NCC putting finishing touches on second new theater
Just a block away from its new concert hall and fine arts center, North Central College is putting the finishing touches on another theater in Naperville.
Meiley-Swallow Hall, a former church, soon will become another piece of the arts district the college is creating on its campus.
The building at the corner of Ellsworth Street and Van Buren Avenue checks in at 25,066 square feet and fine arts director Brian Lynch says the college is using every last one of them for the arts.
The focal point of the building is a 240-seat thrust-stage theater, surrounded closely by seating on three sides.
With the audience at their feet, Lynch said student actors will "learn a more intimate, realistic style of acting."
"You can't fake it when the audience is looking at your knees," he said.
The theater has nearby makeup and dressing rooms - much more convenient than changing in faculty offices as students have had to do at Pfeiffer Hall. The backstage area also will be equipped with a closed-circuit television so actors behind the scenes can see what is happening on the stage.
Officials hope having an additional theater will help alleviate the demand for Pfeiffer Hall, a 1,057-seat auditorium.
Teaching spaces abound in Meiley-Swallow Hall, including separate studios for ceramics, print, painting, drawing and sculpture as well as a glaze room, digital media work room and digital computer labs. It was even designed to have a negative air flow, pushing fumes from art materials in one direction where they will be ventilated out of the building.
Meiley-Swallow Hall is actually the former Grace Evangelical Church, which dates back to 1909, although it was rebuilt in 1923 following a fire. The college acquired the building in 2004 and transformed it with an $8 million renovation.
It is now named after the family of Judy Meiley Stevenson, an entrepreneur and life trustee of the college who has been a longtime supporter of the school's arts program. Her son Jeffrey Swallow, a 1994 alumni, is a trustee as well.
The hall was rededicated last fall and will host its first show, "Dancing at Lughnasa" from Sept. 18-21.