The campus theater isn’t just for school plays and band performances anymore. The new Performing Arts Center at Sacramento City College is attracting outside interest from entertainers and promoters looking for a spot to book shows.
And with 612 seats, a full thrust stage, an orchestra pit and new sound and lighting equipment, many are finding the Performing Arts Center to be an ideal venue—even as the school continues to work out a few technical kinks and complications.
“[The artists] are looking for a certain type of venue,” says campus operations supervisor Brenda Buckner, who works with those off-campus seeking to rent any campus facility, including the Performing Arts Center.
A grand opening ceremony was held in October when the Performing Arts Center reopened. People were invited to the public event to see the new facility.
Beyond the information given at the grand opening, however, City College has not promoted the rental of the Performing Arts Center. Outside companies like SBL Entertainment, which promotes and produces shows in Sacramento and throughout the Pacific Northwest, have found the Performing Arts Center anyway.
Elliot Prestwich, media and marketing manager for SBL Entertainment, says his company’s found the venue to be a great location for some of the shows SBL Entertainment promotes.
In the coming months, the Performing Arts Center will host several concerts in addition to student theater and music performances. SBL Entertainment put singer/songwriter Shawn Colvin on the stage Jan. 27, and other shows slated for the new venue include blues singer Dr. John and “American Idol” winner Kris Allen.
Shawn Colvin’s concert was subject to a few complications. According to SBL Entertainment, Colvin did not have technical equipment prepared for her sound check, resulting in a delay of her concert. Concert attendees had to wait in the cold for the doors to open, and some left without seeing the concert. SBL Entertainment will be issuing refunds to those who left, Prestwich says.
As new and technically advanced as the Performing Arts Center is, Shawn Weinsheink, professor of design and technology for theater, says they are still installing new equipment. As such the performance space may be ready for student use, but the Public Information Office is not promoting its availability as a performance venue as of now.
“The information to rent is out there,” says campus public relations technician Crystal Lee. “But we don’t publicize the availability.”
There’s a reason for that. The Performing Arts Center is still too new to be actively inviting outside performers to rent the facility, says Amanda Davis, public information officer at City College.
“I’m not sure we are ready to really advertise the Performing Arts Center to promoters as a performance space,” says Davis. “We are still looking at the components of what that means for us.”
Show promoters are looking to the Performing Arts Center as a performance venue that is close to downtown, relatively affordable and can handle the technical aspects of their shows.
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“In [the] downtown area we are in, the Performing Arts Center is the one of the only places that is big and fairly affordable,” says Davis.
“[The renters] are not paying what renting this venue should cost,” agrees Weinsheink. “People get a deal.”
The Performing Arts Center is loaded with a new digital sounding board, lighting console and projector. Any performance artist should be able to just come in, plug in their show and go, says Weinsheink.
“We like that it’s new and has top sound equipment and that we don’t have to bring in any outside equipment,” says Prestwich.
“On the whole we are a pretty state of the art facility tech-wise,” says Weinsheink. “It was designed with flexibility in mind.”
The size of the Performing Arts Center is also a perk of the venue. According to Prestwich, the 612-seat Performing Arts Center fills a much-needed room capacity in Sacramento.
“Most venues seat 300-400,” says Prestwich. “It’s really great for numbers if you don’t want small like 300, but you don’t want to have to seat 1,500.”
These outside performances could potentially benefit the students, says Buckner. Providing a space for the community to perform and produce shows not only exposes people to City College campus, but also allows students to see professionals at work in the community—an opportunity they might not have otherwise.
“Things like the symphony really tie into our programs, so it ends up being mutually beneficial,” she says. These performances are scheduled around school concerts and theatre performances, says Lee. “The students are the No.1 priority,” she says.
That’s something the renters don’t always understand, according to Weinsheink. The Performing Arts Center is a show venue, but it is also where theater classes meet and conduct class, which includes building a set for a theater production over an eight-week period. This can make scheduling outside rentals problematic at times.
“We have conflicts,” he says. “We think rentals need to be second to the academic use of the venue.”
As long as the space is available, however, it seems that outside people will be interested in using it. Prestwich says he looks forward to booking more shows on campus.
“There isn’t a bad seat in the house,” Prestwich says.
