In Sunday’s (8/5) Dallas Morning News, Scott Cantrell writes, “Dallas’ City Performance Hall, opening Sept. 13, is a versatile, acoustically lively 750-seat theater for music, theater and dance. But performing arts leaders argue whether the $40.45 million facility is what the city needed and whether they can afford to use it. … It’s the city’s answer to longtime agitation from smaller arts organizations for a place in the Arts District alongside the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Dallas Opera and Dallas Theater Center. … But a lot of arts groups wanted something smaller. Barely scraping by in a still-challenging economy, they can’t imagine how they’ll fill that many seats—or afford rents of $1,400 and up. … ‘It’s intended to be interdisciplinary,’ says Maria Muñoz-Blanco, director of the Dallas Office of Cultural Affairs, which oversaw planning for the building and will operate it. The hall fills a niche not filled by the 545-seat Wyly Theatre, whose acoustics are too dry for most classical music; the 2,000-seat Meyerson Symphony Center, a ‘pure’ concert hall, lacking a proscenium and stage house for theater or dance; and the 2,400-seat Winspear Opera House. … Muñoz-Blanco says 92 individual dates are booked for 2012-13, by organizations including the Turtle Creek Chorale, Orchestra of New Spain, Lone Star Wind Orchestra, Chamber Music International, Voices of Change, Anita N. Martinez Ballet Folklorico and Shakespeare Dallas.”
Posted August 6, 2012
