The Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts (or CCPA) is a entertainment and music venue located in the

Cerritos Towne Center The Cerritos Towne Center is a retail park located in the center of Cerritos, California that combines retailing, office, and entertainment in one master project. The Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts is located within the southwestern part ...

Cerritos, California Cerritos (Spanish for "Little hills") is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States, and is one of several cities that constitute the Gateway Cities of southeast Los Angeles County. It was incorporated on April 24, 1956. As of 20 ...

. It is owned and operated by the City of Cerritos and it opened its doors to the public on January 9, 1993, and hosts

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a libr ...

cabaret Cabaret is a form of theatrical entertainment featuring music, song, dance, recitation, or drama. The performance venue might be a pub, a casino, a hotel, a restaurant, or a nightclub with a stage for performances. The audience, often dining o ...

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

, dance, magic,

drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has b ...

, musicals and comedy performances as well as private functions. Its season runs from August of one year to May of the following year.

History and architecture

Plans for the construction of a community theater had been proposed in the Cerritos Towne Center since 1986, however, debate as to the size and influence of the theater vis-à-vis other venues in

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most populous urban a ...

persisted. Fears primarily included having a large theater with few patrons in attendance. The consultants, David Staples and Wally Russell of Theatre Projects Consultants from

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, calmed fears and inspired city leaders with the details of

Derngate Theatre Royal & Derngate is a theatre complex in the Cultural Quarter of Northampton, England, consisting of the Royal Theatre and Derngate Theatre. The Royal was built by theatre architect Charles J. Phipps and opened in 1884. Ninety-nine years la ...

in Northampton, England, where blocks of seats on rollers could be rearranged or removed completely, tailored to each performance. At the time, nothing like it existed in the United States. Architects

Barton Myers Barton Myers (born November 6, 1934) is an American architect and president of Barton Myers Associates Inc. in Santa Barbara, California. With a career spanning more than 40 years, Myers is a fellow of the American Institute of Architects and w ...

Associates of

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

were hired to design a similar marvel for Cerritos. Once worries were abated, it was decided that a large venue that could compete with the likes of the Long Beach Terrace Theater, Orange County Performing Arts Center, and the Los Angeles Music Center would be a better direction for the development of the community theater. In 1987, the layout plans included an auditorium with six distinct seating configurations, a conference center and a 200-seat theater with its own sound and lighting systems. Construction began shortly on a city landmark that incorporates glass walls, pink

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

, colorful ceramic tiles and angular points and projections. A glass elevator tower topped with

pyramid A pyramid (from el, πυραμίς ') is a structure whose outer surfaces are triangular and converge to a single step at the top, making the shape roughly a pyramid in the geometric sense. The base of a pyramid can be trilateral, quadrilat ...

s, thin

spire A spire is a tall, slender, pointed structure on top of a roof of a building or tower, especially at the summit of church steeples. A spire may have a square, circular, or polygonal plan, with a roughly conical or pyramidal shape. Spires a ...

s and pennants completed the final

façade A façade () (also written facade) is generally the front part or exterior of a building. It is a loan word from the French (), which means ' frontage' or ' face'. In architecture, the façade of a building is often the most important aspect ...

. The interior includes a lobby featuring a curved grand staircase with etched glass, stylish fireplace, soaring ceiling and artwork. Though initially budgeted $17 million for the development, the final price tag came out to be over $60 million. More than 6,000 visitors attended the open house tours upon the CCPA's completion. With a $4 million spending budget to attract performances in its inaugural season, the CCPA's sold out opening night welcomed

crooner Crooner is a term used to describe primarily male singers who performed using a smooth style made possible by better microphones which picked up quieter sounds and a wider range of frequencies, allowing the singer to access a more dynamic range ...

Frank Sinatra for three nights, helping establish the Cerritos Center as a premier venue in the

Southland Southland may refer to: Places Canada * Dunbar–Southlands, Vancouver, British Columbia New Zealand * Southland Region, a region of New Zealand * Southland County, a former New Zealand county * Southland District, part of the wider Southland Re ...

. The city council realized that it would take several seasons to build up an audience to make the Cerritos Center self-supporting, so a $2 million subsidy or pump-priming fund was budgeted to augment the annual $3 million from ticket sales and pay operating costs and performers

Seating configurations

There are six seating configurations in the auditorium of the CCPA, made possible by moving seating towers and mobile seating wagons, multiple floor lifts and moving ceiling panels. It takes about eight hours or less to switch from one configuration to another. *''Arena'' - A 1,691 to 1,721-seat arena setting with 500 floor seats surrounded by box seats and balconies on one side for popular music, comedy and jazz performances

*''Cabaret'' - A 1,324 to 1,504-seat cabaret setting with up to 67 tables and 412 chairs on a flat floor, surrounded by box seats and balconies, for jazz and other music performances

*''Concert'' - A 1,493 to 1,629-seat concert hall with in-the-round seating and acoustic concert ceiling panels for orchestras, recitals and acoustic music, acoustic performances

*''Drama'' - A 921 to 1,083-seat proscenium theater for plays, recitals and chamber music performances

*''In the Round'' - A 1,845 to 1,934-seat in-the-round theater for popular music, comedy and jazz performances

*''Lyric'' - A 1,311 to 1,391-seat proscenium theater for musical theater, dance and popular music performances

Facilities

Th
''Sierra Room/Sierra Theater''
at the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts features a technologically advanced grid of tracks and moveable partitions, which can divide the space from one large open room to five smaller meeting places. A hidden retractable seating unit can be opened into part of the room creating the Sierra Room Theater, perfect for fashion shows, guest speakers and presentations. Additional amenities available include a state-of-the-art sound system, lighting and a dance floor for parties and wedding receptions

The ''Mojave Room'' as well as the ''Grand Lobby'' can be rented out for small business meetings, luncheons and receptions

Awards and recognition

*1993-2001 Amusement Business Magazine Top 10 Venues - 5,000 seats or less in the United States. *1995 Performance Magazine "Theater of the Year" *1994 United States Institute of Theater Technology Honor Award *1993 Concrete Industry Paving Award *1993 Cabrillo Chapter of American Institute of Architects Design Award In 1994, the CCPA received the United States Institute of Theater Technology's (USITT) highest honor, hailing the theater as "The most sophisticated project we've seen in terms of architecture, technology and urban design." ''Performance Magazine'' also acknowledged the center's accomplishments, naming it the number one theater in California (under 3,000 seats) for the third consecutive year

External links

Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts

City of Cerritos

References

*Eftychiou, A., & Cenovich, M. (2006). ''Cerritos at 50: celebrating our past and our future.'' Virginia Beach, VA: The Donning Company Publishers. *''History and design''. (n.d.). Retrieved July 8, 2006, from https://web.archive.org/web/20070917131734/http://www.cerritoscenter.com/history.cfm *''Mojave Room''. (n.d.). Retrieved July 8, 2006, from https://web.archive.org/web/20060615184304/http://cerritoscenter.com/mojave.cfm *''Sierra Room/Sierra Theater''. (n.d.). Retrieved July 8, 2006, from https://web.archive.org/web/20060615184318/http://cerritoscenter.com/sierra.cfm {{Cerritos, California Cerritos, California Music venues in California Performing arts centers in California Theatres in Los Angeles County, California Culture of Los Angeles Barton Myers buildings Tourist attractions in Los Angeles County, California

History and architecture

Seating configurations

Facilities

Awards and recognition

See also

External links

References