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September 8, 2009
For Immediate Release
For more information: Isaac Walters (801) 863-8434
University Marketing & Communications: Erin Spurgeon, (801) 863-6807
Written by: Isaac Walters, (801) 863-8434
UVU President Matthew S. Holland will cut the ribbon on the new Noorda Regional Theatre Center for Children & Youth Friday, Sept. 11 at 10 a.m., signaling the completion of years of planning and months of construction. The public and campus community are invited. The facility will serve as the home for UVU’s nationally recognized Department of Theatrical Arts within the School of the Arts.
The theater will also house the department’s new Noorda Regional Theatre Center for Children & Youth program, which will focus on giving K-16 students more exposure to theater and speech-based activities, both as audience members and as creators. The building and the program are both the result of a generous gift from the Ray & Tye Noorda Foundation. Mrs. Noorda directed this gift as a tribute to her husband, Ray.
As a young girl growing up in rural Utah, Noorda was given few opportunities to perform in public settings. After leaving high school, she moved to Salt Lake City where she was able to compete in several speech competitions and perform in a number of plays. She found that through these experiences she developed confidence and a willingness to put herself in difficult, but ultimately rewarding, situations. Now, looking back on the many successes of her life, Noorda attributes much of her success to those formative experiences in the theater and behind the podium.
Always a major supporter of the theater, in recent years, Noorda began to look for more direct ways to recreate similar experiences for the youth of Utah. Intrigued by the Theatre for Youth movement, she began to envision a program that would offer today’s youth opportunities that she had missed at their age: opportunities to learn about themselves, work with others, develop speech and performance skills, and learn to effectively represent themselves and others in a public forum.
The Noorda Theatre includes a state-of-the-art black box theater.
"The new block box theater was designed to match the innovation of the department it houses," said UVU Department of Theatrical Arts Chair James Arrington. "With the ability to transform its seating configuration from show to show, audience members will never feel like they are coming to the same theater twice. In one show it may feel like they are at the Adams Stage at the Utah Shakespearean Festival, in another it may feel like the unique configuration of the Hale Theatre, while a third time may feel like the more traditional proscenium of an Off-Broadway House."
At all times, the state-of-the-art acoustics and sound system will insure that audiences will be able to hear a pin drop. One of the most amazing components of the new theater is the mesh lighting grid that is strong enough for actors and technicians to walk on, but capable of "disappearing" once the stage lights come on.
Given the Noordas’ desire to provide space for a range of stage, studio and classroom activities, the new space offers new classrooms, rehearsal spaces and smaller performance venues. The facility will be one of the first in the nation to integrate video technology, making it possible to archive shows or workshops and instantaneously share them with other professionals across the world.
After the ribbon cutting celebration Friday, the Department of Theatrical Arts and the School of the Arts will continue the celebration of the new space with the opening of "Charlotte’s Web," directed by UVU’s national award-winning director Christopher Clark. The show opens Thursday, Sept. 17 and plays through Saturday, Oct. 3. All elementary school matinees are currently sold out, but additional Saturday matinees and scheduled evening performances are still available. Tickets can be purchased by phone at (801) 863-PLAY or online at www.uvu.edu/theatre, with special family ticketing available. The play targets Kindergarten-aged children and up and is cross-generational in its appeal.
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