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Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts

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Status
  
Complete

Opened
  
2013

Architect
  
Completed
  
2013

Phone
  
+1 310-246-3800

Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts

Location
  
Corner of North Santa Monica Boulevard and Crescent Drive, Beverly Hills, California

Address
  
9390 N Santa Monica Blvd, Beverly Hills, CA 90210, USA

Similar
  
Geffen Playhouse, The Broad Stage, Ahmanson Theatre, Pantages Theatre, The Annenberg Space for

Profiles

Goldstar flyby of the wallis annenberg center for the performing arts


The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts is a community arts center in Beverly Hills, California, funded by philanthropist Wallis Annenberg. It is colloquially known as The Wallis.

Contents

Inside the wallis annenberg center for the performing arts in beverly hills


Location

The Wallis is located on the corner of North Santa Monica Boulevard and Crescent Drive in Beverly Hills, California.

Amenities

The center was designed by architect Zoltan Pali of SPF:architects. It includes the historic 1933 Beverly Hills post office, the newly built 500-seat Goldsmith Theater, the 150-seat Lovelace Studio Theater, GRoW at The Wallis: A Space for Arts Education, a sculpture garden and a promenade terrace designed by Ron Lutsko. The Goldsmith theater is named after Bram Goldsmith, the Chairman Emeritus of City National Bank. The restored landmark Beverly Hills post office is named for Paula Kent Meehan.

History

Endowed by heiress and philanthropist Wallis Annenberg (born 1939), who donated US$25 million, The Wallis was under construction for ten years. The total cost of creating the center is estimated at $70 million, with an annual operating budget of several million dollars.

The opening on October 17, 2013 was celebrated with a black-tie gala, co-chaired by Wallis Annenberg and Jamie Tisch. Kevin Spacey, John Lithgow and Diane Lane inaugurated the 500-seat Goldsmith Theater by reading letters from Groucho Marx, Tennessee Williams, Peter Tchaikovsky, Will Rogers and others. The evening was followed by a fashion show by Salvatore Ferragamo and performances by the likes of Italian tenor Vittorio Grigolo and Paris Opera Ballet members Mathias Heymann and Myriam Ould-Braham.

As of December 2015, the center's Chairman of the Board is philanthropist and arts patron David Bohnett. The Wallis' Managing Director is arts administrator and fundraiser Rachel Fine and the Artistic Director is Paul Crewes of Kneehigh Theatre.

The Wallis and Deaf West Theatre's acclaimed 2015 co-production of Spring Awakening (musical), performed simultaneously in American Sign Language and spoken English by a cast of 27, transferred to Broadway's Brooks Atkinson Theatre in September 2015 and went on to receive 3 Tony Award nominations including Best Revival of a Musical and Best Director Michael Arden.

Performances

2013/2014 Inaugural Season

  • Martha Graham Dance Company
  • Catherine Wheels Theatre Company's White
  • Noël Coward's Brief Encounter from Kneehigh Theatre
  • Maurice Hines is Tappin' Thru Life
  • 2014/2015 Season

  • Oregon Shakespeare Festival's Into the Woods
  • Patti LuPone's Coulda Shoulda Woulda... Played that Part
  • National Theatre of Scotland and Royal Shakespeare Company's Dunsinane (play)
  • Deaf West Theatre's Spring Awakening (musical)
  • 2015/2016 Season

  • An Evening with Denzel Washington
  • Twyla Tharp: 50th Anniversary Celebration
  • Mel Brooks in Conversation with David Steinberg
  • Oregon Shakespeare Festival's Guys and Dolls
  • Benjamin Millepied's L.A. Dance Project
  • 2016/2017 Season

  • Complicite's The Encounter by Simon McBurney
  • Stephen Sondheim's Merrily We Roll Along (musical) from Michael Arden
  • Kneehigh Theatre's 946: The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips
  • Deaf West Theatre's Edward Albee's At Home at the Zoo
  • Paul Taylor Dance Company
  • References

    Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts Wikipedia


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