The buzz on the Bay Area rialto these days is about the opening of Berkeley Repertory Theatre's long-awaited, $20 million second space. The new, larger proscenium theatre is called the Roda Theatre in honor of Ask Jeeves Foundation supporters Roger Strauch and Dan Miller of the Roda Group; Ask Jeeves contributed $3 million to the theatre. With its glass-and-brick façade, towers over the Rep's 401-seat, thrust-stage theatre next door. The two downtown facilities are joined by a common courtyard.
Nothing less than a Greek trilogy in rep inaugurates the new space: Aeschylus' 458 B.C. Oresteia—comprising Agamemnon (opening on Mar. 14) and a double bill of The Libation Bearers and The Eumenides (opening on Mar. 21). All three are co-directed by Berkeley Rep's artistic director, Tony Taccone, and Stephen Wadsworth, known on the national scene for his stylish and crystalline productions of such classics as Marivaux's Triumph of Love. The old stage would never have sufficed for these grand, ancient tragedies, whereas the new space opens up the artistic door for many more such formerly unfeasible productions.
The Tony Award-winning company originated in 1968 in a 153-seat storefront on College Avenue on the other side of town. Founded by the late actor/director Michael Leibert, the company consisted largely of U.C. Berkeley drama department graduates and others associated with the university. Initially calling themselves the Pomegranate Players and Theatre, they opened with Georg Buchner's Woyzeck and quickly established a reputation as the East Bay's most professional theatre company.
By 1980, the company had moved to the current, custom-built Addison Street house. Bold new artistic director Sharon Ott and colleagues raised Berkeley Rep's artistic reputation to national stature, gradually disbanded the acting company, and increased subscriptions. But, confined artistically by the facility's limitations and economically by the inability to meet the increasing demand for tickets, the Rep was obliged to stage some shows at nearby U.C.'s Zellerbach Hall. Scene shops were scattered across town, there was only one rehearsal hall, and there was no room for the education offices. The "new" building was no longer adequate.
Taccone inherited the huge construction project—including an ambitious capital campaign—when he was hired in 1997 to replace Ott, who had moved on to Seattle Rep. "It took 12 years to build this," he told Back Stage West. "It was supposed to be built in 1988… Four years ago the plan was to build a 300- to 500-seat flexible theatre with moveable seats. But 300 seats is no potential income at all. There was pressure on us also to build an 800- or 900-seat house, which makes economic sense but no aesthetic or spiritual sense."
The result is a 587-seat house (with a 171-seat balcony, loge seating for 40, 376 in the orchestra, and 20 SRO spaces at the back of the orchestra), an 80-foot scenery fly tower, and a trap room, 10 feet deep, beneath the stage, with space for an orchestra pit. The stage is 41 feet deep, with a 26-foot-high proscenium opening. There's an Ethernet computer lighting system and a 54-line scenery rigging system, and Meyer Labs donated the sound system, which is surround-sound.
The new space retains the Rep's trademark feeling of intimacy: No seat is more than 49 feet from the stage (compared with the maximum of 42 feet in the old space). Other audience attractions include a generous 13 stalls in the women's room (the men must make do with a measly four stalls and four urinals) and first- and second-floor lobbies with a view of the street.
Taccone and colleagues chose the traditional proscenium stage because plays such as comedies and farces, which require precise timing, work better on a proscenium, where "everybody [in the audience] gets the punch line at the same time." And big, sprawling Shakespearean sagas, too, are more suited to a proscenium than a thrust configuration.
"The stage feels enormous," reported Sharon Lockwood after the first tech rehearsal. A veteran of Berkeley Rep (as well as American Conservatory Theater, the San Francisco Mime Troupe, and other regional theatres), she plays a member of the chorus, a servant in the house of Clytemnestra, and a Fury (one of the Eumenides) in the Oresteia trilogy. "But when you stand out in the house, you feel really close to the stage. The sound is wonderful—state of the art." She added, "It was very emotional when we started our tech there. We got into a circle. And Tony said, 'Let's take a couple of minutes of silence and think of all the artists who have played at Berkeley Rep and have contributed to the work here, and who will in the future.'"
"It's been a long haul," acknowledged Taccone, a few days before the first preview. "And putting up this huge show has taken every bit of muscle that we have. A 10-week rehearsal process, with two directors, a cast of 17, Greek theatre—it's a bit mad. Most would open with Hamlet or You Can't Take It With You. This is a big risk, and people are underestimating the risk. Why is it never done? Because it's hard!"
Of the excitement generated by the new facility, he added, "I think in a year this whole block will be changed." In fact, the Berkeley Rep complex—which will include, come next fall, a new Berkeley Rep School of Theatre in the renovated bakery building just east of the "old" theatre—anchors a burgeoning arts district. Also next fall, the Aurora Theatre will open its new, 150-seat theatre, with its entrance through the Berkeley Rep School. Capoeira Arts Café has already opened directly across the street, as will, eventually, Berkeley's beloved Freight and Salvage music club. In the spring, ceramic tiles with original poems on them—edited by former national poet laureate Robert Hass—will be set in the pavement in front of the café. Finally, a jazz school will open on the corner, as will a restaurant with live music.
"Who knows if this space will work for us 10 years from now?" mused Taccone. "But this is where we are now." And where Berkeley Rep is now is promising—for artists, audiences, and the Berkeley community at large.