DPAC Shines a Spotlight on Durham

The scene opens Saturday night, May 21, 2011.

Setting: a theater. Rows of plush red seats cascade from three levels to an expansive stage that seems to extend the line of vision into the infinite. The ceiling plays with scale in a similar way; its height is almost hyperbolic, indicating depth in a way that renders the whole space.

The players: a sold-out audience of 2,800 happily settled into the seats, humbled by the theater yet owning it. Whether in the orchestra section or the balcony, each season ticket-holder, superficially disinterested preteen or trendy couple sit comfortably, ensured just the right amount of personal space within an intimacy conjured by the buzzing atmosphere of the entire theater.

Suddenly, the house lights dim. BlackBerrys and iPhones ensconce themselves in purses, pockets, cupped palms. The audience members begin to rage with applause, shouts and the (more than) occasional fist-pump.

“It’s always been my goal to play bluegrass music in North Carolina. And now I’m one step closer to that goal!” says a man onstage.

This is the Durham Performing Arts Center, and none other than the comedian, actor and musician Steve Martin accompanied by the Steep Canyon Rangers, a N.C.-based band, is addressing an exceedingly welcoming crowd. At this point it all seems to come together: a top-notch performing arts facility, a great featured artist and an eager audience composed of Durhamites, Triangle dwellers and fans from beyond the N.C. state borders. It is this collaborative effort that keeps DPAC, now in just its third year, on its toes and poised for continued success.

This year DPAC ranked second in national theater attendance for the first quarter, according to trade publication Pollstar, with almost 50 sellout shows. DPAC ranked ninth in Pollstar’s 2010 end of the year rankings released in February.

If you’ve been to DPAC before, maybe you’re (like I am) floored by the efficiency with which the entire operation is run. Staff members robotically—yet humanely—direct the heavy influx of intermission bathroom-goers with gesticulations and verbal directives. Pre- and post-show, staff members and local volunteers make sure everyone knows which staircases and elevators are available and where they are located, so as to ensure the audience’s brisk and comfortable entrances and exits. You get the almost eerie, though mostly pleasant, sense that nothing—from the regal red carpeting throughout the complex to the well-stocked and multiple concession booths serving wine to chatty theatergoers—is accidental. At the Steve Martin show, two massive JumboTron screens adorned either side of the stage to ensure the farthest audience members (seated only 135 feet from center stage) have a crystal-clear view of Martin’s banjo-playing.

The speed with which DPAC has cultivated its status as a regional cultural landmark is remarkable. DPAC, though quick in its rise to become a destination for culture-savvy Duke students and local residents alike, represents a long, tense road as mired in politics as in the arts. A vision for a regional performing arts center, first pitched in the 1990s, has persevered through the area’s changing history but never quite materialized until now. Former University President Terry Sanford, a longtime proponent of the arts and the force responsible for the establishment of what is now the University of North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston-Salem, spearheaded the idea.

Sanford asserted the need for a space to host not only touring musicians and theatrical events but also, and perhaps most importantly, the American Dance Festival. Founded in 1934, the Festival, formerly known as The Bennington School of Dance, moved to Durham and to Duke in 1977. Since being in Durham, ADF has outgrown the stage size and resources of Duke’s Page Auditorium.

The ADF/Duke impetus, combined with additional plans to revitalize parts of Durham’s downtown area, ultimately sealed the deal for Durham, Mayor Bill Bell said.

“This was a priority,” Bell said. “We [said], ‘We need to make this happen.’”

And happen it did, though not without significant financial support from Duke. The University’s contribution amounted to $7.5 million, almost 17 percent of the $46.8 million project. Duke’s donation came through the guidance of administrators such as former University President Nannerl Keohane and current Executive Vice President Tallman Trask—and of course the posthumous vision of Sanford, who passed away in 1998. ADF, Trask said, was the main motivation for Duke to contribute.

“The biggest problem for [Duke] was ADF—a lot of performances ADF wanted just didn’t fit in Page [Auditorium],” Trask said. “We began to think that maybe we could do something where ADF could use a theater downtown.”

The remaining $39.3 million was financed through a donation from the Downtown Revitalization Fund, naming rights sold to corporate sponsors, and a 1 percent increase in the hotel occupancy tax.

DPAC has continued to grow since it came to fruition. Within the last year, the theater has begun to collaborate more with local promoters such as Cat’s Cradle and Raleigh’s Lincoln Theatre to bring in concerts by popular artists like award-winning alternative rock band Wilco. In the summer of 2009, DPAC began hosting ADF performances. This season, the Festival will present about half of its professional programming on DPAC’s stage, including Pilobolus and the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company.

ADF Co-Director Jodee Nimerichter commented on how beneficial the ADF-DPAC relationship has been for the festival’s home in Durham, hinting that in the future she would like to see more collaboration between the two.

“I can say without a doubt that I believe that being at DPAC has been great for ADF in terms of reaching a broader audience,” Nimerichter said. “People who may not have been interested or known what modern dance is about…may say, ‘Maybe I’ll try [ADF shows at DPAC] because it’s a theater I’m comfortable going to, I can get to it, it’s not isolated on a university campus.’ [Being at DPAC] has definitely played a huge part in bringing more recognition [to ADF].”

In February of this year, the University’s own Duke Performances continued the area’s commitment to professional dance by presenting one of the last-ever performances by the Merce Cunningham Dance Company at DPAC. It was a watershed artistic and cultural event for the region as well as for the University, uniquely blending Duke Performances’ philosophy of inventive programming with DPAC’s theatrical resources. Director of Duke Performances Aaron Greenwald said he looks to explore using the venue more in the future, though DPAC and Duke Performances operate according to different organizational models, often with different artistic aims.

Regardless, Greenwald said, DPAC’s growing notoriety has introduced more people to Durham’s cultural opportunities.

“One thing that we can look forward to in the relationship to DPAC—[between] Duke, Durham and [the area] in general—is…convincing people from Raleigh and Cary and Wake County that Durham is an enjoyable place to come and see a show. It’s changed people’s perceptions of what you can expect when you come to Durham,” Greenwald said.

Trask expressed a similar sentiment, highlighting the existing and growing Duke-DPAC connection as linked to increased reception and usage of the downtown area.

“At the same time [that DPAC is connected to Duke], it’s doing a lot of things for the revitalization of downtown Durham,” Trask said.

The area that includes DPAC, sandwiched between Blackwell and South Mangum streets, has ballooned in the past five years from open spaces and out-of-use buildings to boast the renovated Durham Bulls Athletic Park and the American Tobacco Campus. Downtown Durham Inc., whose slogan, “Find Your Cool,” can be found advertised throughout downtown, has contributed to development. The organization was founded in 1993, long before plans for DPAC took shape. DDI’s website explains that the organization has “sought to build a foundation for the future of downtown.” The website lists just about every hip Durham restaurant likely to roll off of a Duke student’s tongue, and a separate page provides a comprehensive calendar of happenings downtown, many of which include performances at DPAC.

“My view of downtown is [as] the living room of the community—physically and aesthetically what the community’s about,” Bell said. “Having the theater was to me another one of the focal points that would tend to bring people into downtown, to make [Durham] a 24/7 destination point.”

On any given night, the consolidated area staked out by DPAC and American Tobacco is abuzz with energetic patrons chowing down on pizza at the Mellow Mushroom, salsa dancing at Cuban Revolution or taking in the family-friendly atmosphere of a Durham Bulls baseball game. Before a DPAC show, incoming audience members might amble up the winding sidewalks surrounding the theater, pausing to contemplate Jaume Plensa’s Macbeth-quoting light sculpture “Sleep No More,” which sits some yards away from the building. They may comment on just how striking the structure, designed by Chapel Hill architectural firm Szostak Design Inc., appears up close. Huge floor-to-ceiling windows offer unobstructed views up the hill to Main Street.

The night of May 21, while ticket-takers at DPAC were announcing the final countdown until Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers took the stage, three members of the local Golden family stood outside, calmly taking in the rush to the theater.

“We just ate at [nearby restaurant] Tobacco Road and walked over here,” Greg and Martha Golden explained, filling in each other’s sentences.

And, in words that were strikingly similar to Trask’s, the Goldens emphasized how beneficial DPAC—and by extension the surrounding area of downtown renovation and reinvigoration—has been for the city of Durham.

“[DPAC] is just doing great things for Durham,” the Goldens said.

It was easy to perceive a similar sentiment throughout the performance by Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers. Martin, sharply adorned in an all-white suit and thick-framed glasses, followed the comedic routine we’ve come to expect of him from years of pop cultural fixation. His jokes were perfectly sarcastic and witty, and Martin demonstrated, as Greg Golden put it, that he’s not just a comedian but also a “legitimate musician.” The aura of Martin’s star power, however, graciously showcased the musical talent of the Rangers. Martin occasionally left the stage, beer (extracted from bassist Charles Humphrey III’s instrument) in hand, to let the Rangers do their own thing for a while. In response, the audience shouted and whistled.

As the crowds swarmed out of DPAC that night, happily satiated with an evening of comedic and musical spectacle, it was hard not to witness any given attendee smile to his or her companions and reflect something along the lines of, “Wasn’t that great?”