Krannert Center for the Performing Arts
The Krannert Center for the Performing Arts is an educational and performing arts complex located at 500 South Goodwin Avenue in Urbana, Illinois and on the campus of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Herman C. Krannert, an industrialist who founded Inland Container Corporation and an alumnus of the university, and his wife, Ellnora Krannert, made a gift of $16 million that led to the Krannert Center's construction.[1] Max Abramovitz, the architect who designed the facility, was also an Illinois alumnus.
The center, often abbreviated as "KCPA," contains four venues with a combined seating capacity of about 4,000. The expansive main lobby features a floor made of teak from Thailand, which cost $1 million, and walls clad in marble from Carrara, Italy. The building opened in 1969.
Non-public facilities[edit]
The production level (floor 2) of the facility offers a full scenery construction shop, costume shop, and dedicated rehearsal spaces for choral, orchestra, and dance performers, plus a drama rehearsal room which is the same size as the stages in the Playhouse and Festival theaters. There are over 40,000 costume pieces, and tens of thousands of props in various storerooms. The Great Hall, Festival and Playhouse each have dedicated dressing and makeup rooms for performers adjacent to the stage entrances.[3]
Design and construction considerations[edit]
The Festival, Playhouse, and Great Hall are physically separate structures from the main structure, with rubber acoustic gaskets filling the gaps between them. This prevents sound from vibrating through the floors and walls. To further reduce vibration noise, the air conditioning chillers were originally installed on the roof of the nearby Green and Goodwin Student / Staff apartments. The chillers were eventually removed and the center is now on the standard campus-supplied chilled-water system.
The main hallway on the production level has an extra-wide and -high ceiling for the entire length which matches the size of the scenery shop and stage doors on the Playhouse and Festival theaters. This allows completed scenery to be moved directly from the scenery shop to the stages without the need to break apart and reassemble on the stage.
All three large stages have Stage Lifts (Hydraulic lifts replaced in 1999 with "Gala" Spira-Lifts) that can be used to create a recessed orchestra pit, hold additional seating, or extend the stage depending on the need of a particular performance. The Great Hall also has two retractable rear walls in the balcony which holds an additional two rows of seating behind the stage. The space nearest the stage holds additional seating for choral use and the farthest space was originally intended to house a pipe organ.
Artists
Ensembles
Festivals
The Krannert Center hosts the Ellnora Guitar Festival (formerly Wall to Wall Guitar Festival) every two years in September, beginning in 2005, which has featured artists such as Pat Metheny, Elliot Fisk, Andy Summers, Taj Mahal, Vernon Reid, Toubab Krewe, Campbell Brothers, The Romeros, Alex DeGrassi, Los Lobos, John McLaughlin, Jorma Kaukonen, and Buddy Guy.
Additionally, Krannert has sponsored the Pygmalion Music Festival every September since 2006, which has brought indie rock artists such as Iron & Wine, The Books, David Bazan, Danielson, Andrew Bird, Yo La Tengo, and High Places to the traditionally jazz and classical-oriented venue.