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Media Pack Invades the AT&T PAC

Last night the AT&T Performing Arts Center had its first official performance with Bruce Willis on stage at the Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre to greet the VIP crowd. But the entire center had its baptism of fire with a mammoth media tour. Now, for the faint of heart having more than two media types in a room is a daunting task. They’re rarely housebroken, don’t you know. However, the PAC organizers knew that they would have to open the doors of the Wyly and the Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House to the press some time, and that time came today.

9:30-10 — 150+ of the media entourage (left) convene at the Wyly for coffee and credentials. Oops, no sweet rolls and the coffee is running low at 9:45. Not a good sign. Media without coffee can turn into an angry mob scene. Horrors, visions of Les Miserables! Quickly, coffee urn is refilled.

An animated Howard “The Jacket” Rachofsky is walking between the Wyly and Winspear with landscape architect Michel Desvigne. Planters in the Hal and Diane Brierley Esplanade take turns tipping over due to the wind. Wyly architect (aka Michael Bolton look-alike) Joshua Prince-Ramus (pictured right with Rem, left) and his former partner Rem Koolhaas sit outside looking a bit dejected, like football players warming the bench. Is the reason for their down mood because they’ve read The New York Times article by Nicolai Ouroussoff about their “divorce” over the Wyly? By divorce, we mean professional divorce. The Times claims that the two haven’t spoken at all since the breakup. Must have been an interesting time completing the Wyly. But here they are together looking friendlier than Jon and Kate or Bill and Hillary on 60 Minutes. Is a reconciliation in the future? Ah, come on, kids. Let’s try a little counseling. After all, you have a bouncing baby Wyly.

PAC Board Chair Howard “Happy” Halam arrives bright and chipper; Winspear designers Norman Foster and Spencer de Grey are greeted like rock stars and the anticipation is starting to build; Mayor Tom Leppert, like so many others, tries to enter through a door that won’t open; and PAC pr staff or media wranglers are getting their ducks in a row. All these media types corralled in the lobby of the Wyly is an intimidating prospect. Would they be user-friendly or useless brats?

10:10- The media is headed up and moved upstairs to the Potter Rose Performance Hall. Everyone is mooing gently, or rather behaving nicely so far. Who said media tours were like herding cockroaches? Howard H, AT&T PAC President/CEO Mark Nerenhausen, and Mayor Tom talk to the group. It’s sorta a repeat of the congratulatory words spoken at Monday’s dedication. Caren Prothro (pictured), who was instrumental in gearing up the funds, and Anita Martinez, of Ballet Folklorico, sit way in the back among the regular folks. Everyone applauds at the appropriate times. Now the big media herd is broken into smaller groups (green, yellow, red, etc.) for tours of the facilities. Ah, these PAC organizers are crafty. They know that by breaking the media mob up into smaller pods, they’re more manageable.

10:45 – As the green group hikes up the esplanade from the Wyly to the Winspear, Mark Lowry of Theater Jones tells his fellow journalists that it will be interesting to see the vertically-challenged esplanade in a rain storm. “It’ll be a big whoosh!” Laughter. Another media types adds, “An ice storm will turn this into a skating rink.” Still another chimes in with, “Wonder who’ll get the naming rights to it?” Don’t think these comments were in the media wranglers’ scripts (aka bibles).

Two groups are put together in the C. Vincent Prothro Lobby to hear the Winspear architects describe the facility. Norman (pictured left with Spencer) is a cross between Stanley Tucci and Patrick Stewart. Very natty and upper brow. You can just imagine him having tea with the royals. Spencer is a bit more casual with shaggy blonde hair and glasses. He seems like a fish-and-chips kind of fellow. As they start their discussion, three things become quite apparent. First, they should have their own talk show. Everything is interesting. Second, the two of them—though they’re the designers of this amazing opera house–have a very soft spot for rock and roll. Third, they prove that a British accent just elevates any discussion to a new level of intelligence and sophistication.

In the theater itself, it becomes apparent that KERA’s Bill Zeeble has claimed squatter’s rights on the Brits. Hello? There are other people who want to talk with the boys, too.

Ah, but it’s the theater that’s the story. Each of the seats has its own “ventilation” system, much like air-conditioned seats in a Lexus. Speaking of seats, Spencer tells the group that the Winspear is slightly larger than that Royal Opera House and that the plush seats are a bit bigger, too. The reason is because “we have to accommodate anatomically larger people than those who sat in the gilded seats of old.” What a lovely way of saying we Texans are wide in the get along.

Then there’s the mammoth chandelier. No punter is going to hurt that baby. You see, the chandelier with its 300+ lights is suspended beautifully from the ceiling as people arrive. Then just as the performance is about to begin, the whole lighting spectrum rises flush to the ceiling. Now that alone is worth the price of a ticket.

Ah, but the wranglers are starting to look nervous. We’ve got a schedule to keep and we have dallied too long. The two groups go their separate ways, one passing ABC Channel 8’s Gary Cogill, who is sipping coffee inside the theatre with one of the staff. He’s the BMOC (Big Media On the Center). Guess he’s got his own media tour going.

11:25–Group goes up to the level where the boxes are. No time to see the boxes; time’s a-wastin’ and we must make it to the next level before another group is upon us. We’re now at the top level but have lost Norman and Spencer with Zeeble sticking with them.

11:30 — Now it’s time to scramble back to the Wyly. As we cross Flora, a large group of uniformed schoolchildren is seen touring the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center. They walk neatly in single lines appearing to be much more orderly and well-behaved than the rag-tag media.

11:35 – Our group is on the very tip-top of the Wyly in an “outdoor” entertainment area. Wranglers tell the group that we can buy tickets to a New Year’s Eve party that will be held there. Media chuckles. Don’t know if it’s over the potential price of the ticket, or the idea of a chilly New Year’s Eve atop a building.

One of the two architects is to meet the group here and discuss the facility, but no one appears. Wrangler reads from prepared script. Ah, the tubing surrounding the building is a total of 9 miles long, or from here to the Galleria. Next door the underground parking garage is being built that will protect patrons going from their cars to the theaters. Right now it’s a very big, muddy hole in the ground.

Wranglers are looking a bit aggitated as the media starts chattering among themselves about the lack of activity and the waiting for the no-show architect. Are we, the media, being stood up?  Seamlessly, the wranglers announce that the group will talk with Joshua at the next stop. Into the elevators.

11:40 – At the Bess and Ted Enloe Terrace, Joshua talks with us about the multi-form Wyly. It’s every man’s dream woman. Whatever you want her to be, by jingo, she can transform herself into it.  Thank heaven Josh can project because he’s standing under a tremendous exhaust fan causing quite an uproar. He reminds the group of the old days when “the shed” (aka the Dallas Theater Center’s barn-like facility in the arts district) was flexible for various types of staging but still a barn. Had everything but pigs oinking and roosters crowing. Is this New Yorker artiste saying that our old rickety shed was downright rural? Ah, but the Wyly took the best parts of the shed, eliminated the problems, and added the ability to lift and lower staging, seats, and practically the roof. While some of the media hold out their iPhones and flip cameras, others bend down to feel the cushy Astroturf floor.

Any questions? No, the group has learned its lesson. They have a schedule to keep or they might not get their milk and cookies.

11:50- The group peers down into the costume shop and around the Education Center. Still no questions. They head to the elevator for the 6^th floor and the patron lounge.

11:55 – Rem Koolhaas, Wyly architect #2, talks to the group. (Remember, he’s Joshua’s former partner. Guess it’s a good thing that they’re on separate floors.) Unlike his former partner, he looks more like Al Bundy in a windbreaker.

Any questions? Yes! We have a winner. Someone is going to ask a question.

“Were you intentionally trying to go against what was expected for Dallas by the design of this building?”

(After all, the Wyly is rather unique looking: a silver corrugated box with a big, old rectangle cut out of one side and see-through elevators on the other.)

Good question. Better answer.

Rem, without missing a beat, replies, “Dallas is such a flat pancake that it was significant to add a vertical look.” Hmmm, pancake?

Are these architects telling us that we were nothing but artistic pigs in a blanket?

Wranglers are going to reward the group by allowing them to see the “Grid Room,” the brain center for all the mechanisms for raising and lowering the staging, seats, etc. It’s a tight fit, so only a few at a time are allowed in. Looks like a huge, gloriously green loom or the world’s most convoluted backstage for a puppet show.  

Noon – Back into the elevator, which someone notes can be seen from the outside. Wrangler adds that if the door on that side of the elevator opens, people will fall out. Voice from the back of the elevator says, “Like Jennifer Jones.” Overall chuckling at that one. Think Towering Inferno. Only the art-oriented media would think of that.

Now it’s on to lunch in the Winspear café. Media needs no direction on this one. They cue up with the grace of Texas Ballet ingénues. Wranglers immediately get on walkie-talkies and cellphones to coordinate the arrival of the other groups. You just don’t want these groups coming together like the Discovery Channel’s episode on the colliding of two universes. Smash! PAC benefactors and management look on in relief that the media is so cordial and happy. The media is always happy when it’s fed.

Congratulations, AT&T PAC, you seemed to have passed with flying colors your first mammoth media tour. Your wranglers brought the herd home with no damage.