For years Cabrini University has been home to some fantastic and original performances hosted by the Cabrini theater, the music department and many other departments in the university. However, there is not really a good place to show a big performance. With the exception of three locations, there is not really a place to show fantastic works of art or a huge theatrical productions.
I myself am a part of the Cabrini University theater department and I am honored to be a part of that department and have the privilege of getting to perform on stage, however, Cabrini’s theater is what’s called a black box theater. This theater contains a small stage with an intimate audience sett. The audience is quite literally right in front of you when performing a show. These reasons and more are why Cabrini needs to build an auditorium.
What an auditorium is exactly is a large space with sometimes hundreds of audience seats and a stage where theatrical shows, music recitals, and many more are performed. Although usually used for musical performances auditoriums have other uses as well such as to showcase movies and to be used for public speaking events. The possibilities for an auditorium are endless and would prove to be a great asset for Cabrini’s campus.
In the absence of an auditorium, there are three main places on Cabrini’s campus that are used for either large performances and/or speaking events. The first place is the Cabrini theater, a place that I am all too familiar with. Cabrini’s black box theater which is very small compared to an auditorium. Now while still a great place to perform, the space of the black box can limit what productions can be done at Cabrini and how many people can attend a performance. As of right now, the black box theater can fit about 100 audience members. If a bigger space was used, the theater could potentially sell more tickets.
The second-place used for performances is the Widener Lecture Hall. Now this space is used primarily for the music department and their performances. Students gather together once a year to perform either on instruments or to do a vocal performance either as a soloist or accompanied by an ensemble. The problem with the Widener lecture hall is that it doubles as a classroom for music students so when there is a performance going on students have to hide all the whiteboards with black standing curtains.
The last place for performances is Grace Hall. One important factor is that the theater is also located in Grace Hall, but through the doors of the theater is a huge space where most events happen. The space is just one large empty room with a few TVs and a huge mural over top. Now normally there would just be small music band playing or the occasional comedian or magician that occurs every so often at Cabrini in this space, some other events are held here as well but truly nothing big performance-wise.
For these reasons and many more is why Cabrini University needs to build an auditorium. The arts are growing. The idea of the auditorium also maybe not that far off as the university will have its first music major soon.
