The Portland Center for the Performing Arts is home to Portland's finest music, theatre, dance, lectures and more. Located in the Cultural District in downtown, going out for a night-on-the-town couldn't be easier!

On this site, you'll find

• Detailed information about performances
• Directions to our theatres, and parking in the vicinity
• Information on nearby restaurants and hotels
• ADA Accessibility
• And much much more…

If you have any questions or comments send us an email or call 503.248.4335.

Our mailing address is 1111 SW Broadway, Portland OR 97205-2913.

PCPA inclement weather hotline: 503.248.4335 option 3

(for PCPA event info during bad weather)

Did you know that Metro Visitor Venues, including PCPA, generate over $612 million in spending and sustain 6,040 local jobs?
Read the PCPA Economic and Fiscal Impact Analysis Report (2011)
Read the Metro Visitor Venues Economic and Fiscal Impact Analysis Report (2011)

PCPA Box Office

The main PCPA box office, located at 1111 SW Broadway (inside Antoinette Hatfield Hall), is open Monday–Saturday, 10a.m.–5p.m. The box office is closed on federal holidays.

Fast Facts

Keller Auditorium
222 SW Clay (on the corner of 3rd and Clay in downtown Portland)
Seating capacity — 2,992

Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall
1037 SW Broadway
Seating Capacity — 2,776

Newmark Theatre
1111 SW Broadway
(located in Antoinette Hatfield Hall, formerly the New Theatre Building)
Seating Capacity — 880

Dolores Winningstad Theatre
1111 SW Broadway
(located in Antoinette Hatfield Hall, formerly the New Theatre Building)
Seating Capacity — 304

Brunish Theatre
1111 SW Broadway
(located in Antoinette Hatfield Hall, formerly the New Theatre Building)
3,500 Square foot room

The Theatres

The Portland Center for the Performing Arts consists of three separate buildings, the Keller Auditorium, the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, and Antoinette Hatfield Hall (formerly called the New Theatre Building) which houses the Newmark and Dolores Winningstad theatres, and Brunish Theatre.

KELLER AUDITORIUM

Located seven blocks southeast of the other theatres, the Keller Auditorium hosts events as varied as grand opera, rock, western and jazz concerts, ballet and modern dance performances, national tours of Broadway musicals and dramatic plays. The original building was constructed in 1917. It was totally renovated in 1968 with substantial technical improvements made in 1993.

Keller Auditorium features:
• Seating for 2,992 on orchestra level and two balconies.
• 107 x 41-foot stage with 60 x 30-foot traditional proscenium.
• Excellent acoustics and sight lines.
• Orchestra pit for 70 musicians.
• Dressing rooms to accommodate 250 people.
• A 38 x 45-foot rehearsal room.

Design highlights: A soaring window-wall permits spectacular views of the Ira C. Keller Fountain (designed by Lawrence Halprin) from the foyers on all three levels; original artwork abounds throughout the public spaces; the International-style facade blends perfectly with the surrounding office and residential buildings.

ARLENE SCHNITZER CONCERT HALL

The beautifully restored Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, opened in 1984, was originally the Portland Public Theatre, built in 1928. The Italian Rococo Revival architecture was said to be the national showcase of Rapp & Rapp, renowned Chicago theatre architects. Visitors are greeted by a 65-foot high "Portland" sign above the Broadway marquee, which contains approximately 6,000 theatrical lights.

Portland residents Arlene and Harold Schnitzer contributed generously to the completion of this phase of the Portland Center for the Performing Arts. The one-year, $10 million renovation involved repairing, recasting or replacing much of the theatre's ornate interior as well as making it comfortable and safe for today's audiences and performers.

The Concert Hall plays host to a variety of presentations including classical, jazz, pop, rock, folk and gospel music, dance, theatre, travel films, conferences, and weddings.

The Concert Hall features:
• Seating for 2,776 in orchestra level and balcony.
• 94 x 32-foot stage with 54 x 32-foot traditional proscenium.
• Orchestra pit for 15; a choir loft.
• Dressing rooms for 90.
• Portable, flexible acoustical shell.

Design highlights: wool carpeting designed in Portland and loomed in New Zealand; original chandeliers renovated and fitted with new crystal in rococo-style lobby; original ornate interior repaneled, recast and replaced; classic colors of warm neutrals and teal replaced the original dark and heavy gold, green and rose.

ANTOINETTE HATFIELD HALL

(formerly the New Theatre Building)

Located in the heart of downtown Portland, the theatre complex is an award-winning facility. The 127,000 square foot complex includes two theatres; a multi-purpose space suitable for recitals, receptions or other events; a small restaurant, box office, and administrative offices for the Portland Center for the Performing Arts; costume workshop, and offices for a resident theatre company.

The exterior of the building was designed to complement existing buildings in the area. The profile of the First Congregational Church, which shares the block with the theatres, and the brick color of the Schnitzer Concert Hall and the adjacent Heathman Hotel were taken into consideration in designing the brick and glass exterior.

Approaching the theatres from Main Street, the visitor enters a five-story rotunda which opens to an art-glass "Spectral Light Dome" skylight designed by James Carpenter. Overlooking this terrazzo-floored grand lobby are three levels of balconies, designed like box seats. The entrance to the theatres is in the form of a proscenium arch. Arriving guests passing under this arch become performers walking on stage, watched by those sitting in the lobby balconies.

Other lobby features include a gas/wood fireplace that offers a cozy atmosphere on cool Oregon evenings; a ticket center that handles ticketing for all of the facilities managed by Portland Center for the Performing Arts; and the ArtBar & Bistro, an 80-seat restaurant.

Lobby colors of teal with red and soft peach accents set the color scheme that appears in variations throughout the complex. Interior walls are covered in cherry wood paneling. Exterior walls are substantially glass, offering dramatic views across Main Street to the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall.

Access to Brunish Theatre, the Newmark and Winningstad theatres is by two brass-fronted elevators and three four-story, glass-encased spiral staircases accented with seven-watt theatrical lights. The theatres and hall can also be reached from a street level entrance on Park Avenue.

NEWMARK THEATRE

The Newmark Theatre was designed primarily for drama productions. It is also suitable for opera, dance, ballet, chamber orchestra, recitals, conferences and films.

The theatre features:
• Continental-style seating for 880 in an Edwardian-style theatre with intimate orchestra and balcony-level seating stretching only 65 feet from the stage to the last seat in the second balcony. (First row of the center box at the Keller Auditorium is 90 feet from the stage.)
• Side balconies and boxes lead to the edge of the proscenium.
• 79 x 44 foot stage with 52 x 36 foot proscenium arch dimensions. Sliding side-wall wood panels can mask down the opening to 52 x 26 feet for more intimate performances.
• Orchestra pit for 35 musicians. The pit can be raised to provide 40 additional seats at orchestra level or to extend the stage 12 feet beyond the proscenium.
• Late rooms on either side of the theatre have large windows and a sound system so that late comers can see and hear without disturbing the audience.
• Dressing rooms for 32.

Design highlights: cherry wood paneling; exposed lighting gallery; domed ceiling studded with brass stars to give a "room within a room" atmosphere; brass balcony railings; teal and blue green color scheme.

DOLORES WINNINGSTAD THEATRE

One of the most unique theatres in the country, the Dolores Winningstad Theatre is a high-tech, updated version of a Shakespearean courtyard theatre. Designed to be a multi-purpose room, providing maximum flexibility for drama, dance, chamber music, recitals, lectures and receptions.

The Winningstad Theatre is named for Portlander Dolores Winningstad. Norman and Dolores Winningstad have long been committed to the cultural development of the city and have played an active role in the artistic growth of many local performing arts companies.

The theatre features:
• Flexible seating configuration, with maximum capacity of 304. Distance from stage to last seat in the balcony is 32 feet.
• 45 x 25-foot end stage; orchestra floor and forestage lift can be raised to levels below and at stage, allowing for thrust, traverse, arena and free-form acting area. Seats can be removed completely for a flat floor.
• Two balconies, eight and sixteen feet above the stage floor, with one row of movable seats on the sides; one row of fixed seats in the back; and one row of fixed stool-height seats behind them, with their own leaning rail.
• Dressing rooms for 28.
• Orchestra pit for 18 musicians.

Design highlights: exposed lattice-work grid of red-stained cedar that provides acoustical baffle; exposed light bridge; color scheme of deep reds.

BRUNISH THEATRE

Corey Brunish, Portland real estate developer and former Portland Civic Theater actor, named this hall in honor of his mother, Virginia Brunish. This 3,500 square foot room is deceptively simple in its design. It features plain white walls and a wood floor, and the cathedral ceiling is the hall’s grandest architectural feature. The room can go totally dark, then be illuminated through dimmable fluorescent lamps with programmed controls and 36 lighting instruments operated through a high-quality theatre lighting control board. The cathedral ceiling will also allow for special lighting effects. A grid system 18 feet above the floor accommodates theatre lighting instruments, sound equipment, draperies, scenery or decorations for a broad array of uses. Two dressing rooms flank the south end of the space. The 1,000 square foot lobby has windows stretching two stories high and faces the Park Blocks.

MAIN STREET

Main Street, between Broadway and Park avenues, runs between the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall and Antoinette Hatfield Hall. Designed to be an integral part of the PCPA, the architects used various design elements to make Main Street more than just a thoroughfare. The checkered brick surface echoes the colors and textures of both buildings. High-tech, neon-lit towers at the Broadway entrance give way to planters green with trees and shrubbery. Tying the fast-paced glitter of Broadway to the more tranquil Park Avenue and the South Park Blocks beyond.

The neon-traced, 27-foot towers add to the drama and excitement of the Center while housing artistically-designed metal gates that may be used to close off the street to automobile traffic, turning Main Street into a delightful plaza allowing patrons of all theatres to leisurely enjoy the public areas of both buildings. The plaza may also be rented out for dinners and receptions in conjunction with lobby func

Key Construction Participants

MANAGER:

City of Portland
Bud Clark, Mayor

Portland Center for the Performing Arts
Patrick Harrington, Executive Director

ARCHITECTS:

Broome, Oringdulph, O'Toole, Rudolf, Boles & Associates, (BOOR/A), Portland

Barton Myers & Associates, Toronto

ELS Design Group, Berkeley

THEATRE CONSULTANT:

Theatre Projects, London, England

ACOUSTICIAN:

R. Lawrence Kirkegaard, Chicago

GLASS DOME ARTIST:

James Carpenter, New York

GENERAL CONTRACTOR:

Hoffman Construction, Portland

PERFORMING ARTS CENTER COMMITTEE:

Ronald K. Ragen, Chairman

Robert Ames

Clifford N. Carlsen, Jr.

Anne Crumpacker

William S. Findlay

Orilia Forbes

Carl M. Halvorson

Stephen T. Janik

Gary Masner

William Naito

Herb Park

Gerald Parsons

Robert Scanlan

Public Artwork

Located within the Portland Center for the Performing Arts' Antoinette Hatfield Hall are three major artworks made possible by the regional "Percent for the Arts" program. This program requires that a certain percentage of public building construction funds be set aside for artwork. This unique partnership made it possible for the PCPA to feature works of art that are actually integral parts of the building.

"Muse, Gaze, Mirror, Maze"

When Linda Ethier was selected to design the lobby fireplace treatment in Antoinette Hatfield Hall, she envisioned it as "theatre images within theatre images within the theatre." What is especially unique about Ethier's design is the surface that reflects the ever-changing scene before it. Fire, light and people passing by are all an integral part of the design.

Looking closely enough at the individual plate tiles, which frame the opening of the fireplace, one is able to pick out artists such as Rudolf Nureyev dancing and Bonnie Raitt playing the guitar. Each tile, representing various artists, depicts a specific aspect of the performing arts.

Ethier sees the work as an expression of vulnerability. "Glass is fragile, much the same as our environment of public art with its current uneasy funding situation." Working within a budget of $18,000, to cover both design and implementation, Ethier was compelled to invent new techniques over the course of her work on the piece.

The creative process involved a number of detailed, carefully executed steps. For example, Ethier actually used live models as molds to create the large figures which stand on either side of the hearth.

The plate glass is highly reflective and is intended to increase interaction among the people who pass through the Center. The overall effect is a lively and classical solution that will interact will with James Carpenter's "Spectral Light Dome" above the rotunda area.

This inspiring and challenging project took Linda Ethier nearly a year to complete. Her enthusiasm for her art is contagious and she has given the public a lovely addition to Hatfield Hall.

"Spectral Light Dome"

To see James Carpenter's "Spectral Light Dome" is to experience a dazzling display of colors spanning the spectrum and to witness the vision of an award-winning artist. Located 75 feet above Antoinette Hatfield Hall's Rotunda lobby, this 30 foot hemispherical dome is composed of over 500 strips of dichroic glass held in place by metal clips which suspend them in a dome-shaped grid.

The specially treated glass refracts light in colors ranging from pink to turquoise, depending on the angle at which light passes through it. When backlit, the glass will look pink shading to blue. When lit from below, light that reflects off the mirrored inner surface will pick up a gold color, resembling that of the brass fixtures used extensively throughout the building.

The glass strips, approximately three inches wide and 5 to 6 feet in length and layered up to three deep, follow the curvature of the dome. A 5-foot opening, which Carpenter calls an "oculus," is the center focus of the dome and gives the viewer "a sense of particles spinning in a circular motion."

Since its completion, the "Spectral Light Dome" has been featured in Progressive Architecture, one of America's most prestigious architectural magazines, and helped Carpenter garner "National Finalist" status for engineering excellence by the American Consulting Engineers Council.

"Portland Town"

Located at the PCPA's west lobby entrance on Park Avenue, Portland artist Henk Pander's mural uses anamorphic perspective to make a unique statement. By means of this illusory technique, one gets the impression that the further away the elements or figures are, the more extended they become vertically and laterally. Pander describes it as an "interactive work...When you walk through it, the thing changes, like Theatre." He attributes the scenes incorporated in the mural to the early days of the Storefront Theatre, where he worked for a time as a set designer.

The east wall portrays the opening scene of a play, the south wall is a backstage dressing room and the curved wall suggests a proscenium. Many of the figures featured in Pander's mural are prominent figures in Storefront's history, along with others representing the theatre community in Portland.