Byfield, MA
24,000 SF
Performance arts building

This new performing arts café is the primary theater at The Governor’s Academy, the oldest independent boarding school in America. Accommodating both theatrical and musical performances with seating for 500, the arts complex replaces an obsolete mid-1960’s theater. The building’s exterior design complements the scale and style of the predominantly New England wood-frame buildings on campus, while the interior is contemporary and open.

To determine the inclusion of forward-looking features, such as a media lab for electronic music technologies, feasibility studies, site selection, and programming was conducted. In addition to the main theater, the facility offers a versatile, smaller studio theater that can be configured in numerous ways for drama, music, and dance. A large ensemble rehearsal space is supplemented with eight private instruction/practice rooms for the school music program. The Center includes a spacious backstage area and dressing rooms, a set shop, costume storage space, and four faculty offices.