New visions at Gloucester Stage

As Gloucester Stage Company prepares to open its 32nd season of theater on Cape Ann next month, the company is also launching a capital drive to renovate and upgrade its facilities.

Now, theater officials announced they've hired the architects behind Rockport's Shalin Liu Performance Hall to develop and carry out that vision.

Gloucester Stage Board Chairwoman Bea Waring and GSC Managing Director Andrew Burgreen announced Monday that they've hired Epstein Joslin Architects to oversee the design of a major renovation of the theater company's building, located in the heart of East Gloucester at 267 East Main St.

Alan Joslin and his wife of 25 years, Deborah Epstein, are principals of the Cambridge-based firm, which is best known locally for designing Rockport Music's listening $20 million waterfront hall named for primary benefactor Shalin Liu.

Waring, Burgreen and Joslin all emphasized Monday that a "new" Gloucester Stage will not approach the Shalin Liu project in either cost or size.

Rather, now that the Gloucester Stage Company is nearly owner of its diamond-in-the-rough black box theater, it will look to polish it while maintaining the size and intimate three-sided seating design of its roughly 190-200 seat theater.

Waring said the project focus, while maintain a theatre of the same size, will be geared toward creating a year-round, full-service stage facility, as opposed to the current June to September main season. Gloucester Stage has opened its doors in the past year to more off-season presentations, and leases the facility to outside organizations. But the new project will be aimed at creating more year-round opportunities — with an eye toward making more full use of its interior space.

Joslin said he is excited to work on a design that will take advantage of a great deal of open room, seeing better use of height and stage depth, for example, that could create new stage access.

"We could have actors entering a scene from above, for example. Right now, they can't do that," he said.

The numbers illustrate the extent of the space available. The street level space is roughly 8,600 square feet, but it has a lower level of roughly equal space. The theater space currently is about 2,400 square feet.

Joslin — along with Waring and Burgreen - emphasized he also wants to learn about the desires of the community regarding the theater and its potential.

"We want to hear from the people and they will start seeing some of their ideas in the physical models we will do," said Joslin. "Every place is unique to its setting, and we will look to make this project unique to its setting."

The red-brick building once housed a car dealership and was later used for storage space by Gorton's of Gloucester, which allowed the new Gloucester Stage Company to use the street level.

In a move to secure a permanent space, the board of directors moved to purchase the building in December of 2004, and first launched a capital campaign in January of 2005.

The hiring of Joslin ad Epstein now comes in the wake of securing the money to pay off the $750,000 mortgage for the building. The benefit of having a permanent home leads to the next step of designing a theater to embrace the full extent of the space.

"We want the facility to match the quality of the work we do on stage," Burgreen said.

That's appealing to Joslin, who said he's attended productions at the award-winning Gloucester Stage, including last summer's "Trying," which drew sellout audiences and is being reprised this year with the same two actors — Richard Mawe and Becky Webber — in tow.

"The quality of the productions is extraordinary and they have this remarkable site," said Joslin. "We want this building to be celebratory of what it does. We hope to enhance those aspects dramatically."

The small theater will retain its three-sided design, with a goal of even enhancing its sense of intimacy.

"We would look to increase the height, whether it may be using the lower level and combining it with the upper level," said Joslin. "We're looking at a 'spatial playground' for more artistic opportunity."

In neighboring Rockport, the new music hall his firm designed boasts a panoramic ocean view from the street side.

"We also want to look at how to enhance this place here on the water and the beauty of the town. We will be looking to explore options to look through the building to the harbor, to provide some sort of transparent view," Joslin said.

Joslin, Waring and Burgreen all emphasized, however, that stage theater space is very different from a hall built to host music presentations.

"We're not building another Shalin Liu (hall)," Joslin said. "These are two significantly different projects, and I am thrilled to be part of the Gloucester Stage Company improvement,"

Neither Waring nor Burgreen would set a specific goal for the capital drive, with Burgreen noting the drive's goal depends in part on how the design of the new facility shapes up.

Burgreen said he expects the design of the project to become clear over this summer, with Joslin's initial plans expected by the end of September. The tentative goal, he said, would be to begin actual work on the "new" theatre a year later, at the close of the 2012 summer season.

Beyond the theater's interior stage, Waring noted that it is also important that the design include enhanced space for the stage company's long-standing youth acting workshops, directed by local actress Heidi Dallin. The renovations will also expand artistic opportunity with state-of-the-art technology, sound and projection capabilities, Burgreen said.

Benefactors have already given the Gloucester Stage Company some significant votes of confidence in its future.

In 2009, an anonymous donor pledged $500,000 over five years to pay down the mortgage with an additional $200,000 coming from the Dusky Foundation, which also provided $50,000 as start up costs for the renovation project, which allowed the stage company to hire the architect.

In the meantime, Joslin will attend the Gloucester Stage Company Gala planned for May 20, and will be available to talk about the project.

The spring benefit gala, aimed at launching the theater's 32nd season next month, will run from 6 to 11 p.m. at Cruiseport.

Tickets are priced at $150, which includes a cocktail hour, gourmet buffet dinner, a silent art auction and dancing to the band Guilty Pleasure.

Tickets can be purchased by calling the company's box office at 978-281-4433 or visiting www.gloucesterstage.org. Tickets, however, are available only through May 16, and will not be sold at the door.

Gail McCarthy can be reached at 978-283-7000, x3445, or at gmccarthy@gloucestertimes com.

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