Jerry Godden
Theatre Projects Consultants, 3 Apollo Studios, Charlton Kings Rd., London NW5 2W, U.K.
Small and medium sized communities wanting a high quality performing arts space are faced with reconciling the conflicting demands that different arts forms make on the performance space. The recently completed Cerritos Centre for the Performing Arts in California is unusual in its design in that it utilizes modern technology to provide a space for the performing arts that can become a 1896-seat concert hall, a 1450-seat lyric theatre, a 900-seat drama theatre, a 1934-arena theatre, or a cabaret space seating 1472. The auditorium is transformed including its seating, its sightlines, and its acoustics by the use of movable seating towers. The design demonstrates how a small town can afford to build and operate a facility in scale with its capabilities and aspirations and may well prove to be a key point in the concept of multi purpose spaces of the future.