REX

Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre

Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre
© REX | OMA

DEE AND CHARLES WYLY THEATRE

REX | OMA

ARCHITECTS
REX | OMA

PHOTOGRAPHS
Iwan Baan

VERTICAL TRANSPORT
HKA, California

STRUCTURAL ENGINEER OF RECORD
Magnusson Klemencic Associates

CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT
McCarthy Construction

FURNITURE
Kortrijk Belgium, Quinze & Milan

LIFE SAFETY
Pielow Fair

LIGHTING
Tillotson Design Associates, New York

MANUFACTURERS
Tremco, Daltile, Kawneer, B-K Lighting, Bartco Lighting, Bega, Custom Metal Craft, DesignPlan, Garaventa Lift, Industrial Acoustics, Ives, LCN, Lucifer Lighting, McKeon, Mid-American Elevator Company, Mobley Speed, Modernfold, Moroso, Okalux, PPG IdeaScapes, +13

CONSULTANTS
Cosentini Associates, DHV, Donnell, Front, HKA, Magnusson Klemencic Associates, McCarthy, McGuire, Pielow Fair, Plus Group, Tillotson Design Associates, Transsolar, 2x4, Quinze & Milan, Theatre Projects

THEATRE DESIGN
Theatre Projects Consultants, Connecticut

FIRE PROTECTION
Cosentini Associates, Transsolar Energietechnik Gmb

MEP/FP DESIGN ENGINEER
Transsolar Energietechnik, Germany

COST
Donnell Consultants, Florida

CLIENT
The AT&T Performing Arts Center

GRAPHIC DESIGN
2 x 4

EXECUTIVE ARCHITECT
Kendall/Heaton Associates

LIFE SAFETY
Pielow Fair, Seattle

WAYFINDING
2 x 4

ADA
McGuire Associates

YEAR
2009

AREA
7700.0 sqm

CATEGORY
Theater

LOCATION
Dallas, United States

Text description provided by architect.

The Dallas Theater Center (DTC) is known for its innovative work, the result of its leadership’s constant experimentation and the provisional nature of its long-time home. DTC was housed in the Arts District Theater, a dilapidated metal shed that freed its resident companies from the limitations imposed by a fixed-stage configuration and the need to avoid harming expensive interior finishes.

Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre
© Iwan Baan
Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre
© Iwan Baan
Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre
© Iwan Baan

The directors who worked there constantly challenged the traditional conventions of theater and often reconfigured the form of the stage to fit their artistic visions.

As a result, the Arts District Theater was renowned as the most flexible theater in America. The costs of constantly reconfiguring its stage, however, became a financial burden and eventually DTC permanently fixed its stage into a “thrust-cenium.”

Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre
© Iwan Baan
Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre
© Iwan Baan

Imagining a replacement for DTC’s old house raised several distinct challenges. First, the new theater needed to engender the same freedoms created by the makeshift nature of its previous home. Second, the new venue needed to be flexible and multi-form while requiring minimal operational costs.

The Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre overcomes these challenges by overturning conventional theater design. Instead of circling front-of-house and back-of-house functions around the auditorium and fly tower, the Wyly Theatre stacks these facilities below-house and above-house. This strategy transforms the building into one big “theater machine.”

Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre
© Iwan Baan
Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre
© Iwan Baan

At the push of a button, the theater can be transformed into a wide array of configurations—including proscenium, thrust, and flat floor—freeing directors and scenic designers to choose the stage-audience configuration that fulfills their artistic desires.

Moreover, the performance chamber is intentionally made of materials that are not precious in order to encourage alterations; the stage and auditorium surfaces can be cut, drilled, painted, welded, sawed, nailed, glued and stitched at limited cost.

Stacking the Wyly Theatre’s ancillary facilities above- and below-house also liberates the performance chamber’s entire perimeter, allowing fantasy and reality to mix when and where desired.

Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre
© Iwan Baan
Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre
© Iwan Baan

Directors can incorporate the Dallas skyline and streetscape into performances at will, as the auditorium is enclosed by an acoustic glass façade with hidden black-out blinds that can be opened or closed. Panels of the façade can also be opened to allow patrons or performers to enter into the auditorium or stage directly from outside, bypassing the downstairs lobby.

By investing in infrastructure that allows ready transformation and liberating the performance chamber’s perimeter, the Wyly Theatre grants its artistic directors freedom to determine the entire theater experience, from audience arrival to performance configuration to departure.

Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre
© Iwan Baan
Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre
© REX | OMA

On consecutive days, the Wyly Theatre can produce Shakespeare on a proscenium stage or Beckett in a flat-floor configuration silhouetted against the Dallas cityscape.

Both learning from, and improving upon, DTC’s original Arts District Theater, the Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre will restore Dallas as the home of the most flexible theater in America, if not the world.


Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre
Proscenium Floor Plan © Rex
Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre
Flat Floor Plan © Rex
Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre
Thrust Floor Plan © Rex
Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre
Eight Floor Plan © Rex


Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre
Concept Diagram © Rex

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REX
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