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For all the stories of struggling orchestras and embattled theater troupes, halls that offer a superior audience experience are drawing wide community support.
New theaters bring viewers as close as possible to the art being created onstage, whether by actors, musicians, or singers. In an iPod and video-on-demand age, excellent sight lines and superior acoustics are requirements, not luxuries.
In Minneapolis, Ateliers Jean Nouvel (with Architectural Alliance) enhanced the thrust-stage design on which the Guthrie Theater built its national reputation, while adding a proscenium theater calibrated to draw audiences deeply into the psychological intensity that is the bedrock of modern theater. The classic shoe-box shape of the Luxembourg Philharmonie can deliver full, rich sound, but Christian de Portzamparc overcame the configuration's shortcoming--a lack of visual intimacy--by wrapping towers of...