New $7 million stage set to open soon at LU

Just in time for classes, Liberty University unveiled its $7 million “Tower Theater” this week, a project that transformed an 85-foot-tall warehouse on North campus into a state-of-the art performing arts facility.

The theater, located in a former Ericsson building, seats 640 people and features a state-of-the-art fly tower that can accommodate sets and backdrops for Broadway-sized productions.

The theater’s first show, “Hairspray,” opens Sept. 24.

“It’s amazing,” said LU senior Sarah Seaman, who was cast in the lead role, Tracy Turnblad. “To be the first lead on the new stage, it’s an honor.”

The new theater has all the trappings of a major venue — balcony seating, a complete catwalk system, orchestra pit and fly tower.

“We wanted something acoustically as perfect as possible so that we could do Shakespeare so that you did not have to use any type of enhancement by sound, so it’s live theater,” said LU theater department chairwoman Linda Cooper.

Behind the main stage, the facility features a 20,000-square-foot support area for dressing rooms, practice rooms, offices, costume shop, prop room and scene shop.

Tower Theater replaces a 250-seat black box theater that was too small to accommodate the crowds who attended LU’s drama productions, said LU Chancellor Jerry Falwell Jr.

“We had outgrown it years ago,” he said.

In Liberty’s tradition of recycling old buildings, the black box theater was gutted and converted into a practice space for the marching band.

This semester, the number of new students majoring in theater more than doubled compared to last year, bringing the total to 158 students.

Cooper said the new facility played a major role in the increase.

“We’re actually able to do more shows, different types of shows,” Cooper said, including a better mix of musicals, plays and other types of productions.

Though converting the old warehouse into a theater was a challenge for construction crews, it was cheaper than building a new theater from scratch, said Falwell, who estimates that a brand-new building would have cost nearly three times more.

 The project, which broke ground in October 2009, was paid for by university funds and donations.

During construction, crews unearthed an old railroad track while digging out the orchestra pit and other remnants of the building’s past life as an industrial space.

“It’s called found space architecture, which is pretty avant garde,” Cooper said. “You hear a lot about that in New York City, where they’ll take a building and make it … something else, but that’s very new for this area.”

The theater functions as a full-time classroom for students majoring in drama. During the summer, Liberty will use it for theater camps and possibly outside shows, Cooper said.

“We have a very loyal audience from the community, as well as student body, who stuck with us even when they would be turned away from the doors because we didn’t have enough seats. So this is really a gift for them as well.”