Gail Brower Huggins Performance Center Annie Sellars Jordan Parlor Theatre Finch Chapel Costume & Storage Spaces Scene Production Studio Rehearsal & Dance Studio Spaces Other Spaces

Gail Brower Huggins Performance Center

The Gail Brower Huggins Performance Center (GBHPC), located in the Odell Building, recently underwent a 4 million dollar renovation, making it a state of the art performance facility.

The performance center is an 787 seat proscenium with modified thrust stage. The front of house features include new Lighting Production and Sound Control Booths. Two House Beams span over the Orchestra seating area providing the perfect photometric positions for the stage. Also, there are wrap-around lighting positions on the Balcony Rail and two House Box positions high and low. The stage space has various electrics winches, multi-cable drops, floor pockets and back wall circuits.

The house dimming package consists of 192 ETC Sensor dimmers at 2.4 kW. The system is dimmer per circuit. There are also several locations for a remote focusing unit onstage and in the catwalks. The houselights are on an additional 29 dimmers which can be controlled for a house panel in the booth, a house panel backstage right, or from the light board.

The control console is an ETC Expression 3. This board will control far beyond the available inventory in the space and is adept at controlling Servo Mechanical Fixtures (motion control lighting instruments) as well. The sound board is a Mackie SR32 Audio Mixer. The sound booth has numerous options to choose from for playback including several cassette decks, mini-disc units, a DAT unit, CD players, computers with playback sound software, and even a turntable. Recording is now an option with our new (2003) Marantz (CDR510) dual deck CD recorder or digital recording via computer. The space has various microphones for different types of events, a number of headsets and a Digitech Studio Twin Reverb unit. Students in the Theatre Design/ Technical Program also have available to them the latest software for doing digital sound editing and recording for their productions.

For more detailed information click here for GBHPC technical notes.

Annie Sellars Jordan Parlor Theatre

This performance space is located in the Main Building just outside the beautifully designed Lea Center at the center of campus, and is a very intimate flexible blackbox setting. It is capable of being configured for proscenium, three-quarter, arena or environmental staging and seating options.

The playing area is a space about 16’X 20’; 16’between columns and 20’ from the front of the space to backstage masking.

The audience seating will vary from 79 in proscenium to 130 in three-quarter.

There are three Front of House Lighting batons above the center seating area and three electrics and other grid batons above the stage and side seating sections each with 16 circuits a piece or 96 circuits total. The house dimming are 48 NSI dimmers (1.2 kW). Hard patching is an option to maximize the lighting positions, especially during repertory shows.

The controller is either an NSI Melange computer board. The sound is controlled with a 16 channel Mackie mixer. There are 7 hardwire speaker positions as well as numerous hardwire headset locations. This space also has numerous playback options like those listed for the GBHPC.

Immediately to the back of this space are dressing and rehearsal/ warm up rooms. When not being used for productions this place serves as a favorite rehearsal room, class space or Lighting Lab for the department.
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Finch Chapel

Though rarely used for performance by the Theatre Department this space is used constantly by the music department. Some Ecumenical Festivals and Theatre Touring Productions have used this beautiful space.

The chapel has a 32 channel programmable lighting controller. There are 32 NSI 2.4 kW dimmers installed in a dimmer per circuit configuration. The lighting inventory is mostly PAR 56’s, four Altman Zoom Ellipsoidals, and a number of 6X9 Altman Ellipsoidals for the side lighting positions. The lighting positions are very good but must be accessed with an A-frame ladder from the Theatre Production Studio. The sound mixer in the chapel is an 8 channel Mackie and several playback or recording options are available for most production needs.

Rehearsal & Dance Studio Spaces

The main Rehearsal space for the Gail Brower Huggins Performance Center is located in the basement of the Odell building. It is about 18’X65’ and features a commercial dance floor, mirrors along one wall and special acoustical treatment.

Another place for Theatre and Dance rehearsals and classes is the Parlor Theatre mentioned above. A new facility, Proctor Hall, with state of the art movement studios is available for dance classes. Back to Top

Costume Shop and Storage Spaces

A brand new Costume Shop was constructed with the renovation to the Odell building and is located below the stage level of the GBHPC. This allows for easy access for actors and actresses for fittings and final adjustments to costumes.

The shop has both natural light as well as balanced illumination. There are cutting tables at the center with sewing machine stations and two sergers around the sides of the room. Immediately next to the construction space is the laundry so some maintenance can be carried out during regular class hours.

Conveniently located down the hall about 12 feet is one of the Costume Storage rooms as well as a Craft Shop and 35 feet across the orchestra pit is a second Costume Storage space containing much of the department stock. These spaces are also within a hall’s length of the principal rehearsal space so fittings are accomplished with ease during early rehearsals.Back to Top

Scene Production Studio

The Scene Production Studio was renovated in 2004. Most scenery and properties construction is carried out in the Scene Production Studio located across campus from the Theatre Spaces. The Theatre Department has chosen this production location on campus to best model the reality of production experiences in the professional theatre world. Most often in professional theatres the production facility is located off site. This means that student technicians must use more good judgment and technical knowledge when planning for load-ins and strikes of sets and properties. We encourage students to work with this discipline over academic programs which build on stage. Due to a substantial grant from a generous benefactor the department is currently planning a new 100' x 50' production facility to add to the capabilities of this one, just across the street. This will allow for the addition of some more specific work stations such as jointers, planers, metal and wood lathes.

The space features a construction/ assembly area about 65’ X 65’X 24’tall with an adjacent area for welding and metal working. The building is brick and steel with major “I” beams above about 24 inches tall. It also has turn of the century 5’ X 18’ tall frosted glass windows on the sides and is lit with natural light as well as large, crystal reflector, incandescent fixtures for correct stage color balance when scene painting. The space has two loading doors, one for receiving materials and the other for loading out. The Scene Production Studio is also equipped with a bathroom, tool room and shop offices. Around the perimeter of the room, are multiple air regulators and filters for pneumatic tool operations.

The stationary tools in the shop are radial arm saw, large commercial table saw, wood band saw, 2nd band saw for scroll work, compound miter saw, standard mire saw, lathe, several drill presses, and numerous portable power, pneumatic, and hand tools. Metal working tools in the shop are metal cutting band saw, 14’ metal chop cutoff saw, arc welder, Mig welder and oxy-acetylene welding equipment. The paint deck is 24’X40’ and accommodates our standard drop sizes of 18’X 36’ for Gail Brower Huggins Performance Center and 12’X 24’ for the Parlor Theatre. Some vertical frame work is also accomplished at a nearby associated production studio. Back to Top

A recently acquired facility(2003), located in the basement of Hanes Gymnasium, adjacent to the Scene Production Studio house the Theatre Department's Properties inventory. This props storage area doubles as a props workshop, and has the floor space to accommodate two standard full size drops.

Other Class Spaces

Greensboro College Theatre also utilizes Two Drafting Labs, practice rooms, Computer Labs, Art Studios, and standard classroom spaces in which to accomplish their work.