Montrose theater has grand plan to expand
Stages to double space, enhance community feel
Stages Repertory Theatre plans to build a $30.5 million theater complex to bolster its position as the city’s largest performing arts nonprofit outside of the downtown Theater District — a move to improve not only the company’s artistic freedom, but also provide an amenity for the surrounding north Montrose neighborhood.
The company wants the 66,850-square-foot proposed building, which features three stages and a two-story parking garage, to be more than a theater.
“We want to change this idea that a performance space opens itself for 90 minutes a night,” said man-
aging director Mark Folkes. “We want to, rather, create a dynamic gathering space, where there can be postperformance open-mic cabaret.”
The plan by Gensler, an architecture firm known for modern, open-concept workspaces, aims to buck traditional practices while promoting contemporary trends in architecture. Rather than develop entirely from the ground up, the construction will reclaim an unused art warehouse located at 800 Rosine St., across D’Amico Street from Stages’ existing home, and retain the warehouse’s polished stone floor and exposed ceiling for an industrial-chic look. The garage and the two main theaters will be built adjacent to the warehouse.
Folkes said the lobby could be used for anything. The space, which overlooks a campus-style lawn, will be able to house a coffee shop, writing sessions, meetings and impromptu performances.
Instead of laying out a surface-level parking lot for the open area in front of the warehouse, Stages will create a grass-laden plaza to invoke the feeling of a campus. “This will be transformative for the neighborhood,” Folkes said.
The building is surrounded by new apartment complexes, townhomes, industrial spaces and retail in the quickly developing area near Allen Parkway and Waugh.
Groundbreaking is planned for summer 2018. An opening date is set for the fall of 2019.
Plans for a big move have been in the works at Stages since 2015. In May 2016, the group purchased the lot at 800 Rosine St. This fall, the theater company had raised $20 million toward its $30.5 million goal when a gift from Glenda and Russell Gordy pushed the organization to announce the project.
The couple, longtime fans of Stages and owners of a range of properties along Buffalo Bayou, has pledged $5 million to match every donation for the building, which will be called the Gordy.
Addressing complaints
Stages is currently located at 3201 Allen Parkway in the historic Star Engraving Building that has served as the company’s home since 1985. The company has plans to sell it to a buyer who aims to preserve the structure.
As Stages grew over the decades as an organization, the size of its theaters stayed the same to preserve intimacy, said artistic director Kenn McLaughlin. But the building itself has turned into a place with many challenges.
On a recent afternoon, the cast of “Panto Cinderella” spilled out into the lobby due to lack of rehearsal space. Inside the theaters, beams block the audience’s view, creating headaches both for unlucky audience members and the artists who must design sets around the beams. McLaughlin said Stages often hears complaints about parking, temperature control (the theater has a reputation for being cold) and the number of bathrooms.
With the move to the Gordy, Stages aims to fix these issues. The building will increase from 32,000 to 67,000 square feet, from 83 parking spaces to 343, from 25 toilets to 56 and from 403 total audience seats to 618. The Gordy also more than doubles Stages’ studio and multi-purpose event space, as well as expanding its lobby to a 3,480-square-feet gathering area.
The theaters are designed by Charcoalblue, a UK-based consultancy responsible for New York’s St. Ann’s Warehouse stages and Roundabout Theatre as well as the National Theatre of London. One of the two larger stages at the Gordy is in the thrust style, featuring a slightly elevated stage that juts out into the audience. The second is an arena-style stage, where the audience wraps around the center stage, viewing the actors from all four directions.
The configurations bring the audience as close to the stages as possible.
“Neither of these spaces exist in Houston, these intimate theaters with balconies created like this,” McLaughlin said, moving his thumb over a sketch of the 253-seat thrust stage.
Room for edgier shows
He hopes that a modern, innovative building will open up the opportunity to host art of the same nature. Having three theaters — which is more permanent theaters than any other single professional nonprofit theater company in Houston — could allow Stages to house popular shows indefinitely, a model for theater that is popular on Broadway but rarely seen in nonprofit theater, which generally relies on a season of regularly rotating productions. Having a third stage, a 138-seat movable space in the warehouse, could allow Stages to keep best-selling shows like “The Marvelous Wonderettes” running, making room for edgier productions on the main stage.
Though the new complex’s benefits to audiences and the neighborhood are many, McLaughlin said, the move is about creating art.
“That was always our first priority,” he said.” The biggest chunk of change was always going to the theaters.”