MORGAN HILL
– The final piece is about to be put in place. The third leg of
the tripartite community and cultural center is about to spread its
refurbished wings.
The Morgan Hill Community Playhouse
– once an old, white church in need of attention – will open to
the public Friday night in its new guise as town playhouse.
MORGAN HILL – The final piece is about to be put in place. The third leg of the tripartite community and cultural center is about to spread its refurbished wings.
The Morgan Hill Community Playhouse – once an old, white church in need of attention – will open to the public Friday night in its new guise as town playhouse.
Beginning at 6:30 p.m. Mayor Dennis Kennedy and most of the City Council will cut the ribbon and give the speeches expected at such events. Then the doors will be thrown open and the public can get its first view of what $2.5 million and a year of construction has wrought, followed by coffee and cookies – all enhanced by the music of harpist Jennifer Cass.
City Council members had a tour last Wednesday and said they were impressed.
“I was very pleased,” said Councilwoman Hedy Chang. “There is a sense of surprise.”
For those lucky enough to get tickets, a performance sampler will begin at 7:30 p.m. – a second show at 9 p.m. was added because of the demand. Music, dance and drama by Mes Amis String Trio, Alisa Fineman and Kimball Hurd (folk music), Opera San José, Ballet San José Silicon Valley and South Valley Civic Theatre will put the stage, its lighting and sound systems through their paces.
Rock musician and graphic artist Bob Snow, who is experienced with the intricacies of sound systems, said Thursday that the $35,000 system is a good one.
“There are two sound set ups,” he said. “One for speakers that can be turned on near the stage (for lectures, meetings and church events) – and can handle two to four microphones. There is also a 16-channel mixing system for music and drama, controlled from the booth” at the top of the house. The control booth also handles the stage lights.
Commenting on Chang’s sense of surprise with the theater, Greg True of ELS Architecture and Urban Design, said it was planned.
“I had a professor who said a building should give a hint of what’s inside, outside,” he said, “and there should be a little moment of delight inside.” True was principally responsible for turning the 4,000-square-foot, 1924 church building into a 7,000-square-foot, 2003 theater/concert hall.
“I wanted to create a new environment with an emphasis on historical quality,” he said. “We created a new identity.”
The church was fairly modest when built, he said, “and the tower was fairly homely.”
What to save and what to alter were considerations. The lobby (in the entry tower), True said, had been remodeled with a second story of offices.
“There was a clumsy floor right through the arch-topped window,” he said. “We tore it all out and returned the lobby to its original function – restoring its vertical spatial quality.”
“We kept the strong parts as cues and generators for the new parts,” True said.
“If we had had the money, everything now painted brown would have been (quality) wood,” he said. Council insisted on squeezing as much out of its $2.5 million as possible.
“It is always more expensive (to renovate) than if we had started from scratch,” he said, “but the project went really well. Glenn (Ritter, project manager from Public Works) and Joyce (Maskell, project manager from Business Assistance and Housing Dept.) were great to work with.”
True and Ritter both praised Kent Construction of Gilroy, the company that did the actual hands-on work.
“They made construction go smoothly,” Ritter said.
Stage presence
Black curtains now flank the sides of the stage and a red/orange velvet stage front curtain is in place. Proscenium doors have been installed on walls just off the stage and, according to Ritter, can be swung open to narrow the stage opening. A single pianist or vocalist, for example, rarely needs the full stage width.
Back drops for theatrical performances will be hung from a grid of piping on the ceiling and anchored to the masonite floor. A flying prop tower common in most theaters, was not used because the area is formally called a “platform” not a “stage” – to satisfy building code restrictions.
Gender-specific dressing rooms have five makeup stations each plus a closet for storage and a bathroom.
True colors
True also helped choose the color scheme.
“Color is one minor development of the architectural design,” he said. He chose natural and saturated colors – greens, golds and browns based on nature, primarily, because they harkened back to the Craftsman style of the period. Morgan Hill has many bungalow-style homes and, in fact, True believes the church was built by someone who normally did residential construction.
“The colors are decorative and celebratory,” he said. Darker colors coat the walls in the auditorium so, True said, there would be no reflections when the house lights are down.
Light fixtures were a problem, though. True said most historical fixtures are “residential and funky – or really expensive.” Instead of trying to find the unfindable, he installed modern fixtures, including a large, wiry structure in the main lobby area.
Windows of soul
A “bubbly” laminate in the center window panes makes the arch-topped windows appear slightly opaque and old.
True said certain panes in the building’s designer-window shapes were laminated with a double glass to catch light differently.
“There is a (historical) reference that the glass in the original building was inexpensive but was a rippled yellow glass, and somewhat obscured,” he said. “We kept the ornamental quality.” The beaded glass is in the center panes, allowing a clear view through surrounding panes.
“It gives it a little sparkle,” True said.
Seats of glory
When playgoers claim their seats for the first performances, (SVCT’s “Lend Me a Tenor” opening Feb. 7) they will be sitting on history. The 186 Art Deco seats are originally from the Campbell High School auditorium and from the same period as the playhouse building. Each seat has cast iron standards (side supports) given a custom powder coat in bronze with green trim. The design elements are common to the 1920s; the wooden backs are stained cherry to coordinate with green upholstery.
The seats cost the city nothing except for the renovation and re-upholstering, according to Maskell.
Besides their critical function during performances, the chairs have been put to work to pay for their restoration and to bring in funds for South Valley Civic Theatre as well. For $300, 186 lucky theater supporters will have their name or their business name engraved on brass plaques attached permanently to the chairs’ arms. $250 will go to recoup refurbishing expenses and $50 to SVCT.
Visit www.svct.org or call 842-SHOW to inquire after plaques or SVCT tickets. Some $5 (donation) tickets to Friday’s 9 p.m. grand opening performance remain. Details:
782-0008.
