Center Stage is going to college for a semester. While its downtown Baltimore venue undergoes extensive renovations beginning in January 2016, the theater company will temporarily move productions to Towson University's Center for the Arts.
Upgrading and updating of the longtime Center Stage home on N. Calvert Street "needs to be done," said managing director Stephen Richard. "All the systems in the building are 25 years old — air conditioning, plumbing, electrics. It's hard to get parts for some things."
The project will also involve changes to lobby areas, performance spaces, offices and more.
"We will make a big, proper announcement about all of that later, post-July," said Center Stage artistic director Kwame Kwei-Armah.
To design the renovations, Center Stage has engaged Baltimore-based architects Cho Benn Holback, which recently designed the acclaimed new venues for Everyman Theatre and Chesapeake Shakespeare Company; and the London-based theater designer firm Charcoalblue, whose clients include London's National Theatre and English National Opera.
"They will help us re-conceive how we do things," Richard said.
The company will vacate the Calvert Street location during the renovations. The project is expected to last about nine months, with Center Stage returning to its home during the 2016-2017 season.
Kwei-Armah said that the company "looked everywhere, including next door," for a temporary venue.
"Towson University came heads and shoulders above everyone else," he said. "We found the facility to be wonderful. A lot of our members come from that side of town. And having a student body there makes it a lovely fit."
Adjustments to the schedule for productions by Towson University's theater department, which has multiple performance spaces, have been made to accommodate the temporary resident.
"When I first heard about this, I thought, gosh, that's going to be really hard to do," said Susan Picinich, dean of the College of Fine Arts and Communication at Towson University. "But the more we thought about the benefits of having Center Stage here, it seemed like a great opportunity. It gives our students access to Center Stage right in their backyard. We're really excited."
In addition to workshops and other interaction with Center Stager personnel, Towson students will get an opportunity to perform supporting roles in the company's first production on the campus, an all-female version of Shakespeare's "As You Like It," Jan. 15 to Feb. 14, 2016.
The other production at Towson next season will be Charlayne Woodard's one-woman play about non-biological motherhood, "The Night Watcher," April 8 to May 8, 2016.
These shows will be held in the 330-seat Mainstage Theatre, a space roughly the same size of the upstairs Head Theater at the Center Stage facility, but with a configuration similar to the company's 541-seat Pearlstone Theater (minus the balcony).
The 2015-2016 Center Stage season will offer three productions in the Calvert Street venue, beginning with the world premiere of Christopher Baker's stage adaptation of Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice," Sept. 11 to Oct. 11.
Next up is what Kwei-Armah describes as "a big, whomping family musical" from 1991, the multiple Tony Award-winning "The Secret Garden," based on the Frances Hodgson Burnett novel, with book and lyrics by Marsha Norman, music by Lucy Simon. This co-production with the Cincinnati Playhouse runs Oct. 30 to Nov. 29.
Before heading to Towson, Center Stage will offer the local premiere of "X's and O's (A Football Love Story)," by KJ Sanchez with Jenny Mercein (daughter of former pro player Chuck Mercein), Nov. 13 to Dec. 20. Center Stage co-commissioned the play, which had its world premiere in January at Berkley Rep in California.
"Baltimore is football-crazy," Kwei-Armah said, "so I thought it would be great to have this play here. It's not just about the glory of football, but the cost of glory, the dangers of the game."
For more information on Center Stage's 2015-2016 season, call 410-332-0033, or go to centerstage.org.