GALLERY

Purple Masque Theatre
Kansas State University
Manhattan, Kansas

 

The KSU Theatre department created the original Purple Masque Theatre in the 1960s as a black box/lab space, under the concrete seating of the WWII Memorial Stadium. The facility and the Stadium aged badly, and the U decided to renovate the entire area on that side of the facility for an Alumni Center, providing space and funds to create a new Purple Masque under the other side of the concrete seating, with a green roof above.

Landry & Bogan and Gould Evans Affiliates Laurence, KS office, undertook programming and design hand-in-hand with the theatre faculty, carefully crafting an exciting, if unusual, studio theatre.

The resulting space uses every available nook and cranny for stage, backstage, catwalks, performer support, a drama therapy space, storage, and a surprisingly gracious lobby - which is intended for receptions for many users.

The 128-seat space has two control rooms, a network of overhead catwalks for lighting access, shift space upstage of existing columns which can be closed off via rollup doors, a modest shop, costume shop, dressing rooms and storage area.