URBANA’S GRAND STAGE
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the term ‘no brow’,” Ross says.
The center intermingles the marquee shows — staging approximately 40-60 high-profile acts per season — with shows by students and faculty from the Department of Theatre, Department of Dance, and the School of Music, which includes the opera program.
“The idea was to unify the arts,” Brant Pope, head of the Department of Theatre, says. By working together the entities could create a major arts institution — in the middle of a cornfield. Pope compares what Krannert offers for theatre students to what a learning hospital provides medical students — real-life experience in the profession.
The theatre department puts on six productions a year and three more during the summer break, Pope says.
Pope doesn’t make an attempt to connect the plays he’s staging with the overall Krannert lineup because the center’s programming is so diverse. He says the individual programs contribute to the season lineup and in the end, “it all adds up” to the total experience Krannert Center offers.
The blend of disciplines was a goal from the beginning; the proof is in the building’s design. The space became a place where performing arts could socialize.
Krannert Center houses five original performance spaces and now, the newly created Stage 5 in the lobby. Foellinger Great Hall, an acoustically superior performance space with a tiered ceiling and 2,000-plus seats often hosts symphonies, instrumental soloists and vocal performances, among other shows.
Tryon Festival Theatre houses the School of Music’s opera program and, according to Lee-Calfas, also provides a good stage for dance. Colwell Playhouse seats approximately 650 patrons and mostly accommodates productions from the departments of theatre and dance at Illinois.
The Studio Theatre — the most flexible of the performances spaces — is an intimate, black box stage that welcomes a variety of theatre, dance and club acts. The outside amphitheatre — designed as a Greek-style setting — plays host to music and productions on summer evenings. Stage 5 is often the site of the center’s free performances and music events.
Jazz tenor saxophonist Chip McNeill, chair for the jazz studies program at UI, plays on Krannert’s stages multiple times a year. He says all the program’s jazz ensembles play the center at least twice per year.
Part performing space for professional artists and part teaching ground for budding thespians, dancers and musical performers, Krannert Center’s “public-private partnership” may be the key to this artistic venue’s ability to weather the economic storm.
The economics of art
“Everything has been hit by the economic challenges of the last year,” Ross says. “I don’t know a single sector or a single cultural institution — whether they’re based inside a higher education institution or outside — I just don’t know any that haven’t been challenged, so Krannert has been challenged as well.”
But in comparison to stand-alone centers and venues that rely on ticket sales to keep afloat financially, Ross says, Krannert Center counts itself fortunate. University of Illinois foots the bill for Krannert’s personnel, which includes approximately 90 staff members.
The university also keeps the lights on, literally, by covering costs for utilities and general maintenance.
“I know many performing arts centers and programs around the country both inside and outside [of] higher education that have been experiencing exponentially greater challenges than we have,” Ross says.
A large portion of the funding for shows and concerts at Krannert come from individual donors, businesses and grants from arts organizations like the Illinois Arts Council. Despite the economic recession that seems to be zapping dollars out of coffers for the arts around the country, Krannert has seen a boost in giving.
“We have been incredibly fortunate that so
