FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SPENCER THEATER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS
Airport Highway 220
PO Box 140
Alto, New Mexico 88312
Ph: 505.336.4800
Fax: 505.336.0055
www.spencertheater.com
Spencer Theater Receives Outstanding Theatre Award
Alto, NM --- Spencer Theater for the Performing Arts was recently named one of seven outstanding theatres in the world by the United States Institute for Theatre Technology, Inc.
This is the third facility-design award bestowed on the Spencer and its architect, Antoine Predock Associates of Albuquerque, since the Spencer first opened in October, 1997.
The USITT Architecture Award is one of the most prestigious and difficult to win of all architectural awards, said a spokesman for USITT in Syracuse, New York. The award strictly honors theatre design and has been issued to theatres throughout the world since 1994.
Forty-one performance spaces entered this year's contest for review by the USITT jury panel in late 2003. The distinguished jury included Bing Thom of Bing Thom Architects in Vancouver, Canada; Eric Seifert of Artec Consultants in New York, New York and Catherine Slessor, Senior Editor of the industry's leading magazine, Architectural Review.
The winners of the two Honor Awards and five Merit Awards were announced in late March at the USITT Annual Conference and Stage Expo, at which all projects submitted for award were reviewed in panel discussions.
Distinguished Honor Award winners of the 2004 USITT are Brighton Dome & Corn Exchange in England and the New Tempodrom in Germany. Winners of the eminent Merit Award are the Pantages Theatre in Minneapolis, Minnesota; the Spencer Theater for Performing Arts in Alto, NM; Sprague Memorial Hall in New Haven, CT; Stevie Eller Dance Theatre in Tucson, AZ and Zankel Hall, a new theatre in the Carnegie Hall complex, in New York City.
In their analysis of the Spencer, the jury reported that they were "greatly struck by the presence and power of this highly sculptural architectural form which clearly responded to the surrounding desert landscape, and by way in which views of the surroundings were orchestrated from inside."
Associates with Antoine Predock said they were delighted by the jury's recognition of the Spencer Theater. "We're all thrilled," Predock's assistant said. "It's an awesome building!"
The internationally renowned architect also designed such famous facilities as the newly opened San Diego Padres Petco Ballpark, the Nelson fine Arts Center in Tempe, AZ and the award-winning Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza in Thousand Oaks, CA.
Predock, who is currently out of the country, was commissioned by the late Jackie Spencer, the founder and chief benefactor of the Spencer Theater, to build the monumental performance hall in 1996 in the Sacramento Mountain settlement of Alto, about 12-miles from downtown Ruidoso. A grand gala opening followed in October 1997.
At a cost of approximately $22-million, Predock's stunning design is a silhouette of Sierra Blanca Peak, the region's dominant natural feature.
"The white theater is a sculpted limestone mass that has been excavated into exact relationships between light, views, performance, and procession," Predock has explained. "The wedge-like form of the theater suggests a monolithic piece of stone that has forced its way up from beneath the crust of the mesa. Lodged within a fissure, and erupting from the north flank, is a crystalline, chandelier-like shell of laminated glass linking the vertical procession to the upper lobby and entry to the theater houseÉ."
Predock's poetry was cast in Spanish mica-flecked limestone, a remarkable feature that dominates the sight lines for miles. The architect's "crystalline, chandelier-like shell" lobby was designed by computer and is composed of 300 hand-cut panes of glass. Additional elements that make the Spencer outstanding is the exterior river-like fountain, precise acoustics, multiple fly lines, a sprung stage, intimate seating, an outdoor loggia, spacious dressing rooms, green room-accessible private courtyard, and a garden amphitheater. The facility also features extraordinary vistas of the surrounding Sacramento and Capitan mountain ranges.
Previous awards bestowed on the Spencer for facility design include two New Mexico Business Journal "Best Building" awards in 1999.
Free, comprehensive tours of the Spencer Theater are open to the public twice weekly at 10 a.m. Tuesday and Thursday. For more information regarding architecture of the Spencer Theater or Antoine Predock architectural designs, visit www.predock.com. Com. For more information about the United States Institute of Theater Technology Architecture Awards, visit www.usitt.org .
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 We honor our men & women in uniform by offering a 20% discount to most shows at the Spencer to active duty military personnel. Call the Box Office for details. |