By
Brett Erickson
Arizona Daily Wildcat
School of Music and Dance trying to raise $4.5M more for new dance, opera theater
Students and faculty members of the School of Music and Dance will learn within the next six weeks whether they'll have the funding for a state-of-the-art performance facility on the UA Mall.
Robert Cutietta, the University of Arizona's interim director of the School of Music and Dance, said plans are in the works for a $10.5 million theater that would be added on to the east side of the Ina Gittings building, which sits on the east end of the Mall. An anonymous donor gave the school a $3 million gift earlier this year to help build a new dance facility. That money was then matched by the UA, upping the total to $6 million.
To raise the remaining $4.5 million, the school is looking for more people and families to donate money. A potential hurdle for the plan involves a condition set by the donor when they gave the money to the UA.
Jory Hancock, a professor of dance, said the donor requested that any project funded by their gift had to be completed by January of 2003. In order to accomplish that with the new theater, all funding would have to be locked up by mid-November.
If the funding comes through, the new 650-seat facility would be used by the opera and dance departments in the School of Music and Dance. The Arizona Board of Regents gave its approval for the plan during a summer meeting.
"Right now, there is no place in all of Tucson really just for dance and opera," Cutietta said. "The opera program is a major part of the School of Music, and it's a dream come true for dance."
The theater would be built on a site that now holds an eight-lane, 25-meter swimming pool directly east of the Ina Gittings building.
Totaling about 30,000 square feet, the facility would take up the entire pool area and would also expand out into a small area of the Mall.
Peter Dourlein, the UA's project manager for the performance hall's construction, said the facility could extend as far east as the pedestrian walkway between the Robson Tennis Center and Hillenbrand softball stadium.
Cutietta said plans have been made to ensure the theater doesn't take up too much Mall space.
"The whole plan has always been to have a very, very small blueprint," he said.
Although planning is still in the conceptual phase, the UA does have an idea of what the theater could look like.
Hancock said it would likely be a two-level performance hall that features an outdoor lobby area, which could be used by all students during the daytime.
"The chances of it being a single-level building is almost zero," Hancock said.
Also included in the performance hall would be several support rooms, including a dance studio and a performer lounge, said Dourlein, who is also an assistant director of design and engineering for UA Facilities Design and Construction.
Sarah Donahue, a dance junior, said although students are not completely dissatisfied with the current dance facilities, a new performance hall would definitely help the program.
"When I got here, I was a little surprised that it wasn't a little nicer, but it hasn't been bad," Donahue said. "They work, but they could be a lot better."
