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After decades of working out of converted Hawaii State Hospital buildings resembling rundown military barracks, Windward Community College students finally have a state-of-the-art building to call home. Windward college has
new home for the artsBy Treena Shapiro
tshapiro@starbulletin.com
The $18 million Center for the Arts and Humanities is equipped with dance studios, soundproof music rooms, a darkroom, a ceramics studio with three types of kilns, a new 1,700-square-foot art gallery and its focal point: a 300-seat theater featuring three stage configurations, proscenium, thrust and theater-in-the-round.
Drama professor Ben Moffat, who helped design the theater, said he had wanted a configuration that was flexible yet classy. Performance areas with convertible stages often have a temporary feel, he noted, but the WCC theater was designed to be an appropriate venue for formal events such as graduations.
In fact, the spring commencement exercises will be theater's first event. There will be walk-through tours of the theater during a blessing ceremony tomorrow, but performances by WCC chorus, ukulele and slack-key students will be held in the building lobby because the theater is not quite finished.
Moffat said he anticipates that the first major performance will be held next fall -- potentially "The Sound of Music," directed by Ron Bright. He is also looking at smaller shows with students and community members, as well as some children's theater for the local schools.
Theater manager Tom Holowach, in the meantime, is looking for "angel" investors to help him produce other shows. While the state "spared almost no expense" in constructing the humanities building, no seed money has been budgeted to get the theater started, he said.
"It's kind of like having a start-up company with no capital," he said.
Other groups have already expressed interest in renting the theater, such as the Honolulu Theatre for Youth and the Hawai'i International Film Festival, Holowach said.
"The need for a quality theater of this size is huge," Holowach said, pointing out that it is the perfect size for a performance that would not sell out the 1,400-seat Hawaii Theatre but would be too big for a school auditorium.
He anticipates that it could become a community gathering place as well as a venue that will attract people from other parts of the island.
"We're also the only theater in Hawaii with a combination of high-speed fiber-optic connections to the Internet, a lighting grid fully wired for Ethernet to control moving lights, and a surround-sound system ideal for video production," Holowach said.
The blessing ceremony begins at 10 a.m. on the Kaneohe campus. In addition to the musical performances and a glimpse at the theater, there will be art demonstrations by ceramics, photography, drawing and painting students and tours until 2 p.m.
The public is also invited to an artists' reception at 4 p.m. tomorrow in the new Gallery Iolani.
University of Hawaii
