With buildings old and new, Dallas is home to many architectural delights. If you are passionate about theater, and normally enjoy a traditional experience for live performance, Dee and Charles Wyly Theater will excite your heart in a whole new way.
You will not only be breath-taken by the live performances, but also in absolute awe of the space itself.
The Story of Dee and Charles Wyly Theater
Opened in 2009, the Dee and Charles Wyly Theater is a marvel of design and one of four different buildings that make up the AT&T Performing Arts Center,
Designed by Joshua Prince-Ramus of REX and Rem Koolhaas of OMA, it boasts twelve stories and “has become a prototype of modern flexible theater design. ‘A machine-like interior clad in metal, the Wyly evokes a magician’s box of tricks,’ wrote New York critic Nicolai Ouroussoff, ‘and, if used well, should allow for continual reinvention of the theatergoing experience’.” – ThoughtCo.com
The Building
Dee and Charles Wyly Theater’s “auditorium is surrounded by glass walls with blackout blinds that can be opened to reveal the city, simultaneously allowing glimpses of the performance from outside.
The seating and stage in the auditorium are designed to be reconfigured to suit different types of performance. The upper part of the building is clad in tubular aluminium.” Dezeen.com
“Instead of entering directly from the street, patrons must walk down a sloping concrete ramp to the lobby, then back up a narrow interior staircase to their seats. This sequence stemmed from the architects’ desire for a totally flexible performance space, which meant that the lobby had to go below.” – ArchitecturalRecord.com
“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.” 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.” – archello.com
Why this design?
“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. 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.” – archello.com
Where is it?
2400 Flora Street Dallas, TX. 75201
Learn more at: At&T Performing Arts Center
Dallas is full of amazing architectural designs, and at Garcia Hubach we love to explore the Dallas area with you. Please contact us for all your Dallas Real Estate needs.
