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The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (or '''Kennedy Center''') is located in Washington, D.C. and opened in 1971 as a living memorial to John F. Kennedy . However, the idea for the center dates to 1958 , when President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed into law the National Cultural Center Act, the first time in history that the US government backed and helped finance a structure dedicated to the performing arts.

Designed by architect Edward Durrell Stone , the Center is located on the Potomac River , adjacent to the Watergate Hotel .

The Kennedy Center represents a unique public/private partnership, since it is both the nation's living memorial to President Kennedy (and thus receives Federal funding each year to pay for the maintenance and operation of the building as a federal facility under the control of the National Parks Service ) and is a center for the presentation of the arts with education and outreach initiatives. These are paid for almost entirely through ticket sales and gifts from individuals, corporations, and private foundations.


THEATERS AND OTHER PERFORMANCE VENUES

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The Center has three main theaters:

  • The Concert Hall, on the south side, seats 2,442. Originally opened in 1971 and renovated in 1997, the Hall is currently state-of-the-art, and it has set new standards for accessibility and sound with a high-tech acoustical canopy, accessible locations on every level, and new seating sections (onstage boxes, chorister seats, and parterre seats).

    • :The Hadelands crystal chandeliers, a gift from Norway, were repositioned to provide a clearer view.


:Behind the stage the 4,144-pipe organ is located. This was a gift from the Filene Foundation Of Boston .

:It is the largest performance space in the Kennedy Center and is the home of the National Symphony Orchestra .

  • The Opera House, in the middle, has 2,300 seats. Its interior features include much red velvet, a distinctive red and gold silk curtain (which was a gift from Japan), and a Lobmeyr crystal chandelier (which was given by Austria).

    • :It is the major opera, ballet, and large-scale musical venue of the Center, and was closed for the 2003/2004 season for extensive renovations which provided a revised seating arrangement at the orchestra level plus re-designed entrances to this level. It is the home of the Washington National Opera and the annual Kennedy Center Honors .


  • The Eisenhower Theater,on the north side, seats 1,100 and is named for President Dwight Eisenhower . It primarily hosts plays and musicals, smaller-scale operas, ballet and contemporary dance. The theater contains an orchestra pit for 40 musicians that is convertible to a forestage or additional seating space. The walls are of East Indian laurel wood. The red and black stage curtain of hand-woven wool was a gift from Canada.


Other performance venues in the Center include:

  • The Family Theater, with 324 seats, was opened on 9th December 2005. It replaces what was once the American Film Institute Film Theater located off the Hall of States.

    • :The new Family Theater provides a home for world-class family theater performances for the nation's youth and continues the Kennedy Center's $125 million commitment to performing arts education for adults and children alike.


:Designed by the architectural firm Richter Cornbrooks Gribble, Inc. of Baltimore, the new incorporates the most modern theatrical innovations available, including: premium audio technologies; a computerized rigging system; and a digital video projection system.

  • The Terrace Theater, with 513 seats, was constructed on the Roof Terrace level in the late 1970s as a Bicentennial gift from the people of Japan to the United States. It is used for intimate performances of chamber music, ballet and contemporary dance, and theater.


  • The Theater Lab, with 399 seats plus cabaret-style tables which have been added for the current 9-year long run of the whodunit, ''Shear Madness'', is the primary location for the Center’s ''Imagination Celebration'' - performances in theater, dance, music, puppetry, and opera for young people and parents, as well as school groups and teachers in all grades.


  • The Millennium Stage. Part of the concept of "Performing Arts for Everyone" launched by then-Director James Johnson in the winter of 1997, the Millennium Stage provides free performances every evening at 6:00pm on two specially created stages at either end of the Grand Foyer.


:A broad range of art forms are featured on the Millennium Stage. These include performing artists and groups from all 50 states and an Artist-in-Residence program featuring artists performing several evenings in a month.

:Performing Arts for Everyone was designed to introduce the Kennedy Center and its programs to a far wider audience than ever before by providing a performance open to the public and free of charge 365 days a year. In addition, Performing Arts for Everyone initiatives include low- and no-cost tickets available to performances on every stage of the Kennedy Center, and several outreach programs designed to increase access to Kennedy Center tickets and performances.

  • The KC Jazz Club. On March 12, 2003 the space formerly known as the Education Resource Center was officially designated the Terrace Gallery. It is now home to the Kennedy Center Jazz Club.



EVENTS


Since 1978 , the Kennedy Center Honors have been awarded annually by the Center's Board Of Trustees . The Center has awarded the Mark Twain Prize For American Humor since 1998 .

The Kennedy Center houses a number of groups and institutions, including:


MANAGEMENT


Michael Kaiser , who came to the Center from the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London with a reputation for major fundraising, is the current President. Earlier he headed the American Ballet Theatre . He oversees all the artistic activities at the Kennedy Center, has increased the Center’s already broad educational efforts, established cross-disciplinary programming with opera, symphony and dance, established an Institute for Arts Management, created unprecedented theater festivals celebrating the works of Stephen Sondheim and Tennessee Williams , and arranged for continuing visits by Saint Petersburg ’s Mariinsky Theater Opera, Ballet, and Orchestra, and the Royal Shakespeare Company .


SEE ALSO



REFERENCES

Becker, Ralph E., ''Miracle on the Potomac: the Kennedy Center From the Beginning'', Silver Spring, Maryland: Bartleby Press, 1990

Gill, Brendan, ''John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts'', New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc. 1981

Morris, Barbara Bladen, ''The Kennedy Center: An Insider's Guide to Washington's Liveliest Memorial'', McLean, Virginia: EPM Publications, 1994


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