BCRA Design

At Charles Wright Academy, creativity thrives in the performing arts. It was often stifled, however, when it came to facilities. Previous facilities accommodating live performances were old retrofitted classrooms. Sets were built in old, disconnected storage facilities and offices. Students circulated stage-right to stage-left outside and in hallways. BCRA designers were inspired by the diverse performances and programs that were boundless in their creativity. Unfortunately, that creativity was not always able to be unleashed in the outdated facilities.

Enter collaborative design.
Our Architecture + Interior Spaces team felt it was imperative to provide a world-class performance space among classrooms and practice rooms, while maintaining a reasonable budget. Charles Wright Academy staff asked our designers to accommodate diverse performance types, including music and drama performances, dances, assemblies, dinners and intimate discussions and presentations all in one facility.  BCRA’s design team paired architects and interior designers with the structural engineering and acoustical experts who could pull this off.

An uncommon solution.

                  A black box theater. 

A traditional approach was clearly not appropriate for Charles Wright Academy’s situation. After observing the preferences of current students and faculty and studying the processes and flow for performing arts productions, BCRA recommended an uncommon solution: design a black box theater unsurpassed by anything else in the region. Offering maximum flexibility, the resulting theater was commended by school staff and celebrated by students. It is complemented by instructional spaces, state-of-the-art musical practice space, and a well-appointed lobby/atrium with its own box office.

Fully supported design.
To help Charles Wright Academy tell a story unique to their situation and assist with fundraising, BCRA’s Visual Communication + Strategy team also collaborated on the project. Designing the Boundless Expressions campaign brand and associated fundraising materials, our campaign consulting aided the school’s development staff in securing the $13 million in private funding needed for the project. Once the facility was complete, the campaign brand was fully infused into the spaces with environmental graphic design of donor recognition walls, building signage and support for spaces to showcase art.

"The black box approach has exceeded our wildest expectations! Our theatrical performances have used a proscenium, a thrust stage and been in-the-round. Our choral and instrumental concerts have been configured differently for different size ensembles, and we’ve even had a dinner theater. Other uses have included school-wide assemblies, parent meetings and student dances.”

–Rob Camner, Headmaster