Facilities
Phi Beta Kappa Memorial Hall is the main performing arts complex on the campus of the College of William and Mary. Completed in 1956, it replaced Phi Beta Kappa Hall, the original theatre building that burned in December of 1953, now rebuilt as Ewell Hall. The building was named in honor of the Phi Beta Kappa Society, the first national academic honor society, which was founded by William and Mary students in 1776.
The Hall houses the Department of Theatre, Speech, and Dance. It is an academic building whose theatre production spaces provide classrooms and laboratories for the curricular programs of the Department.
- Mainstage Theatre
- Studio Theatre
- Laboratory Theatre
- Scene Shop
- Computer Design and Drafting Lab
- Lighting Lab
- Costume Shop
The Mainstage Theatre also provides a formal performance space for the Department of Music and the William and Mary Concert Series. University ceremonies, convocations, and lectures are regularly held in the Theatre, as well as performances by student organizations and area symphony orchestras and dance companies. The Hall was the site of the 1976 Presidential Debate between Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford and the Democratic Party Debate of the 1982 presidential campaign.
The building houses three performance venues, the Mainstage Theatre, the Studio Theatre, and the Laboratory Theatre. Also, the building contains well-equipped and complete shops, production rooms, and storage rooms for scenery, costumes, and lighting, classrooms and a small computer design and drafting laboratory, and the offices for the Department of Theatre, Speech, and Dance. The building also houses a reception and meeting room, and the chapter room and office for Alpha Chapter of the Phi Beta Kappa Society. When it was built, Phi Beta Kappa Memorial Hall was called "the best equipped, non-professional playhouse in America" and is still today one of the finest theatre facilities in the region.
Mainstage Theatre
The Mainstage Theatre has a modified proscenium stage with apron and hydraulic orchestra lift, which, when set at stage level, can be used to extend the playing area forward. The stage floor is a "sprung" wooden floor, painted dark brown, and is trapable, to permit entrances from below stage.The theatre is equipped with a counterweight rigging system to allow scenery to be raised out of sight. The lighting system consists of two hundred and forty dimmers in a dimmer-per-circuit arrangement and controlled by a lighting control computer. The stage is equipped with a dark red velvet main curtain directly behind the proscenium and a natural canvas, flown, curved "wrap around" cyclorama at the rear of the stage. There are crossovers behind the cyclorama, under the stage, and behind the stage.
The ante-proscenium (outer proscenium) forms apron entrances, the "coves", left and right downstage of the proscenium line. Steps lead into the house down left and down right in front of the ante-proscenium walls.
The house walls are painted acoustic plaster with walnut wainscotting and trim, with Armstrong "Soundsoak" acoustic panels on the rear walls. Acoustics are reasonably "dead". Sightlines are excellent from all seats with no posts or obstructions.
The house seats seven hundred sixty-three in a main floor and single balcony. The seating consists of center, left, and right seating sections, with carpeted aisles between, and there are aisles along the outside of the side sections. Two seating platforms at the left and right rear of the main floor accomomdate the disabled. The balcony seating also has an aisle separating the lower section from the upper. There are four hundred eighty-six seats in the orchestra section, and two hundred seventy-seven seats in the balcony.
The main floor of the theatre is accessible for the disabled. An infrared listening system is available for the hearing impaired.
The proscenium is thirty-four feet wide with almost forty feet between the ante-proscenium arches. The forestage with the orchestra lift down, from the proscenium line to the front of the apron, is four and a half feet; with the orchestra lift at stage level, the apron is extended an additional eleven feet, for a total forestage depth of fifteen feet, six inches to the proscenium line.
In a standard masking set-up (masking legs on each side), the playing area is thirty-six feet wide. Side "tab" leg masking opens the playing area to fifty-six feet wide. The maximum width of the stagehouse is seventy-six feet. The stage right wingspace is approximately eleven feet wide; stage left wingspace is approximately seven feet wide. The theatre is equipped with five sets of black velour masking legs and borders.
The stage depth from the proscenium line to the cyclorama pit is just over twenty-eight feet and thirty-six feet to the rear wall with the cyclorama pit closed. From forestage to cyclorama pit, the usable stage depth is nearly forty-four feet.
The proscenium is twenty feet high. The stage house grid is over sixty feet above the stage floor.
The stage is equipped with a "T-track" counterweight rigging system consisting of forty-eight linesets, with the flyrail located stage left. Battens are forty-two feet long and generally located on six inch centers between pipes.
The fully equipped scene shop is located off stage right, separated from the stagehouse by a large, sound resistant sliding door. The shop has capability of wood construction, metal work, and plastics fabrication. The Dressing Rooms and Green Room are located off stage left on the same level as the stage. The fully equipped costume shop is adjacent to the Dressing Rooms. Lighting and sound control is located house left in a booth above the balcony.
Studio Theatre
The Studio Theatre is the main classroom and laboratory for the Theatre Department's acting and directing classes and is the primary rehearsal space for the Department's Mainstage productions. It is also the main performance venue and rehearsal space for smaller or experimental productions directed by faculty, selected senior-level students, and for acting and directing class projects.
The Studio Theatre is a flexible performance space, a "black box theatre", located at the rear of Phi Beta Kappa Memorial Hall, behind the Mainstage Theatre. The theatre is equipped with portable audience risers that may be assembled in different configurations. In the standard semi-thrust arrangement, the theatre seats one hundred nine. The Studio is thirty feet wide by sixty-five feet long and is a superbly intimate performance space.
The Studio was renovated after a fire in 1985, when the lighting, sound, and rigging systems, and acoustic wall treatments were replaced. The current lighting system consists of seventy-two dimmers controlled by a Strand Lighting MX console, a two scene preset board with comprehensive memory and effects features. The board is capable of operating in a manual, two-scene Channel mode or as a memory console holding recorded scenes under each fader, up to forty-eight scenes. The board utilizes a soft patch system for assigning dimmers to channels. The Studio is assigned a modest inventory of lighting equipment.
The seventy-two circuits are distributed around the Studio at the balcony level on a catwalk that surrounds the space at the balcony level allowing access to the lighting circuits and hanging positions for masking purposes. The light control console and sound system are on the baclony level as well.
The Studio is equipped with a limited sound system, offering two channel playback. The system consists of a small six channel mixer, a cassette deck, a compact disk player and a computer-based playback system.
The Studio floor has a sprung wooden floor consisting of two inch, vertical grain tongue-and-groove fir. It is stained a dark ebony. The walls and acoustic panels are midnight blue with maple wainscotting and paneling.
The counterweight system is a wire guided rigging system, consisting of 21 split battens on six inch centers. Operation of the rigging system is at the east end of the Studio on the floor level. A set of masking curtains is provided for the theatre.
Laboratory Theatre
The Laboratory Theatre is a small flexible-space theatre well suited for small cast or monodrama presentations. It is located off of the front lobby in the south east wing of the building.
The Lab Theatre is a lecture classroom and is also utilized for acting classes. Portable student chairs can be arranged for a variety of classroom needs or portable audience chairs can be configured as appropriate for performance situations.Tracked masking curtains may be drawn for a fully open space or a closed-in proscenium arrangement.
The Lab is equipped with two six-channel autotransformer dimmer packs and thirty-six circuits. A small inventory of fresnel spotlights is available for scene illumination.
Scene Shop
Phi Beta Kappa Memorial Hall contains a well-equipped and a well-designed carpentry shop for the construction and painting of scenery and properties. The shop is located adjacent to the stage right side of the main theatre and on the same level. A large, sound resistant sliding door separates the shop from the stage to allow simultaneous shop construction and on-stage rehearsal. Same level access to the Studio Theatre is available across the loading dock, again through a large, sliding access door.
The William and Mary Theatre has a good inventory of soft stock flats and platforms in PBK, as well as inventories of other stock scenic units in two off site locations.
A scenery storage room runs the full length and width of the shop on the basement level. Access to the storage is possible through a series of three foot by five foot floor traps. A one ton chain hoist runs over the traps, tracked from the loading dock door to the full length of a large props room above and along side of the shop. The trap room under the stage also provides storage areas for stock platforms and stairs, as well as for drops and stage masking curtains.
The shop is capable of both wood and steel construction. The shop is equipped with a good inventory of hand and power tools. A partial inventory of the stationary tools includes two Delta Unisaw table saws, a Delta 14" and a Delta 10" radial saws, two power miter saws, a Powermatic 21" band saw, a Delta lathe with 35" bed, a Woodtek 20" drill press, and a Delta 6" belt sander. For metal work, the shop is equipped with a Miller MIG welder, a Lincoln arc welder, an oxygen/acetylene rig, a Scotchman cold cut saw, a Skil chop saw, and a Delta grinder.
The shop is equipped with a counterweighted paint frame along the north wall. Full stage drops or scenic units can be mounted on the frame.
The William & Mary Theatre has a good stock of hand and set props for use in its productions. There are two properties storage rooms in PBK. One, for larger properties, is above and adjacent to the Scene Shop and the other, for small properties, is adjacent to the third floor CADD Lab. The Theatre also maintains an off site storage room for furniture and other large props, and selected hand props.
Sorry, the Theatre does not generally lend or rent its properties, costumes, lighting equipment, or scenery items.
Computer Design and Drafting Lab
Through the generosity of an alumna, the Department maintains a small design and drafting laboratory in the former projection room above the rear of the mainstage balcony. The lab consists of six networked computer workstations, an "E-size" thirty-six inch pen plotter, and two drafting tables. Use of the lab is limited to theatre students working on class or Department-related projects. Each of the workstations is equipped with AutoCAD LT for drafting work.
Lighting Lab
The drafting lab area also houses a lighting laboratory for experimentation with lighting angle and color. The lab is equipped with a twelve channel dimmer and a small inventory of fresnels and ellipsoidal reflector spotlights. A light-resistant curtain separates the two lab spaces.
Costume Shop
The costume shop includes facilities for cutting and draping, machine and hand-sewing, material dying, laundry and storage for stock material.
