by Judy Creel ‘05

When Rob Schaer, ’02, played his trumpet with the Academy Awards Orchestra in March, you’d better believe he paid close attention to every detail so he would hit just the right notes. So will Justin Sargent, ’08, when he performs in Rock of Ages on Broadway this fall.

That same careful scrutiny went into the planning and con­struction of UCF’s new Performing Arts Center. Phase I — 75,000 square feet of classrooms, rehearsal rooms, teaching studios and labs — opened this fall. For the first time, students of all the arts are together in the same area of campus, with the Visual Arts Building on one side and Colburn Hall (formerly known as the Humanities and Fine Arts Building) on the other.

Schaer, Sargent and thousands like them received expert training in performing arts at UCF, but the facili­ties where they learned and practiced their crafts hardly compare to the new space and its modern amenities.

Once relegated to cramped quarters and scattered around the campus and neighboring Central Florida Research Park, UCF’s music and theater students now have a home of their own that’s designed entirely to meet their particular needs, which differ vastly from most other college majors.

“This center will take us one step closer to providing our students the experience they deserve before stepping onto the world stage,” says Lyman Brodie, an associate professor of music, associate dean of the College of Arts and Humanities and, like Schaer, a talented trumpet player.

Take the practice rooms, for example. In regular square rooms, sound can bounce and reverberate from wall to wall and subtle vibrations in the floor add to the distor­tion. That’s not a big problem in a lecture hall, but it can wreak havoc for those who depend on accurate sound for their instruments or their voices.

You can’t see it with the naked eye, but the walls in many of the new practice rooms are ever so slightly angled to take care of this. The specially constructed floors are several layers thick and are set a quarter inch from the walls, so vibrations cannot transfer.

In many areas throughout the buildings, the walls are double or triple the usual thickness, and they extend all the way up through the areas above the ceilings. Even the air conditioning system was designed so the well-insulated ducts go in from the hallways at a 90-degree angle, so sound cannot travel from room to room.

It’s a far cry from the challenge of scheduling the lim­ited practice rooms in the music rehearsal hall, where the acoustics were not ideal and students with more quiet in­struments often chose to practice outside instead. Theater majors also had their turn working outside, practicing and performing in a tent in the early days of the program.

In the theater side of the new building, the door to the first room on the left — Acting Studio I — weighs 400 pounds. Once it is shut, no noise escapes. The room changes from a classroom by day to a rehearsal stage by night, with blackout shades and theatrical lighting complet­ing the transformation. The floors float on several layers of different materials, making them strong enough to drag heavy scenery across yet springy enough for dancers to leap up and land on without damaging their knees.

Top theater architects and consultants designed the contemporary structure, which was built to save energy and leave a low carbon footprint on the environment with LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Silver certification. Strategically placed double-paned win­dows let in abundant natural light.

The outer walls of the current structure will become interior walls when the privately funded Phase II is built around them. When that happens, 75,000 square feet will turn into 250,000 square feet of education and performance space, with theaters, concert halls and more.

UCF trustee Judy Albertson continues to champion the project. A longtime supporter of the arts, she downplays her important role in generating interest and donation dollars, noting that her reasons for supporting the new facilities are selfish: “I want to live in a community that’s rich in arts and culture.”

When Phase II is complete — fundraising is ongoing — Albertson and other theater and music lovers will have more opportunity to enjoy performances by talented students like Michael Swickard, ’07. He received the National Irene Ryan Acting Award from the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival, which has been called the college theater equivalent of winning the Heisman Trophy.

“The quality of teaching was a major factor as to why I chose UCF,” he says. “My student experience was truly exceptional. ”

So although the facilities have changed, the dedication of the faculty remains, agrees Tamir Hernandez, ’10, who is now a Walt Disney World cast member.

“The personalized attention started even before I started my first class,” she says. “Later, I found out that the music department was committed to an excellence in music education, performance and technique you can’t find anywhere else.”

UCF President John Hitt notes that there are a lot of reasons to build facilities like UCF’s Performing Arts Center, but it all comes back to the students.

“We have an opportunity to help them develop their God-given talents in ways that will be wonderful to wit­ness and to prepare them for successful careers anywhere in the world.“