<div dir="auto">One Regional theatre here...<div dir="auto">Permanent access from seating to performance area is NOT necessary within the auditorium. </div><div dir="auto">Two reasons</div><div dir="auto">We don't generally invite the public on stage.</div><div dir="auto">We also treat the front our stage with extreme flexibility. We raise it, we extend it, we cover it. Hang speakers and lights from it etc.</div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">Circulation paths lead from the audience to backstage, through controlled corridors.</div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">To be noted, in 2 of the 3 spaces the front of the audience isn't accessible at all.</div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">Ben Thoron</div><div dir="auto">The Old Globe</div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Mon, Jan 15, 2024, 3:13 PM Bill Conner via Stagecraft <<a href="mailto:stagecraft@theatrical.net">stagecraft@theatrical.net</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="auto"><div dir="auto"></div>My initial inquiry was simply about the desirability or necessity for a house to stage in house path. (We've strayed from that.) Existing or new isn't relevant to that path. <div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto"> For the related accessibility issues, those are relevant primarily to new, though not totally disregarded for renovations of existing. Wheelchair spaces just in the back row of course would not be even be permitted in new build today.<div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">25 or so years ago a colleague said that accessibility has affected theatre design more than any thing else, and he was correct.</div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto"><br><div dir="auto"><div class="gmail_quote" dir="auto"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Mon, Jan 15, 2024, 2:10 PM Stephen Rees via Stagecraft <<a href="mailto:stagecraft@theatrical.net" rel="noreferrer noreferrer" target="_blank">stagecraft@theatrical.net</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr">Hi Bill,<div>To address your query, you need to understand that if you were in a wheelchair, you would be located in one of the reserved spaces at the rear of the house. (These open areas were created by removing 20 of the original seats in the late '80d, reducing the overall house capacity.) You would not be able to access the front of the auditorium in any event due to the rake of the seating area. I think that may be the case in many auditoria. Previous to the renovation and addition construction, you would have had to actually go outside and through the parking lot to the stage door/loading dock where a ramp gave access to the stage level. Ramps were NOT part of the original 1972 design and construction, the plans having been approved in 1968 or 1969 prior to the ADA laws being written. Those ramps were put in as an afterthought in the late '70s and early '80s in advance of the ADA as well. There was elevator access provided to the black box theatre on the lower level but that was also installed before the Act. </div><div><br></div><div>Since the completion of the addition in 2016, if you were in the provided seating area in your wheelchair, you would exit the house like all other patrons, go down the ADA compliant ramp cleverly laid out by the architects, proceed out of the theatre lobby into the newly created interior hallway to the backstage area and then through the doors into the UL area of the stage.</div><div><br></div><div>I'm pretty sure ours is not the only facility with these particular restraints, but to remediate them in the existing space would be nearly impossible. To address the issue of compliance fully would require the design and construction of a new facility, not the renovation of the existing space. </div><div><br></div><div>BTW, there is the unresolved issue of getting a wheelchair user into the orchestra pit when it is in the fully down configuration. One would have to load on before the pit dropped. Ramping could be created in the trap room below the stage deck but there has never been an actual need for that. Topic for another day.</div><div><br></div><div>I'm enjoying reading this thread and am glad to hear of other situations for good or ill.</div><div>Best,</div><div>Steve</div><div><br clear="all"><div><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div>Stephen E. Rees, </div><div dir="ltr">Professor and Chair Emeritus of Theatre - SUNY Fredonia</div><div dir="ltr">CCE-CC Master Gardener Volunteer<br><div>716.366.0505 Home</div><div>716.680.1565 Mobile</div><div><br></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><br></div></div>
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