Fayetteville, Arkansas, USA

Marvel Architects and acoustic engineers Charcoalblue create the new permanent home for TheatreSquared, a nationally-recognized, year-round professional resident theatre in Arkansas.

The theatre company currently creates nationally acclaimed productions that reach 45,000 patrons each year and has a significant educational outreach program that gives students across the region access to live performances and leading arts-based learning tools. 

The new home extends this programming and public outreach with two intimate theatres, along with a dedicated rehearsal/event, offices, education and community spaces, scenery, props, and costume workshops, a cafe/bar, and outdoor terraces on all floors.

Accompanying the state-of-the-art performing and support spaces are eight short-term residences for visiting actors, writers, and directors – demonstrating TheatreSquared’s commitment to the artist community. 

The design derived from the company’s vision statement that “theatre—done well and with passion—can transform lives and communities” and resulted in the performance space thought of as the “beating heart of the building.”

The project has been awarded a 2021 International Architecture Award by The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies.

The theatre was left exposed with a concrete envelope, visibly expressing itself on all sides — from the exterior, into the commons, and into the back-of-house corridors — letting the people locate themselves in relation to this building’s “heart.”

In the natural expression of a theater as a place of storytelling, the materials used narrate the livelihood of the space.

The building, as well as the performances it produces, is an expression of the Northwest Arkansas region. Materials and craftmanship celebrate its context in its entirety.

A limited material palette was used with priority given to durability, flexibility, and the building’s technical and performance systems.

Wood and concrete play a role in every space of the building.

Whether it’s constructed furniture out of trees felled from the site, recycled wood for interior finishes, or concrete that provides a durable finish, the materials are economically resourceful and efficient.

The building “commons” — the space at the corner of the building that links the three performing venues and faces this future park — open to the street and invite the public in, serving as a kind of living room for the city.

At the core of TheatreSquared’s ethos is the outlook that theatre ought to be enjoyed by everyone.

Frequent public programming within the Commons and a café set to be open daily are intended to broaden the theatre-going audience and entice residents and visitors to make the space their home.

Performance capabilities extend out of the theatres and into the commons with audiovisual and stage lighting systems integrated into the public spaces increasing both performance flexibility as well as the client’s ability to draw the public in.

Low-iron glass surrounds the Commons increasing transparency and connectivity to the street.

Exposed structural steel and building systems lay bare the workings of the building and encourage the perception of the space as approachable and unpretentious.

Working with theater consultants CharcoalBlue, Marvel created state-of-the-art mainstage and studio theatres capable of mounting complex, technically-challenging productions situated within acoustically soundproofed envelopes, a crucial consideration taking into account the nearby active railroad tracks.

TheatreSquared’s previous venue was abnormally wide and shallow resulting in elaborate and extensive stage sets and a simultaneous intimate audience experience.

This extra-wide stage shape was replicated in the new main theatre while the audience capacity was dramatically increased by adding a wrap around, two-row deep, balcony level while the back row of the orchestra level became only one row deeper than it was in the original space.

Audience members enter at the stage level, the same level as the actors – another experiential element that was preserved — further heightening the up-close and personal theatre experience that has become a hallmark of TheatreSquared’s performances.

The Rehearsal Room, a space that can be flexibly used as an event space as well, projects over the Northwest corner of the building.

Clad in charred wood with a big picture window that looks North towards the downtown, the inner workings of the building, and the process of mounting a show, are put on display for all to see.

The Eastern spine of the building houses the guts of T2’s operational needs including staff offices, dressing rooms, a wardrobe shop, scene and prop shops, and a green room.

Interaction between T2 staff, actors, and the public is encouraged with rooms such as the green room and scene shop having views into each other and all rooms having windows to the outside.

Industrial materials such as plywood and OSB-clad back-of-house corridors, dressing rooms, and offices increase the durability of the wall surfaces while encouraging the perception of the spaces as places to be used and lived in — a working theatre.

Project: TheatreSquared
Architects: Marvel Architects PLLC.
Client: TheatreSquared
General Contractor: Baldwin and Shell
Structural Engineers: Silman
Theater Design, Stage Lighting, Stage Engineers: Charcoalblue LLP.
Landscape Architects: Urban Design Studio, PLLC.
Photographers: Greg Maka and Timothy Hursley