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School of Theatre Arts

Theatre Facilities

The School of Theatre Arts' theatre complex consists of two performance venues: the Jerome Mirza Theatre at McPherson Hall and the E. Melba Johnson Kirkpatrick Laboratory Theatre. Additionally, the Phoenix Theatre at Memorial Hall is a student-led black box theatre.

The School of Theatre Arts has a dedicated performance space at McPherson Hall, plus additional venues, class and rehearsal spaces all over campus. Learn more about our facilities in this video.

 

Jerome Mirza Theatre at McPherson Hall

Capacity: 229 seats
Stage size: 36' x 50'
Proscenium height: 15' 7"
 
McPhersonTechnical Specifications:
  • Proscenium stage with semi-circular thrust and orchestra pit beneath the apron
  • On-site scene shop and costume shop
  • Paint area with a 36' x 24' counterweighted scenic paint frame for drop painting
  • The Mirza Theatre has a strong inventory of lighting equipment. The rep plot contains 125 ETC Source Fours and 50 Altman Fresnels, powered by 168 dimmers. The lighting inventory contains 14 ETC Vivd-R 11 LED washes, eight Altman Spectra Cyc 400 LED cyc lights and eight ETC Colorsource LED Spots that provide variable color to shows. These fixed instruments are paired with nine Chauvet Professional Maverick MKII LED moving washes and two High End Systems SolaFrame 750 LED moving spots. This robust inventory is controlled by an ETC Ion Classic, upgraded with a WIN7 processor. All lighting control is done over a cutting edge sACN/Artnet Network. 
  • The video department has four Panasonic projectors, including the flagship PT-DZ21K2, a 20,000 Lumen DLP projector capable of stunning visuals with 4k resolution. All video distribution is done over a Gigabit network, with a DataPath FX4 as the video hub/switcher. 
  • Our modern sound system includes plentiful Shure wireless and an industry standard Midas M32 console. 

E. Melba Johnson Kirkpatrick Laboratory Theatre

Capacity: Flexible seating up to 100 guests
Dimensions: 40' x 50'
 
Technical Specifications:
  • The Lab Theatre has five Chauvet R1x  LED wash fixtures and a deep bench of incandescent fixtures, controlled by an ETC Element.

Class and work spaces

  • There are three dance studios on campus. Two, located in the Center for Natural Sciences building, have marley vinyl floors and a third studio at Shaw Hall has maple plank floors (installed in 2021) for tap dance and other movement classes.
  • Theatre Design & Technology students have access to a lighting previsualization suite and A.V. content creation studio, both of which employ powerful computers with Intel I9 processors and Nvidia RTX 30 series GPUs.
  • Rehearsals and classes take place in spaces across our campus including the upper floor of the Carriage House and dedicated voice studios in Shaw Hall.
  • Our Music Theatre Library contains thousands of scripts, recordings and sheet music available for students to reference.

Jean Kerr - Associate Professor, Director of the School of Theatre Arts

Department - School Of Theatre Arts

(309) 556-3212