Welcome to the Lenfest Center!
Since
1991, the Lenfest Center for the Arts has served W&L,
Lexington, Rockbridge County and the region as an exceptional
educational and professional performing arts center. The setting for
over 250 public performances each year, the Lenfest Center is dedicated
to the magic and delight of the performing arts through education,
presentation and community service. Read
More…
ONE SINGULAR SENSATION
Sure, you recognize this lyric from the hit Broadway musical A Chorus Line, but did you ever stop to think how it applies to this community, to this Center, and to you? There is an intimacy borne by simply entering the Lenfest Center for the Arts. Three performance venues, each one distinctly different from the other in shape, size and purpose, but each one designed to bring one singular objective – a feeling, a sensation, if you will, of intimacy to the audience.
The Keller Theatre, the largest of our venues seats 425, is
still
smaller than many Off-Broadway houses. No opera glasses here! We often
compare it to the orchestra section of a Broadway house – and
it’s still smaller than that – yet, backstage it
can host
most any show we can find or build.
Wilson Hall’s Concert Hall, a 300 seat acoustically ideal
space,
has only served us for one year, and it hosts at least one concert per
week. Concerts range from student recitals to full orchestra/chorus
performances. So intimate is this space that one can see the
strain and jubilation on the performers’ faces as they reach
for
that impossible note – and achieve it!
Back in Lenfest Hall – the height of intimacy – the
Johnson
Theatre, W&L’s experimental theatre, or in theater
parlance,
the “black box.” The Johnson seats roughly 130
patrons,
depending on the configuration of platforms, and audiences may find
themselves at a play in “the round,” “the
corner,” “the alley, or “a
thrust,” depending
on the director and the designer’s plan.
Our two galleries, especially the new Staniar Gallery provides our
patrons with an up close and personal view of an eclectic range of
artists from around the world, while Wilson Hall has become a gallery
itself for our art students.
Music, Art, Theater
and Dance
are indeed Singular
Sensations
and we offer an array of them to you from which to choose. Just
remember when you come to the Lenfest Center for the Arts, you are
experiencing something unique … something that most people
outside of this community never have the chance to experience
– a
sensational artistic event or performance on a personal, intimate
level. Think about that, and appreciate it.
Rob Mish ’76
Director
Lenfest Center for the Arts
