The Salt Lake area will soon get a much-needed small theater.
Thursday, Salt Lake County officials and other dignitaries broke ground for the 500-seat Jeanne Wagner Theatre, the second phase of the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center, which will include a balcony, music shell, orchestra pit, dance floor with underlying springs and light and sound systems."I feel great about it," said Marian Iwasaki, the county's fine arts director. "It's going to be very nice."
The theater will cost $10.4 million to build, about half of that coming from private donations and half from public funds. The Salt Lake City Redevelopment Agency is chipping in $1.5 million, with the county picking up most of the rest of the public half.
I.J. "Izzy" Wagner's family owned the Wagner Bag Co., on the performing arts center's site at 134 W. Broadway, and he has donated heavily to the cause. Rose Wagner was his mother and Jeanne Wagner his wife.
The first phase of the arts center, costing $3 million, was completed in 1996, and officials have been raising money for Phase 2 ever since. The existing phase's major feature is a 150-seat "black box" theater where small theater and dance companies have been able to rehearse without forking out the big bucks required by other, more luxurious, venues such as the Capitol Theatre.
"The black box has been very busy, and that was the purpose of it: to provide a place for small up-and-coming companies," Iwasaki said.
Completion of the Jeanne Wagner Theatre is expected in the fall of 2000. It will be a multi-use venue, hosting dance, music, theater and other functions -- unlike, say, Abravanel Hall, which is used almost exclusively for concerts.
The Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company will switch its headquarters from the Capitol Theatre to the Jeanne Wagner Theatre.