The Dallas Theater Center
(DTC) is known for its innovative work, the result of its leadership’s constant
experimentation and the provisional nature of its long-time home. DTC was
housed in the Arts District Theater, a dilapidated metal shed that freed its
resident companies from the limitations imposed by a fixed-stage configuration
and the need to avoid harming expensive interior finishes. The directors who
worked there constantly challenged the traditional conventions of theater and
often reconfigured the form of the stage to fit their artistic visions. As a
result, the Arts District Theater was renowned as the most flexible theater in America. The
costs of constantly reconfiguring its stage, however, became a financial burden
and eventually DTC permanently fixed its stage into a “thrust-cenium.”Imagining a replacement for DTC’s
old house raised several distinct challenges. First, the new theater needed to engender
the same freedoms created by the makeshift nature of its previous home. Second,
the new venue needed to be flexible and multi-form while requiring minimal
operational costs.The Dee
and Charles Wyly Theatre overcomes these challenges by overturning conventional
theater design. Instead of circling front-of-house and back-of-house functions
around the auditorium and fly tower, the Wyly Theatre stacks these facilities
below-house and above-house. This
strategy transforms the building into one big “theater machine.” At the push of
a button, the theater can be transformed into a wide array of configurations—including
proscenium, thrust, and flat floor—freeing directors and scenic designers to
choose the stage-audience configuration that fulfills their artistic desires. Moreover,
the performance chamber is intentionally made of materials that are not
precious in order to encourage alterations; the stage and auditorium surfaces
can be cut, drilled, painted, welded, sawed, nailed, glued and stitched at
limited cost.Stacking the Wyly Theatre’s
ancillary facilities above- and below-house also liberates the performance
chamber’s entire perimeter, allowing fantasy and reality to mix when and where
desired. Directors can incorporate the Dallas
skyline and streetscape into performances at will, as the auditorium is
enclosed by an acoustic glass façade with hidden black-out blinds that can be
opened or closed. Panels of the façade can also be opened to allow patrons or
performers to enter into the auditorium or stage directly from outside,
bypassing the downstairs lobby.By investing in
infrastructure that allows ready transformation and liberating the performance
chamber’s perimeter, the Wyly Theatre grants its artistic directors freedom to
determine the entire theater experience, from audience arrival to performance
configuration to departure. On consecutive days, the Wyly Theatre can produce
Shakespeare on a proscenium stage or Beckett in a flat-floor configuration
silhouetted against the Dallas
cityscape. Both learning from, and improving upon, DTC’s original Arts District
Theater, the Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre will restore Dallas
as the home of the most flexible theater in America, if not the world.