Goel Center Opens Later than Anticipated
The David E. Goel and Stacey L. Goel Center for Theater and Dance was expected to open in April 2018. However, the building remains unfinished, and the Academy now expects the building will open in the fall of 2018.
Once finished, the Center will be a state-of-the art facility with more than 63,130 square feet of space. It will contain a proscenium mainstage with 350 seats and an orchestra pit, a thrust stage theater with seating for 149 spectators, two dance venues including a dance performance studio with 119 seats, a rehearsal and meeting area for DRAMAT, Exeter’s student-run theater organization, technical studios and classrooms and lounge areas.
“[The people leading the workshop] said it’s not a really a delay if you think about it because there’s so much that has to fall into place that’s out of our control. I don’t think anyone was super satisfied with that answer,” Anna Clark said.
Dance instructor Allison Duke, who has been working with the project since 2011, stated that the building’s construction is on schedule. “It has less to do with the building being completed by the architects, the general contractor, all the sub contractors and the building being actually done and owned by the Academy. That’s all 100 percent on schedule,” she said. “Perhaps what is being interpreted as not being on schedule is the initial thought that both spring dance concert and the senior acting ensemble would be able to perform in both respective performance spaces,” Duke said. As of now, dance rehearsals are taking place in the building.
Although some dance groups are practicing in the new space, there are still some obstacles that must be overcome before the building can fully function. Duke explained that the staffing and user learning curve posed an issue. “You can build an amusement park but if the operators don’t know how to operate the rides safely, that’s dangerous for everybody. It can look physically done, but the functionality has to be learned by all of us,” she said.
Duke added that constructing the Center is such a large undertaking that it requires significant time to finish. Once completed, the Center will hold about five times the performance space the current theater provides and will have double the studio size. “To do all that in the end of the academic year, as detail[s] started to unfold...It wasn’t really possible. It would have compromised the actual productions instead of supported them,” Duke said.
Nevertheless, some students are frustrated that the building is not fully functional yet. During a Climate Action Day workshop in which students toured the Center, one student asked why the building was unfinished, according to upper and DRAMAT co-head Anna Clark. “[The people leading the workshop] said it’s not a really a delay if you think about it because there’s so much that has to fall into place that’s out of our control. I don’t think anyone was super satisfied with that answer,” Clark said.
Lower Patricia Fitzgerald was similarly unhappy the building was not finished. “We were promised it at the beginning of the year; when I showed up everyone said it was going to be done by this spring, it was really exciting,” she said. “I feel like it’s a little unreasonable for them to just promise us that we’re going to be in there and then keep delaying it.”
The delay will particularly impact seniors, who will graduate before the Center opens. “I’m not exactly happy about it,” senior Billy O’Handley said. “I would have been able to perform there, but now I’m not going to be able to perform there at all. But I guess it makes sense, if it’s not ready you shouldn’t try to force it to open before it’s ready.”
Duke acknowledged that seniors would be missing out on using the Center but emphasized that the project was not actually delayed. “Everyone’s been working really hard, and I want to dispel the rumor that it’s delayed. It’s not delayed, it’s that the user learning curve is very steep, and that wasn’t able to be achieved by the end of the year,” Duke said. “It was our goal [to open this spring], but if you think of a goal that was set over a year ago, things can change. In terms of a project that’s been going on almost 10 years. In the grand scheme of things, this is actually very much on time.”
(THIS IS COPY) Upper Sarah Liberatore was concerned that the new center had received less attention than the William Boyce Thompson Field House that opened this January. “For a while it felt like the field house was getting priority, because it was finished before. Of course it’s a different building and the donors raised money faster for that, but I think it was still kind of frustrating to see that go up first,” she said.
Despite the delay, Exonians are still excited to use the new space. “I feel like I’m just going to live in that building next year,” Liberatore said.
Chair of the Theater and Dance Department Robert Richards believes that the opening of this building marks a historical moment for Exeter. He said, “This building marks the first time in the Academy’s history where both theater and dance will be under the same roof. That is fantastic!” In fact, both Davis Dance Studio and Fisher Theater, the current facilities for dance and theater practice, were not originally designed to be used for performing arts practices and rehearsals.
After touring and rehearsing in the new Center, Liberatore’s excitement for the new building outweighed the negative sentiments she initially carried. “Any anger I had at the delays, after being in the building, I’m forgetting about it because I’m so happy that it’s there now,” Liberatore said.