After 10 years of consulting with internationally lauded performing artists and administrators on their vision of a "dream venue," The Eli and Edythe Broad Stage opens with two sold-out concerts. Broadway Legend Barbara Cook inaugurates the performing arts center in a program featuring songs composed by Stephen Sondheim, Rogers and Hammerstein, Rogers and Hart, and Cole Porter. Mezzo-Soprano Frederica von Stade opens the 2008/2009 Season with a concert featuring the Los Angeles premiere of Jake Heggie's At the Statue of Venus with Soprano Kristin Clayton and Libretto by Terrence McNally. Ms. von Stade will also sing works by Mozart, Bernstein and Poulenc. Classical KUSC 91.5 FM will broadcast this concert LIVE from The Eli and Edythe Broad Stage on October 11th at 8:15PM.
The Eli and Edythe Broad Stage is the only Los Angeles performing arts center of its kind in both design and artistic intent. Envisioned by opera singer turned director Dale Franzen and Actor
Dustin Hoffman as a "global theater," The Eli and Edythe Broad Stage aspires to be more than a traditional performing arts venue. "Los Angeles is one of the world's cultural and artistic centers, with world-class museums, theater, opera and symphony," said Eli Broad at a press conference outside the new Broad Stage in Santa Monica. "We have the
Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown Los Angeles, and now the Westside will have its own premiere performing arts venue."
In addition to presenting renowned and respected artists, The Eli and Edythe Broad Stage's vision for the long-term is to serve as a "laboratory of creative spontaneity," where performing artists can nurture new work and collaborate in all performance disciplines and where audiences of all ages and backgrounds are welcomed into a more intimate arts experience. "The Westside of Los Angeles has never had anything of its kind," enthuses
Dustin Hoffman, Chairman of the Artistic Advisory Board. "What makes it unique is that it's a stage for dance, opera, and musicals ... It's also an intimate theater and it looks great."
Prior to the gala inaugural opening, The Eli and Edythe Broad Stage presented three "soft-openings" in August to test the versatility of the multi-use performance hall's unique acoustical design. Designed by Santa Monica-based architect Renzo Zecchetto and with acoustic design by the internationally renowned firm, JaffeHolden, led by Chairman and Director of Design
Mark Holden. The Broad Stage posed a particular acoustical challenge, and Principal Acousticians on the project Mark Reber and Oveal Walker worked in close collaboration with Zecchetto tweaking the angles of the walls without altering the basic geometric structure of the striking architecture. Given the hall's multi-use programming and unique interior geometry -- aesthetically modern yet complicated and visually very different than anything done before -- The Broad Stage provided unique challenges for JaffeHolden, whose architectural acoustics have been celebrated in some of the world's major performing arts centers, including the Kennedy Center and Lincoln Center.
Architecturally, The Eli and Edythe Broad Stage is unique in providing the intimate immediacy of a 499-seat hall yet with a variable proscenium and a stage comparable to UCLA's 1,833-seat Royce Hall, able to accommodate a full orchestra, even beyond a 45-musician orchestra pit. Designed and built from the stage out to suit the sensibilities of world-class artists, presenting work on any scale, and with artistic dimensions that embrace the creative process from inception to opening night, The Eli and Edythe Broad Stage is poised to become a vital and visionary cultural catalyst for Westside audiences and for the city at large. "The Westside has always contributed generously to the performing arts of Los Angeles but this may be our greatest contribution yet," claims Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky.
Reinforcing that promise, within the complex, a smaller, black box theater called The Edye Second Space "exists as an invitation to young artists and audiences," says Franzen. Starting January 2009 performances in The Edye, the Under the Radar Series will be presented for $20.
The Eli and Edythe Broad Stage was built at a cost of $45 million, financed with a $35 million bond measure passed by the cities of Santa Monica and Malibu in 2004; $5 million from other government agencies and from private donors; and a bond measure for Santa Monica College improvements passed in 2002. "Embedded in the original Santa Monica College charter is the call for a performing arts center, so The Eli and Edythe Broad Stage fulfills our mandate and our traditions," explains Dr. Chui L. Tsang, president of Santa Monica College. "Like KCRW, it is also a community 'service' of Santa Monica College, a world-class global theater befitting our identity as a world-class leader in education."
In its first season, educational programming also takes the spotlight at The Eli and Edythe Broad Stage with a slate of master classes, workshops, a residency, a lecture demonstration and open rehearsals. Free Family concerts will feature creative interaction with performers -- including drumming improvisation -- or celebrate significant achievements and individuals in arts and culture in ways that are fun and inspiring for all.
Tickets for The Eli and Edythe Broad Stage 2008/09 Season and The Edye Second Space are now on sale at
http://www.thebroadstage.com/ or call 310.434.3200. Tickets range from $20-$125.
Photo Credit Walter McBride/Retna Ltd.
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