“The Next Stage” campaign will raise the
final $300,000 towards the $3.1 million goal
for the addition of two new venues plus improvements
to the main theatre
On February 15, 2017, Diana Wortham Theatre
announced its public campaign, The Next Stage, to raise the
final $300,000 of its $3.1 million capital campaign goal to transform into a
facility with three distinct performance venues.
According to Diana Wortham Theatre Board President Hardy Holland, “We
are asking the community to invest in this campaign to transform not only our
physical campus into a center for the performing arts, but also to expand the
way we reach new and existing audiences. Through major gifts, The
Next Stage has already raised $2.8 million of the $3.1 million towards
our goal of energizing performing and cultural arts in Asheville with an
expanded three-venue facility.”
The theatre’s Managing Director John Ellis explains, “Over the past 25
years, Diana Wortham Theatre has become an anchor for the vibrant cultural life
that characterizes our region, hosting 200 public events with record-breaking
attendance exceeding 55,000 each year. With demand so high, our community,
performing artists, patrons and youth are ready for The Next Stage.
In addition to the build-out of the new black box Forum Theatre, and the new
flexible, multi-use Studio Theatre, all within the same complex, the campaign
will fund a refurbished main theatre, the Diana Wortham Theatre, and enhanced
amenities and patron services throughout the complex.”
Local architecture firm Clark Nexsen is engaged
with the project. While some elements of the project will be implemented this year,
major construction is slated to begin by the end of 2017. The Next Stage includes:
Create New Forum
Theatre
• Seats 80-100
• Comfortable, tiered seating
• Black Box theatre/multi-use
Create New
Studio Theatre
• Seats 60-80
• Classroom/day; performance venue/night
• Multi-use for classes, events, etc.
Improve Main
Theatre
• Refurbished throughout
• Improved sound system/Hearing Assistance Technology
• Energy efficient LED lighting
Enhanced
Amenities and Patron Services
• Redesigned entrance & lobby
• Ticketing upgrade/online & mobile access
• Concessions upgrade/seating & coat check
Active day and night, this center for the performing arts will bring
artists, students and audiences together in a supportive environment to
experience, learn and celebrate creative expression through performance.
Current Associate Director Rae Geoffrey, who will lead the theatre as
its new Managing Director effective July 1, 2017 following John Ellis’s
retirement this summer, invites the community to visualize exactly what The
Next Stage will mean upon completion. “Imagine entering the newly
expanded center for the performing arts through its redesigned courtyard
entrance and lobby. On a given evening there could be three very different
events, in the three different venues, at different price points and for
different audiences: from dance performances to innovative new theatre works to
intimate chamber or jazz ensembles to community workshops and classes, all
under one roof,” says Geoffrey.
Though already serving approximately 10,000 children each year, completion
of The Next Stage campaign will allow the theatre to
increase the total number of events for children and families by 250% to 75
events and increase total audience attendance by 60% to more than 80,000
patrons of all ages.
For more information or to make a donation or pledge to The
Next Stage, contact the theatre’s Resource Development Director, Kathy
Jackson at 828-210-9849 or kathy@dwtheatre.com.
