Center for the Performing Arts More of a Concept than a Place

By John Rafacz

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The Center for the Performing Arts at Penn State isn’t a place. Sure, much of what the center presents happens in Eisenhower and Schwab auditoriums on the University Park campus. But from the beginning, the center has been about an idea—the vision of bringing people and the performing arts together.

Today, the center—part of the College of Arts and Architecture’s University Arts Services—presents about 30 performances a year. In addition, the center provides production, ticketing and audience services to dozens of University and community organizations that use Eisenhower and Schwab auditoriums plus other Penn State venues.

The center has its roots in the Artists Series, which began in 1957 under the leadership of Albert Christ-Janer, first director of Penn State’s School of the Arts. From its inception and for almost three decades until her retirement in 1985, Nina Brown directed the Artists Series. Most presentations were in Schwab. Events that required more space took place in Recreation Building (Rec Hall).

The first season, which began on September 20, 1957, with a performance by soprano Eleanor Steber, featured appearances by the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra, American Ballet Theatre and jazz pianist Dave Brubeck. Performers and speakers over the next several seasons included actor John Gielgud, violinist Isaac Stern, folk singer Joan Baez, Nobel Peace Prize recipient Martin Luther King Jr. and poet Robert Frost.

Student admission was initially free; non-students paid $1.50 per ticket. However, ticket prices began to go up when the University was unable to increase the Artists Series’ budget of $50,000.

At the start, Brown and a staff assistant, with part-time technical help from the Department of Theatre, made the Artists Series happen. Conditions were not ideal, as Schwab Auditorium had a shallow stage and no real backstage. Rec Hall had uncomfortable seating (folding chairs on the floor and bleachers on the sides), with a stage floor that rose from floor level to about four feet high.

Despite the limitations, Brown presented the musical Hair, pianists Van Cliburn and Artur Rubenstein, and actors Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy, among others.

“We had only Schwab Auditorium and Recreation Hall,” Brown says. “What we really needed to have was an auditorium.”

University Auditorium, which opened in May 1974 and was later named for former Penn State President Milton S. Eisenhower, met that need. The new auditorium had the space and equipment to present a greater variety of performances, plus seating for about 2,500—almost three times as many patrons as Schwab could accommodate.

Beginning in fall 1974, most Artists Series events took place in the new auditorium. Chamber music concerts continued to occur in Schwab. Eisenhower also became the venue of choice for a host of University and community events. The college hired a full-time staff, known as Auditorium Management, to handle administration of and production in the new facility.

A decade later, in 1985, Penn State merged the facilities and program management units into one group, and the Center for the Performing Arts was born. Willie Crocken, who had headed Auditorium Management, led the center while a search took place for a director.

James Moeser, dean of the College of Arts and Architecture and executive director of University Arts Services from 1986 to 1992, recruited Ken Foster to fill that role. Moeser, now chancellor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, says Foster “was not only a masterful presenter, but he created a very functioning support staff that worked together for the good of the whole.”

During his seven-year tenure at Penn State (1987– 94), Foster, now director of a San Francisco arts center, was the architect of significant growth in the center’s programming and educational outreach. He strongly believed the center could maintain its historic commitment to classical music while expanding to include a more diverse array of art forms. “People in the arts often feel like the pie is only so big, so if one part rises, other parts will necessarily fall,” he notes. “It took time, of course, but by the time I left in 1994, I think it’s fair to say that the program had altered pretty radically and encompassed a broad range of art, artists and audiences without sacrificing quality.”

Foster is particularly proud of hosting residencies by controversial performance artist Tim Miller and the contemporary dance troupes Urban Bush Women and Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company. However, expanding the programming boundaries did not come easily. “It often was a challenge to try to get things done in a tradition-bound place like Penn State and central Pennsylvania,” he says. “I wanted to change everything fast. You couldn’t do that at Penn State.”

In the early 1990s, when influential politicians pressured the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) to stop funding what they argued was obscenity, Foster made what was perhaps the defining decision of his career. In order to receive programming grants, the NEA required presenters to sign an agreement saying they would not present obscene art. Foster refused to sign.

“For me, it was such a deeply felt matter of personal conviction that the external result actually was less important because it reinforced for me the need to stay resolute around my ideals and integrity,” Foster says, “and I have maintained that position throughout my career since. So that was worth far more than the $5,000. I like to think some of that integrity karma extended to the CPA as well. Certainly it did to James Moeser... His support for me at that time was crucial and his example was, as is, an inspiration.”

Today, the center has 26 full-time employees working in administration, production, finance, audience services, ticketing, audience development, marketing and communications, and development. After having two directors—Joe Jefcoat and Susan Stockton—serve and then move on in the last decade, the center recently hired George Trudeau to fill that post beginning in July 2004.

For more information on the Center for the Performing Arts, visit www.cpa.psu.edu.