Story Photos
 Instructor Don Correll talks about the new theater in which he'll be staging plays. Bill Wagner / The Daily News
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Rose Center ready to welcome the public
Thursday, June 26, 2008 7:28 PM PDT
By Tom Paulu
Printable version
E-mail this articleThe curtain will rise Saturday on Southwest Washington’s fanciest theater complex. And the community is invited to take a look behind the scenes, stages and facilities at the grand opening ceremony for the Rose Center for the Arts at Lower Columbia College.
The $24.6 million building features a 525-seat auditorium, a 125-seat thrust theater, a rehearsal hall, art gallery and audio technology recording lab, in addition to classrooms, practice rooms and faculty offices.
The Rose Center is arguably the most elegant public building in Cowlitz County, with sweeping expanses of wood paneling and a mural by nationally recognized painter Lucinda Parker in the lobby.
College music instructor Gary Nyberg said it’s the best hall for music performance in Southwest Washington. “This is real state-of-the art,” he said. “I hope the community treasures it and comes to events at it.”
College theater instructor Don Correll said the closest drama hall that’s as good is in Portland.
With the rehearsal hall, three performances could be held in the building at the same time. Nyberg said the college can now host musical competitions.
Here are details of what the center has to offer:
Wollenberg Auditorium
The star attraction at the Rose Center is the 525-seat main hall, which is designed primarily for music. The green-upholstered seats are backed in cherry wood, which is also used extensively on the walls.
Original plans called for an orchestra pit in front of the stage. When the pit was eliminated due to escalating construction costs, the architect decided to extend the stage farther out in a sweeping curve. With the performers closer to the seats, “it gives it a feeling of intimacy,” Nyberg said.
There’s 25 feet of space offstage to left and right, more than twice as much as the R.A. Long auditorium or the Columbia Theater have. One offstage room is set aside to store the college’s Bosendorfer grand piano, a $79,000 instrument donated last year by Ken and Pat Hanson.
A partition at the back of the stage is six feet from the back wall, creating a “crossover” so actors or crew can walk behind the stage from one side to the other without being seen.
Even with the crossover space, the stage is big enough to hold a major symphony orchestra, Nyberg said.
The Masonite stage floor design includes rubber pieces that provide cushioning. The springiness makes the floor suitable for dancers, who avoid hard concrete surfaces.
Because of that, LCC will start offering dance as a regular credit class in the fall, Nyberg said. A nearby classroom doesn’t have a flexible floor surface, but does have wall mirrors for dancers.
Nyberg, who directs the college’s Symphonic Band, raved about the hall’s acoustic properties. “Engineering is really an art now” for good sound, he said. The size of the hall and surfaces that either reflect or absorb sound fine-tune the acoustics.
Nyberg said someone can speak softly on stage and be heard in the back row of seats.
Curved acoustic panels called “clouds” hang over the auditorium and reflect the sound towards the audience. The clouds over the seats are wood-paneled and fixed in place. Those over the stage can be raised or lowered depending on the type of performance.
Other surfaces in the hall, including the seat fabric and curtains yet to be installed behind the side balconies, will absorb sound.
Because of the acoustic panels and a large proscenium -- the opening that frames the performance space -- all that majestic symphonic sound goes towards the audience.
“What you work so hard to achieve won’t be wasted,” Nyberg said.
At the Columbia Theatre, which was not designed for large musical groups, the sound gets trapped in the open space above the stage, Nyberg said.
This weekend, LCC will make do with the old band shell, but a new, 19-foot-tall “Diva” shell to be placed behind performing groups will be installed this summer. “For the first time, we can hear each other across the stage and front to back,” he said.
Musicians also have new chairs with narrow backs which don’t bump against their instruments.
This week, workers were busy assembling some of the Rose Center’s 400 new stage lights. Many of them will be mounted on catwalks that extend over both auditoriums, providing easy access for stage crews.
“There is not going to be a lot of running (electrical) cable and moving ladders,” said Robert Cochran, the newly hired technical director for the hall.
A new computer program simplifies the design process, Cochran added. “All the paperwork you used to do as a light designer you do on the computer.”
The catwalks are at a better height for stage lights than what’s been available in town before. “It lights the face a lot better,” Nyberg said. Onstage, “you don’t look like Lurch in Frankenstein shows.”
There are so many electrical dimmers that they’re hidden away in a super air-conditioned vault. The control rooms for both theaters are spacious enough so part of them can be used for storage.
During the 29 years Nyberg has taught at LCC, the college didn’t have its own music auditorium, so he’s ecstatic about the new hall. He’s been experimenting with where to place musicians on stage. “It’s going to take a while to learn this place,” he said.
Center Stage
The smaller, 125-seat auditorium for plays has a “thrust” configuration, with seats on three sides of the stage. That’s the same shape as the Pepper Studio Theatre next to the Columbia Theatre, but the new space at LCC is far fancier.
The stage area is bigger and its size can be adjusted by moving the rear wall, which is on rollers.
“It’s a nice-size stage,” Correll said, with actors and audience close. “It teaches the actors to connect with the audiences.”
Correll said he and the architect chose the deep purple wall and seat color. “We wanted it to be dark so the walls were not what the space was all about,” he said.
Like the larger hall, the drama space has hanging acoustic panels, though they can’t be adjusted. “The thrust (hall) is designed for the human voice, period,” Correll said.
However, it does have a booming sound system. “We over-speakerfied. If you turn it up all the way, your ears would bleed.”
Hanson Rehearsal Space
Though its primary use is a practice space for instrumental and choral groups, maple-paneled walls give the rehearsal hall an elegant feeling. It’s as big as the thrust stage hall, and portable seating can be brought in for performances.
Curtains on order will adjust the acoustics for voice or instruments.
“Everything sounds very clear,” Correll added.
The rehearsal space is named for donors Ken and Pat Hanson, who also donated the Bosendorfer.
Backstage
Correll has moved his meticulously organized cabinets jammed with stage hardware into the scene construction shop, which is smaller than the one in the old LCC theater that was torn down. The new shop “will be stuffed with stuff when it’s finished,” Correll promised.
All that stuff won’t be hidden away. People strolling the Rose Center’s upstairs hallway, where classrooms are located, can gaze through a big window and see drama people busy with hammers, nails and paintbrushes.
A new costume shop has four sewing stations and a huge surface to lay out fabrics. “This is the kind of costume shop that people would kill for,” Correll said.
Separate storage rooms are dedicated to costumes and sheet music. And dressing rooms come complete with showers.
Art Gallery
The Rose Center’s art gallery, which opened last month, has a main floor with walls that are 25 feet tall on two sides, and an L-shaped mezzanine that wraps around the other two sides. It has twice as much display space as the college’s old, one-story gallery. The gallery’s new exhibit, “Connecting Waters 2008 Invitational,” will open Saturday.
Recording studio
A new recording studio will serve the college’s audio technology program, which started last fall. The studio has foot-thick walls so punk bands can record without disturbing people practicing the piano down the hall.
Related story:
Rose Center grand opening events
Louie wrote on Jun 28, 2008 6:37 PM:
The Masonic Lodge started the days festivities, in scorching temperatures, dedicating the cornerstone for the new building. It was a moving ceremony and the Mason's were decked out in their ceremonial regalia.
The food was delicious and the flowers were some of the most interesting arrangements I have ever seen presented here in Longview. They were simple yet stunning.
The Wollenberg auditorium rang with music the entire day and the space is GRAND. Lots of wood on the walls and ceiling which assists in the acoustics. The people speaking on stage had no need for a mic.
To those of you who missed it for whatever reason I hope you can find the time to go over and see the Connecting Waters exhibit in the Gallery. It opens on Monday. This will give you an up close and personal look see at a facility this entire community should swell with pride over!! "
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