TAKING THE STAGE
Civic Center's historic Freede Little Theatre to get full remodel
Donald Jordan was directing Oklahoma City Repertory Theatre's 2007 production of “Moonlight and Magnolias” when the ceiling caved in — literally.
“We had heavy rainstorms and we came in for the Sunday matinee, and a whole hunk of the ceiling had fallen on the light board in the balcony. Fortunately — because
I worry — we always covered everything every night in plastic. ... We started the performance 45 minutes late, and we weren't sure when we started it if the light board was going to have the cues in it or if we'd have to actually just bring all the lights up ... and do the stage play like that,” recalled Jordan, the f ounding artistic director of the professional theater known as CityRep.
Over t he past 20 years, no one has produced more
shows in the Civic Center Music Hall's historic Freede Little Theatre than Jordan. At about 285 seats, it is the Civic Center' s mid-sized house, between the almost 2,500-seat main stage, the Thelma Gaylord Performing Arts Center Theatre, and the 90-seat black box basement house, CitySpace Theatre.
“It's architecturally lovely. It' s a real cross between the art deco of the1920s with repeated lines and the rounded lines of the' 30s
and art moderne,” Jordan said. “But 1937 was a very long time ago ... . There's a lot of very temporary solutions we've used in there that have been temporary for 20 years.”
Originally envisioned as part of the original 1993 Metropolitan Area Projects but ultimately left out, the Free de Little The at re' s time has finally come. The
historic house, along with the Civic Center' s main lobby, is due to be renovated in the coming year with $9.4 million in bond funding approved by Oklahoma City voters in 2017.
Long process
The project is set to be presented Thursday to the Downtown Design Review Committee, which is overseen by the city's Planning Department an dist asked with deciding whether new construction and facade renovations are appropriate for downtown.
The final plans are slated to be approved in 2021, with construction to start around summer. Completion is anticipated in fall 2022.
“Construction is probably going to be every bit of 18 months to two years,” said Elizabeth Gray, executive director of the Civic Center Foundation, which operates the city-owned building.
“The Freede, that's going to be pretty close to a complete gut. ... But when I say `main lobby,' that means basically everything that you see when you walk into the building.”
Creating a better traffic flow, providing better food and beverage options and making the building more secure are among the goals of the lobby renovation.
“The overall patron flow of the main lobby in the atrium area is really discombobulated ,” Gray said, adding that the main theater will continue to host shows during the lobby revamp. “Patrons end up just packing and packing into that atrium area.”
The concession area will be shifted and more than double
its points of service, the coffee shop will be replaced with a family restroom, and the current conference room will be replaced with a commercial kitchen for fresher food options.
The large round willcall pod in the lobby will be demolished, and the box office moved to the northeast corner.
“We actually won't have to unlock the entire building to service patrons that want to walk up and buy a ticket,” Gray said.
A new security screening system also will added.
“It's an advanced screening like they have at Frontier City ,” said John Semtner, architect and principal with FSB. “They can do 2,000 people an hour with no more waving a wand on everyone who walks through the door.”
Long-awaited revamp
The multi-year renovation of the Civic Center — which started in December 1998 and was finished in September 2001 — was part of the original MAPs and originally was supposed to include the Freede Little Theatre. It wasn' t included on future MAPS ballots, and no funding became available before the 2017 bond.
“The MAPS 1 budget f or the project in total ran over, so that particular scope of the project had to be cut, which was really disheartening, I think, to all back then,” Gray said .“So, it' s finally happening, which we' re super proud of because we always wanted to make that happen just to honor ... the historical nature of the theater but also the promises made back in the day.”
Originally known as the Little Theatre, the theater housed the production facilities for Oklahoma' s first television station, WKYTV,b ac kin the1940s.I twas renamed in the 1990s in honor of donor Jose Freede, who died earlier this month at age 93 and won't get to see it finally renovated, which Gray called “a very unfortunate sequence of timing.”
“We're going to keep the acoustic al integrity of the theater as much as possible because that's actually one thing that is designed really well currently. But it needs all new seating, it needs a different seating layout, it needs alterations made to the stage and the proscenium, the fly system, the electrical conduit, the electrical wiring, the lighting, the structure of it. You name it, it's all pretty outdated,” Gray said.
A two-story expansion facing Couch Drive will provide the Freede Little Theatre its own independent entrance, a new box office and additional dressing rooms.
“Wear ere capturing the balcony seating, which is going to be really exciting. As long as I can remember — I think at least for the past 20, 30 years — the balcony has not been sat,” Gray said.
While the Freede is home to CityRep as well as Painted Sky Opera Company, she said she believes more groups will use it once it's renovated.
“We want to get alternative dance in there, modern dance, jazz, speakers series,” she said.
After putting on more than 50 shows in the space in the past 19 years, Jordan said he is excited to see the Free de revamped.
“It's very intimate and it does really have lovely acoustics ... but the fly system is still a sandbag system,” he said. “It's like riding a horse to work every day. It's technology from 100 years ago.”