Theatre Design & Technology - Summer 2021 - 32

Most Well-Spring residents are comfortable with the 1:12 aisle slope. The short rows mean lots of end seats, which are easy to get in and out of. | Photo courtesy of Alan
Moore.
A professionally designed performancequality
space would help Well-Spring
stand out in a crowded market, and the
349-seat theatre would also help to fill
the need for more moderately sized
performance spaces in the local area,
an arts-friendly region that is home to
the nationally renowned Eastern Music
Festival as well as UNC-Greensboro and
the UNC School of the Arts.
It was clear the traditional flat multipurpose
room so common in senior living
communities would not suffice. WellSpring
worked with CJMW Architecture
to design a theatre with excellent acoustics,
good sightlines,
comfortable
climate
control, more square footage per
patron, and enhanced accessibility. The
Virginia Somerville Sutton Theatre at
Well-Spring, which opened in late 2018,
has proven so popular that, prior to
COVID-19, more performing arts groups
than it could accommodate requested
bookings, and an employee was added to
the staff to manage the theatre.
With the rapid growth of the nation's
65-and-older population, acoustics and
design elements that accommodate the
needs of seniors will only become more
important in theatre design. The design
of Well-Spring's theatre offers valuable
ideas for all theatre professionals.
Tapping a Market
Well-Spring: A Life Plan Community
opened in 1993 on a 90-acre site north
of Greensboro. The central hub of the
campus includes a 37,000-square-foot
community center with a formal dining
room and a three-story atrium lobby.
Connected are three levels of independent
living and health-care apartments
with independent living villas and cottages
surrounding the core.
The community's many amenities have
made it popular among well-educated
The team at CJMW Architecture would like to thank Theatre Consultants
Collaborative of Chapel Hill, N.C., and Creative Acoustics of Westport, CT,
for their support throughout this project.
32 | THEATRE DESIGN & TECHNOLOGY | SUMMER 2021
seniors with a long history of involvement
in their communities. " A number of our
residents have been patrons of the arts
for many years, and some have actually
been performers themselves, " says Allen
Tutterow, Well-Spring executive director,
who is also an occasional performer in local
productions.
But by 2012, shifting trends in the senior
living market prompted Well-Spring
to rethink its facilities and amenities. The
single dining room had become dated, as
modern seniors were looking for more
casual alternatives to a large traditional
dining room. The senior living market
was also becoming more competitive,
with several regional and national providers
opening communities in the area.
Working with CJMW Architecture +
Interior Design, Well-Spring commissioned
a redesign of its dining facilities as
well as a major expansion of the original
resident activity center to include more
spaces for recreation, art and wood-working
studios, and a state-of-the-art performance
space that would appeal to the
public and performing artists themselves.
The 349-seat performance theatre would

Theatre Design & Technology - Summer 2021

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