2/5/15 Week 3 Day 2

     Today we visited the Krannert Center for Performing Arts, a spectacular building that is as interesting as it is huge.

Inside the center, after you climb the stairs that lead up to the entrance, is large model of the entirety of the building. There is no vantage point outside of Krannert from which you can see the whole of it, but the model allows you to take in the enormity of the building.

     The first thing we were shown after meeting up with our tour guide was the very floor we were walking on, a thing of pride for the Krannert Center and also a thing of great beauty. According to our guide, the tiles were made of teak and had been arranged so that they looked like the midwest from an aerial view.

      We were then taken to the “second floor” which was actually underground. This is where all of the work that went into creating musicals, plays, and operas happened. We saw the shop that created the sets, the costume department, and even backstage.

      We then saw the theatres from up top, from the place where an audience would sit. The Foellinger Great Hall is an almost perfectly symmetrical room where symphonies and orchestras come from all over to play at. We could only peak in on the Studio Theatre, but we saw the Tryon Festival Theatre, the set of which we had been allowed to view earlier from backstage. Our guide explained about the "fly space" above the theatre and how its used for flying things like and actors and props. The audience only views a fraction of what happens in a play, seeing only what the director wants them to see through a small window while everything that creates the magic happens backstage and up in the fly space.

      An orchestra could not perform in the Tryon Festival Theatre, nor could a play expect to be able to function correctly in the Foellinger Great Hall. Each space is created to house a particular type of performance and the architecture and planning that goes into each room reveals that.

     The Krannert Center for Performing Arts is a beautiful place with rooms that house some of the country's most fantastic performances. It was an honor to receive this in depth tour of one the most luxurious buildings in Urbana-Champaign.