Did you have a passion for theater but realized acting wasn’t your forte? That was Rose Steele’s dilemma. Rose is the theater design consultant for the concert hall and black box theater at InConcert Sierra’s Crown Point Venues, performing a critical role on the design team.
After growing up in the Detroit suburbs and starting out in choir in seventh grade and acting in plays, Rose pursued her passion by majoring in theater at Western Michigan University, earning a BS degree. Although she discovered that acting wasn’t her strong suit, she fell in love with the backstage work and everything that happens behind the scenes.
After graduating college and marrying the university theater’s technical director, she moved to various states to support his career. During that time, Rose worked in diverse capacities in the theater world, from scene shops and box offices to stage management, stagehand duties, and even as an artistic director for a small community theater group. A California native, her husband eventually obtained a job at Theatreworks in Palo Alto, so they moved to the West Coast.
In California, she obtained a job as an office manager for a theater consultant, which meant helping architects build theater buildings. Over the next thirty years, she developed and honed her own theater consultant skills at the prestigious Landry & Bogan firm. When that corporation dissolved, she went to work for The Ruzika Company, a Southern California lighting and theater consultancy. Unfortunately, that position ended with the Covid shutdown, so she decided to hang out her own shingle—Rose Steele Theatre Consulting in San Jose, CA. Because she had already been working from home for several years, it was an easy transition. Today, she utilizes CAD (computer-aided drafting) software and keeps volumes of building codes close at hand, navigating the many technical details required for theater design.
Rose was brought into InConcert Sierra’s (ICS) Crown Point Venues project early-on since she specializes in helping both the architect and client bridge the gap between what the client has and what can be developed. ICS planned to build an acoustic concert hall, a black box theater and a conference center with a kitchen, and Rose was tasked with helping ICS visualize these spaces. Rose carefully laid out the stage, seating, exits s & entrances, and dressing rooms for the various spaces. Drawing from her experience in hundreds of venues, Rose helps clients envision broader possibilities, ensuring they aren’t limited in achieving what they truly want.
Rose says that both theater and architecture are cooperative endeavors, requiring a team of people who believe in collaboration and respect for each other’s opinions to achieve the final result. She primarily works with the architect, but also collaborates with the other professionals to integrate the concert hall and black box into the bones of the existing building. This includes designing the accessory areas such as dressing rooms, storage and catwalks. It’s necessary for her to be both a visioner and a pragmatist—exploring the possibilities but remaining mindful of the practical realities.
She explains that architecture develops in phases. Initially, she helps a client envision what is needed in the space—the size, the uses. She asks vital questions about the types of performances that will be hosted so as to identify the priorities, as those parameters color and shade decisions. Will the theater be used for drama versus music versus other uses? She has an astute saying, that “it’s important to make sure the space is multi-use, not multi-useless.”
Rose has also learned the difference between compromise—where everyone concedes a little—and consensus–where everyone aligns around a shared vision. She says the latter is best for the client. It’s necessary to decide what can be sacrificed and what is essential for good design, effectiveness, and to meet the needs and budget of the client. She says it is best to establish these parameters before starting to design. Deciding what size the stage will be, the number of seats, the layout, and other considerations all come after deciding who the venue is for and what it is for. Once these foundational decisions are made, she calculates the square footage of the project with precision, even the wall thickness, ensuring the entire endeavor is spot-on in scope.
The next step for Rose is to establish the limits of what is possible within the theater itself and then work with architectural drawings and CAD, taking into consideration seating and ADA requirements. Afterward, she collaborates with ICS’s acoustician to shape the chamber acoustically, balancing the needs of the audience’s movement, visual flow, and auditory experience. Thus, the audience chamber gets defined early.
When Rose isn’t working, she enjoys cooking, gardening, and canning. She says that she makes a killer plum jam, as well as great bread and butter pickles—and has ribbons from the Santa Clara County Fair to prove it.
Rose is a member of the American Society of Theatre Consultants–membership is only allowed for those with sufficient experience, to raise the profile of theater consultants. She enthusiastically states that she’s fortunate to have made a transition to doing something she loves within the theater community, working with wonderful professionals and organizations. She’s thrilled to be a part of developing ICS’s amazing project for the greater community.
If you would like to see InConcert Sierra’s new building, you can sign up for a tour at www.inconcertsierra.org/crown-point-project/take-a-tour or Crownpointvenues.com.
Hindi Greenberg is the president of the board of InConcert Sierra in Grass Valley, CA.