New Davis theater offering spiffier amenities designed for performers and patrons

Davis Cultural Arts Center

A gala was held to celebrate the opening of the new Davis Cultural Arts Center.  CenterPoint Legacy Theater, formerly Rodgers Memorial Theater, will be the resident company.  The 63,000-square-foot facility was paid for by multiple sources, including recreation, arts, and parks tax funds from Centerville and Bountiful. Longtime board member Scott VanDyke designed the facility.

The main auditorium seats 525, with 325 on the floor level and 200 in the balcony.   Every seat has great sight lines to the stage and plenty of leg room.  The 2,761-square-foot stage is a "thrust stage," meaning it bows out slightly toward the audience, creating greater intimacy.   It has red Austrian grand curtain drapes to the floor.  The stage has a three-platform, motorized lift system, which the theater will use for everything from an orchestra pit to dramatic costume changes.  The three sections move independently, allowing for freedom in set changes and staging.  The fly system is 60 feet tall with 21 fly lines, which can be used for large set pieces, backdrops, and even people.

Below the stage are rehearsal rooms lined with mirrors.  The main rehearsal space follows the exact thrust shape of the stage, “a valuable asset for directors and choreographers staging a show.”

A black box theater seats up to 200, depending on how the space is configured.

An outdoor amphitheater will likely be completed after another summer.

The facility also includes rooms for auditioning, large dressing rooms, green rooms equipped with small kitchens, new pianos, a new sound system, a large workshop for set building, a costume shop, and storage space.

Rodgers Memorial Theater

The Rodgers Memorial Theater had sideways seats “that caused kinked necks and tight backs.”  The “small, cramped” theater “had nothing in the way of fly space, which was very limiting creatively and technically.”