Facilities >> The Harvey Powers Theatre

Directions to the Harvey Powers Theatre

Welcome to Harvey Powers Theatre, the brainchild of its namesake, Harvey Powers jr. Originally constructed in 1959, and dedicated to Powers in 1997, the space boasts some of the best facilities and technology in academic theatre anywhere in the country. The house has 483 seats on two levels. The stage has a 32 foot proscenium and a depth of 27 feet. It has a 50 foot high, 31 line-set fly house. It has an extensive cat walk system that leads to each of three front-of -house lighting beams. The stage has a Wagnerian orchestra pit and center stage trap as well as a new floor, and marley for dance performances. Both the stage and the house have been designed for maximum acoustical quality with curved oak walls, and sound diffraction drums on the balcony, both to decrease slap-back.

The control booth houses one of the most sophisticated lighting and sound systems available. The lighting control console, an Electronic Theatre Controls Obsession, controls 380 sensor dimmers through a digital language (DMX) as well as moving lights, atmospheric effects, and scenery automation. Our sound system utilizes a 24 channel sound board, connected to which are CD, cassette, reel-to-reel, and DAT players and recorders, as well as a sampler, and an eight track digital audio workstation. Almost all of the sound editing done in the Harvey Powers Theatre is digital, and shows are usually burned on CDs rather than recorded on reel to reel. Sound played through the theatre is powered by over of 5000 watts of amplifiers connected to speakers in the front, sides and rear of the house and stage. These speakers and amplifiers are of a high enough quality that they are capable of reproducing the complete range of human hearing as well as THX sound. Our sound system is also run through several equalizers, compressor/limiters and delay units, creating time aligned sound for every audience member. In addition to the many individual bells and whistles of the sound and lighting system, the two are joined together through a MIDI to SMPTE converter such that the sound system (which speaks the digital language, MIDI) can actually control the lighting system (which speaks SMPTE) and tell the light board when to fire it's cues. Therefore, shows may be produced in which the "Play" button for the sound is pushed once at the beginning of the show and then neither it nor the light board must be touched again until the show's completion.

In the stage right wing exists an electrics shop used for repairing damaged electrical equipment and storing electrical accessories, and on the stage left side, a paint shop where all the scenic painting supplies are stored. Also in the wings is an entire wall of lighting racks which hold over 250 ETC, Altman and Strand lighting units. Outside of the stage itself, the Harvey Powers Theatre houses the scene shop, a 1800 square foot space containing almost every tool a carpenter could want. Also backstage are professor's offices, the green room, dressing rooms, and the design studio. This studio houses eight 300 MHz Power Macintosh 9600s, as well as a 17 x 22 inch photo-quality color printer, a flatbed scanner, a slide scanner, and a data and video projector, all of which are available for student use. The lab is also used for traditional drafting, model making, and scenic and costume design.

View a Floor Plan or a Center Line Section of the Powers Theatre

Need more drawings? Go to Powers Tech Page.