After a quiet fall theater season, the spring season at the Genesee Center for the Arts will feature plenty of live performances due, in part, to brand-new, state-of-the-art lighting and rigging upgrades in the Stuart Steiner Theatre.
The Center for the Arts, located on the Batavia Campus of Genesee Community College, has undergone improvements totaling over $200,000, not including the adjacent art gallery that is currently in the finishing stages of construction.
Ed Hallborg, the theater's technical director, said the upgrades improve lighting quality and controls to current technical standards, and they also made safety improvements for the rigging to support both light fixtures and stage curtains.
(A video of the "behind the scenes" workings of the new equipment can be viewed at www.youtube.com/SUNYGCC <http://www.youtube.com/SUNYGCC> under the video "Making Theater Magic.")
The rigging improvements addressed new safety and building codes, while the lighting upgrade consist of a new dimming system and a new lighting console. A new sound recording system called ProTools allows for state-of-the-art recordings for not only theater performances, but for student classroom use.
"Although many of the upgrades were certainly needed, much of the new technology is behind the scenes," Hallborg said. "Regular patrons may not even notice the improved lighting and sound equipment, but the cast and crew who work behind the curtain or up in the control room, as well as Fine Arts students, will be grateful for the new, easy-to-use, modern technologies."
Genesee's modern facilities allow for increased hands-on experience for students in the Fine Arts curriculum, specifically Technical Theater majors. Demand is high for qualified, skilled and talented technical theater professionals in communities nationwide.
Genesee graduates are ready to work in professional and community theater facilities, as television crew, special events management, musical and opera companies, major touring productions and concerts, and in the travel/cruise entertainment industries.
Technical Theater career opportunities include: stagecraft technicians; theater electricians; lighting designers/technicians; stage director and managers; sound designers/technicians; and set designers/technicians.
Students also have great transfer options to further their education with institutions such as the University of Buffalo, Buffalo State College, Ithaca College and SUNY Brockport.
For further information please contact Edward Hallborg at 343-0055, ext. 6618 or <http://ERHallborg@genesee.edu>.
For photos and updates on the events at the Genesee Center for the Arts visit the Facebook page at <http://www.facebook.com/GCCTheater>.
The Spring 2011 schedule of performing arts events at Genesee Center for the Arts includes:
- "In the Blood" by Suzan-Lori Parks -- Feb. 3, 4, and 5
- Batavia-Bayou Cultural Connection with live music from Mumbo Jumbo and LeeRon Zydeco and the Hot Tamales -- Feb. 19
- Tony Brown and the Faithful -- Feb. 25
- AElinor Oratoria-Chorale Concert -- March 6
- Stone Row -- March 12
- "Nobody Likes Mordacious" Children's Theater by Jack Stokes -- March 23, 24 and 25
- "Blood Brothers" by Willy Russell -- April 7-10
