The Nancy Lee and Perry R. Bass Performance Hall Allows You to See Many Types of Performances

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Texas is super fun state to tour around, and Dallas is a super fun city to explore. Like many of the other cities in Texas, Dallas is full of places to be, sights to see, and activities to do. The variety of stuff available to visitors and residents alike consists of all kinds of engaging or relaxing ways to pass the time and caters to all age demographics as well as all kinds of people.

From trendy bars and clubs that stay active all night long, to more relaxed diners that take pride in their food and catering services. You could while away your time just taking a leisurely stroll around some public park, or you could be partying it up at some concert. But for the more artistically curious amongst you, Dallas has no shortages of venues to appreciate art. You could go to an art gallery that displays art from a bygone era, or you could visit one that celebrates newer artists trying to make a name for themselves today. Or, you could go to the Nancy Lee and Perry R. Bass Performance Hall to catch a live skit if that tickles your fancy.

A Little History Lesson of the Performance Hall

A Little History Lesson of the Performance Hall

Unlike many of the venues found around Texas and indeed the greater United States as well, the Nancy Lee and Perry R. Bass Performance Hall is actually relatively new. It wasn’t constructed a hundred or a couple hundred years ago. It came about in the year 1998, after pianist Van Cliburn had floated the idea for its construction to philanthropist couple Nancy Lee and Percy Richardson Bass.

David M. Schwarz of Architectural Services Inc. designed the layout of the hall, and it was made of primarily limestone. It was decided that the hall would be designed so that it could be a multi-use venue for different kinds of artistic performances. Featuring a seating capability of just over two thousand spectators, the hall is configured to host live operas, house symphonies, ballet performances, musical performances, stage shows, and rock concerts among others.

The Hall’s Secondary Purposes

The performance hall, though at first mainly constructed to host artistic performances, soon took on other management roles as well. Maddox-Muse Center opened adjacent to Nancy Lee and Perry R. Bass Performance Hall in the year 2001, and brought with it the McDavid Studio and the Van Cliburn Recital Hall. Once work on Maddox-Muse Center was completed, it housed offices for multiple art-related organizations, including ‘Performing Arts Fort Worth’, a non-profit organization that manages the Nancy Lee and Perry R. Bass Performance Hall.

With all these setups in place, the performance hall was equipped to handle more tasks than originally planned for it during its design. Today, the performance hall is the permanent home to various performances and art groups, including the Texas Ballet Theatre, Cliburn Concerts, the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, the Casa Mañana Musical Theatre, the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, and the Fort Worth Opera. Performing Arts Fort Worth also occasionally hosts some of its own performances in the hall.

Layout and Architectural Design

Layout and Architectural Design

The performance hall was built entirely through private funding, and a lot of the money was apparently put to very good use seeing as the performance hall is quite easy on the eyes and accentuates the city around it. The hall lights up at night and draws eyes towards its intricately carved structure while giving all of Sundance neighborhood a very pleasing facelift.

Two 48-foot-tall sculptures of angels carved by Hungarian sculptor Marton Varo adorn the front of the building while marble and brass make the whole exterior of the structure stand out. Large narrow windows give the whole place an airier feel and a dome measuring around 24 meters (80 feet) in diameter rests atop the Founders Concert Theatre. Other minor architectural details also help hall look its best.

The whole interior of the performance hall had to be designed to be as compact as possible due to the limited space the architects had to work with as well as the need to make the hall be able to accommodate different kinds of performances and shows. The backstage area, as well as the are behind the last row of seating is mostly narrow corridor that just about fits in snugly with the main chamber.

The seating was designed to be as compact as possible while still remaining roomy and luxuriously comfortable. The stage area as well as the layout of the main chamber had to be constructed in a way that allowed different configurations to be possible so that different kinds of performances could take place without sacrificing quality or comfort. This is why the actual seating capacity of the hall can range from between 2,000 people to 2,100 people depending on the show being put on and the required changes and configurations made to the chamber.

What Kinds of Performances Can You Expect?

As discussed in length above, the Nancy Lee and Perry R. Bass Performance Hall can host a multitude of differing performances. There are Broadway theatre performances to watch, comedy skits to laugh your heart out to, operas to admire the coordination of all the people onstage, concerts to bang your head to, ballets to admire, and even educational programs for students.

The official website of the Nancy Lee and Perry R. Bass Performance Hall always has an updated full calendar of all the events that are scheduled to take place at the performance hall in the future, as well as accompanying details about said events so that you know what you’re signing up for. It also has a few other helpful pages and services, like ticketing, renting the hall yourself, planning your visit by informing yourself of local parking and other hindrances, an F.A.Q page, and a way to contact the hall’s management for any further queries.

Conclusion

With all that discussed about up above, you are probably quite interested now in paying the Nancy Lee and Perry R. Bass Performance Hall a visit during your stay in Dallas. We can say this for certain: you won’t regret it. The hall, its beautiful interior, and its rich performances would be like the icing on the cake that is the city of Dallas. Just make sure to plan everything out in advance, lest you miss the beginning of the performance you’re going to watch. And you will probably want to stay a bit after the show ends, or at least roam around in the vicinity, so plan accordingly for that a well.

Texas is full of gorgeous places similar to Nancy Lee and Perry R. Bass Performance Hall, some outdoors and others with a roof over them. If you’re planning to thoroughly explore Texas, read up a bit more about the other amazing places you can visit like the Vintage Flying Museum or the Houston Museum of Fine Arts.

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