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News

Arts center nears completion after setbacks

by DANIELA CARPIO
The Daily Cougar

The $4.5 million Lyndall Finley Wortham Theatre expansion project, known as the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts, is slated to be completed by the end of March, six months later than the predicted completion date set in August. Despite construction setbacks, theater and dance classes will be held in the facilities starting Tuesday. 

Jerry Aven, Business Administrator for the School of Theatre said the building houses two open space or studio classrooms to be used for dancing and acting classes as well as a rehearsal space for theater performances. Administrative offices for the Center are on the second floor of the complex and a renovated lobby for the theater is on the first floor. A new driveway was also added to the complex.

Jonathan Middents, production manager and school of theater faculty member said construction began in August 2004 and was to be completed August 2005. Construction was delayed because of some redesigning of materials that were needed to complete the theater's lobby. 

Aside from minor details, the lobby and driveway entrance should be completed by the end of January, Middents said. The office spaces will not be completed until the end of March. 

"(The Center is a program designed) to collaborate with five of the University's fine arts departments: the School of Art, the creative writing program, the Blaffer Gallery, the School of Theatre and the Moores School of Music," Middents said. 

Because of expansion, the School of Theatre will be integrated into the Fine Arts Quadrangle at Entrance 16 off Cullen Boulevard. The theater will retain the name Lyndall Finley Wortham Theatre, but the entire building will become the Cynthia Woods Center for the Arts.

"The biggest benefit will be to (students) in theater and fine arts programs, but it will benefit the University community with lots of concerts, plays and culture," Vice President of Plant Operations David Irvin said in an interview with the Daily Cougar in August 2005. 

"That whole courtyard is going to be a much more interesting place to sit and study ... because you will be able to see dancing and theater classes happening through glass panels (on the exterior of the building)," Irvin said.

The program was created because of a $20 million donation made by Cynthia Woods Mitchell and her husband George Mitchell to the University of Houston. Most of the donation will help fund the hiring of new staff members for fine arts programs and sponsor plays and concerts on campus. 
 

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