering a new performance space, a place for the theater school and potentially additional buildings, Parsons said.
“It is our aspiration and dream to have a purpose-built theater school with specialist teaching spaces, specialist rehearsal spaces and new performance spaces,” he said.
Dr. Mark Parker, dean of the theater and music schools, said a new building would likely be a space shared by the School of Theater and outside theater entities. Parker said he first had the idea for a new theater space about a year and a half ago when Kirkpatrick Fine Arts Center was being remodeled. He said outside organizations asked him if they would be able to use the space when it was complete, but it wasn’t possible to fit them all in one space.
Parker also said the construction of the building itself would take about 10 years. It would be funded by donors.
Parsons said improvements will eventually be finished in Gold Star, but it won’t be the School of Theater’s main focus because it’s temporary.
“We don’t want to sink money into a building that, if all goes well, we won’t be in, in two, three years’ time,” Parsons said.
Facilities staff worked in Gold Star during the summer and completed Studios E and F on the north side of the basement, improved soundproofing between the rooms and cleared out spaces on the south side of the basement that may be used as workrooms, offices or practice rooms. Parsons said soundproofing was especially improved after a failed attempt when the studios were built.
“We really learnt the lesson of the work we did before,” he said. “When we built the acting studios on the third floor, we genuinely thought we had sufficiently soundproofed them. But, if you go up there now and you shout in one room, you won’t hear it in the other room.”
Parsons said the renovations that still need to be done include the replacement or reparation of carpet, reparation of ceiling tiles and the installment of blinds and curtains. The renovations do not have a completion date.
Parsons also said the Oklahoma City Ballet, when they were transitioning buildings in early 2016, didn’t have available office space, and theater officials leased out office spaces on the second floor of Gold Star for them to use. Now, their offices are ready, and the School of Theater will get those spaces back in October. Parsons said they probably will be used as faculty offices, but he would prefer them to be practice rooms.
Lance Marsh, head of performance and theater professor, teaches all of his classes in Gold Star this semester. He said the addition of Studios E and F was especially helpful after the School of Theater was vacated from the Clara E. Jones Administration Building so it could be used for admissions.
“We were very much packed to the gills,” Marsh said. “We had every one of our studios fully booked through all of our typical teaching hours last year, so this extra space has really lightened things up and given us a little breathing space.”
Parsons said he encourages students to focus on what they’ve gained since the two extra studios make up for the loss of the admin tower.
Daniel Etti-Williams, acting senior, said he appreciates the addition of the new studios, but there were better ways Gold Star could have been improved.
“It’s good, and I understand what they were trying to do with it,” Etti-Williams said. “Now it’s two spaces instead of one, but I think there were more pressing needs that we needed for the Gold Star building. I feel like things are getting better, it’s just slow.”
Parsons said he is excited for the possibility of the theater school getting its own space.
“The School of Theater, if you think about it, it’s never had its own building,” he said. “We have the bulk of Gold Star, but we share it right now, we share it with honors, we share it with religion, and it wasn’t built to be a theater school. So it’s part of the ongoing journey and development and growth of the theater school that we’re getting closer to what we need.”
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