THE ROY AND EDNA DISNEY/CALARTS THEATER

Opened in 2003 by the California Institute of the Arts, REDCAT is located in the Frank Gehry-designed Walt Disney Concert Hall complex in downtown Los Angeles. REDCAT features a flexible black box theater of 200 to 270 seats and a 3,000 square foot exhibition space. Its entrance is adorned with a distinctive Gehry-designed marquee of curvilinear stainless steel, and leads directly into an expansive multiuse space that includes a lobby and lounge to accommodate meetings, opening receptions and post-performance events.

THE THEATER

The theater was built with guidance from top theater design consultants Fisher-Dachs Associates as well as from CalArts faculty. The stage at REDCAT can be transformed into several different configurations--from thrust and end stage to completely in the round. Seating can accommodate an audience as large as 240.

The theater's acoustics were designed by Yasuhisa Toyota, who also served as the acoustician to Walt Disney Concert Hall. The performance space is lined with hinged panels, each with finished wood on one side and sound-absorbent material on the other. These can be easily adjusted to optimize the acoustic properties of the space according to the requirements of each performance. REDCAT has two separate sound systems-one is designed expressly for live performance, and the other is dedicated to film and video screenings and other playback of recorded audio. To quiet outside noise and to prevent the transmission of vibrations from the adjacent Walt Disney Concert Hall parking garage, REDCAT is constructed as a steel box-within-a-box, with the interior box floating on 72 special rubber pads.
To support a variety of screenings and performances, the theater is equipped with high-end 35mm, 16mm and digital projection systems.

The GALLERY

Adjacent to the grand lobby is a 3000-square-foot gallery space. Fourteen-foot-high walls, an advanced lighting system, and lengths of uninterrupted walls support the presentation of painting, photography and works on paper. Ethernet connections, floors with extreme weight-load capacity, and access to remote light and sound controls also make the gallery ideal for a wide array of new media, sound, and large-scale sculptural installations.