Metro Times, 7/1

Wayne State's Hilberry Theatre gets a makeover

By Lee DeVito

Opened in 1963 as the nation's first graduate repertory company, Wayne State's Hilberry Theatre occupies a repurposed church dating back to 1917, and has far outgrown the space. "[The Hilberry] is a wonderful historic building and it has served us very well, but it's just no longer adequate to support technologically intense theatrical productions," says Matthew Seeger, professor and dean of Wayne State's College of Fine, Performing and Communication Arts. There are other problems too, endemic of buildings this age. The basement has experienced problems with flooding, and sets and costumes have to be transported to a storage building a block away due to lack of space. WSU recently announced plans for what it dubs "the Hilberry Gateway project," a $48.6 million initiative kick-started by a grant from the Kresge Foundation. The final theatre complex will combine the existing building with an adjacent 500-seat new theatre and attached scenic and costume designing facilities. Seeger emphasizes that the project is only in the fundraising phase, and the university hasn't selected an architecture firm yet. But the university has commissioned conceptual renderings.

http://metrotimes.com/arts/arts-features/wayne-state-s-hilberry-theatre-gets-a-makeover-1.1712350

 

WDET-FM 6/23

Wayne State University's Hilberry Theatre is about to undergo a massive makeover in the form of the Hilberry Gateway, a three-phase new construction and renovation project. College of Fine, Performing and Communication Arts Dean Matthew Seeger spoke with WDET's Martina Guzman about the benefits of the project not only to Wayne State's performing arts students but also to neighboring businesses in Midtown Detroit and to the artistic, cultural climate of the area.

http://theatre.wayne.edu/wdet230614_1030am.mp3

 

Detroit Free Press, 5/9

WSU hopes to build major new Hilberry Theatre project on Cass Ave.

By John Gallagher

If Wayne State University can raise the $40-million-plus it needs, the school's Hilberry Theatre will gain a significant new performance arts space on Cass Avenue in Detroit. Plans for the Hilberry Gateway project include a new 450-seat theater with a modern "thrust" stage, a stage that extends out so that the audience sits on three sides instead of just in front. Meanwhile, the existing Hilberry, originally a church building dating to 1916, would be converted to a multipurpose "black box" theater, said Matthew Seeger, professor and dean of the College of Fine, Performing and Communication Arts. As part of the project, the historic David Mackenzie House at 4735 Cass Ave., a Queen Anne-style mansion dating to 1895 and built by the scholar who started the Detroit Junior College in 1917, part of the nucleus of what is now WSU, will be relocated elsewhere on campus and preserved, Seeger said. A lot depends on the fund-raising, but the Gateway project is expected to be part of WSU's broader capital campaign launching in the fall. Details of that campaign are yet to be announced, but is expected to be targeted toward raising funds for a variety of WSU projects by the university's 150th anniversary celebration in 2018.

http://www.freep.com/article/20140509/BUSINESS06/305090154/Hilberry-Gateway-Midtown