Theatre

Up until the 1920s, Boca Raton in southeast Florida was a sleepy, unknown town; but over the years, it has steadily emerged as much more. And while its size is still minute compared to cities like Miami and Tampa, it stands as a hub for cultural events and happenings in the state. Individuals, groups and families alike flock to Boca Raton to experience its natural beauty and to take part in its remarkable cultural activity.

Boca Raton is well-known for its natural parks and preserves; the Everglades, for example, a scenic national park which houses an immense variety of plant and wildlife, invites visitors to take part in all its natural splendours. And, as well as being the sole subtropical preserve in all of North America, it’s also the only park in the world where you can see alligators and crocodiles living side by side. Moreover, the Daggerwing Nature Center offers a great opportunity for kids to bird-watch by day and take guided hiking tours by night.

But while Boca Raton is a small gem of a city, it is home to countless cultural attractions as well. Aside from museums and natural centers, it boasts a phenomenal performing arts scene; visitors can attend various events and productions, including theatre, live music, ballet and more. The Caldwell Theatre Company, for example, puts on dramas, comedies, classics and new works, while the Florida Symphonic Pops of Boca Raton - a 70-piece professional orchestra - has been performing classical, jazz, rock, swing and big band music for over 50 years.

Among Boca Raton’s countless prominent performance art centers is a community theatre called the Little Palm Family Theatre. Run by amateur actors and participants, the Little Palm Family Theatre plays a significant role in the artistic and cultural life of southern Florida by providing live theatre and musical performances for people of all ages. Its performances vary from Winnie the Pooh musicals to classic dramas, and they generally perform at Jan McArt’s Royal Palm Festival Dinner Theatre, on Boca Raton’s Mizner Boulevard.

However, the Little Palm Family Theatre provides much more than remarkable entertainment; aside from offering a number of educational and personal development opportunities for children and adults, it provides a forum where amateur or aspiring actors can display their art. This is a particularly valuable resource in a small city such as Boca Raton, where theatrical opportunities may be harder to come by than in bigger cities. That said, the Little Palm Family Theatre contributes immensely to the rich and vibrant cultural scene of Boca Raton.

Hilton Hotels offers superb accommodation within easy reach of the Little Palm Family Theatre and various other Boca Raton performance venues. And while you’re in the city, why not take advantage of the terrific art museums? Explore the famous Boca Raton Museum of Art, as well as the International Museum of Cartoon Art. Even the sports enthusiast will find much to peruse at the Sports Immortals Museum, which displays over a million pieces of sports memorabilia.

With all that Boca Raton has to offer - from exciting cultural attractions to sublime natural beauty - all visitors are sure to come away with an experience to remember. So start planning your trip today, and prepare to get a whole lot out of Florida’s little gem.

About Michael
Michael is a keen writer, and internet marketer living in Scotland:

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No trip to Malta could be complete without a visit to Valletta’s little Manoel Theatre. One time home to beggars, down-and-outs and tramps now home to over 6,000 theatre costumes.

Located in Old Theatre Street, this fascinating purpose built baroque building is an architectural jewel. It is said to be the third oldest theatre in Europe still in use and the oldest theatre in the Commonwealth. It dates back to the earlier decades of the eighteenth century, when the Grandmaster of the Knights of St. John of that time, Antonio Manoel de Vilhena decided in 1731 to build a public theatre ‘for the honest recreation of the people’ according to the Latin inscription above the doorway. The 650-seat auditorium is quite unlike a conventional 20th century theatre, originally u-shaped it was transformed to an oval at the beginning of the 19th century. With a tiny stage and orchestra pit, the stalls seat only 272, but above them and beneath the gilded ceiling and magnificent crystal chandelier are three full tiers of boxes, including one very discreet grand-master’s box. Beneath the theatre are two wells that serve to give the exceptional acoustics for which the theatre is renowned. The original theatre was smaller than the present one, as today’s gallery and proscenium were added in 1812. It was also narrower, as boxes were also situated on the ground floor. Patrons in those far off days used to dance to the pieces in production, so the parterre would be illuminated during performances. All the delicate frescoes are of Mediterranean scenes bordered in 22-carat gold leaf. Originally it was called ‘Public Theatre’, later it bore the title ‘Theatre Royal’ but, eventually in 1866 in tribute to its founder, it became and has remained the Manoel Theatre.

The first night of all first nights was on 9th January 1732 with a presentation of ‘Merope’ a grand tragedy in the classic style, by Scipione Maffei. The setting was designed by Francois Moudion, who was the architect of the Order of St John and it was played by the Knights. The theatre was run by a Senior Knight of the Order who bore the title of ‘Protettore’ and managed the house generally approving each season’s programme of plays. Nicolo Isouard became the ‘Protettore’ or Commissioner during the French occupation of Malta in the last two years of the eighteenth century but the troubled times bore their toll and the players could no longer bear the strains of war and dark days followed for the Manoel.

With the arrival of the British the theatre came to life again and throughout the first half of the nineteenth century there was a nine-month season of opera each year from September to May. In 1812 when the theatre was redecorated by British General Sir George Whitmore, the engineer responsible for the works introduced the proscenium arch, dismantled the ground floor stone boxes to erect wooden ones complete with decorated panels and raised the ceiling so that the theatre became a storey higher. During this period there were nights of splendour like 4th December 1838 when Queen Adelaide, widow of King William IV came with cheers, anthems and a guard of honour to see a performance of ‘Lucia di Lamermoor’ by Gaetan Donizette.

Strangely it was the very prosperity of the latter years of the nineteenth century which brought the eclipse of the Manoel Theatre. The large garrison, the fleet and an increasing number of tourists rendered the theatre inadequate and in 1861 it became private property. With the proceeds of the sale the Royal Opera House was built and Grandmaster Antonio de Vilhena’s little house fell into disuse and served as a home to beggars. Some of the old glory returned when the Royal Opera House was destroyed by fire in 1873. Grand opera replaced the evicted beggars until the Opera house was reconstructed and then the once loved little place in Theatre Street looked to be on its deathbed. It served fitfully as a dance hall and, in this century as a cinema. But then once more the fate of the Opera House brought revival to the Manoel when the former was completely destroyed in the Second World War. Dreams of bringing the Manoel back to life turned to reality when the Malta Government acquired the building in response to public appeal. Experts from Britain and Italy were called in and under their supervision and with loving care the delicate process of restoration was carried out. On one splendid December night in 1960 the famous Ballet Rambert Company’s presented ‘Coppelia’ at the grand opening performance.

Some 40 years later and the theatre is now in the fourth phase of another restoration project that includes bringing out the original shades of blue on the three layers of panels on the flat ceiling which are darker towards the border and lighter in the centre - a visual effect which, when seen from below, gives a trompe-l’oeuil effect of a round cupola, similar to the technique used in the flat “cupola” of the Chiesa del Ges

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The standard theater arrangement is of course a screen at one end of the room, with one central speaker, one speaker to each side of the screen, two speakers providing surround left and right, and sometimes a speaker providing surround rear. If you have your room arranged this way, chances are good that you call it your home theater, and speaker placement is fairly straightforward for you. The ideal placement has the front speakers at the same height from the ground, usually either slightly above or slightly below the display, and the surround speakers at least 60cm above the heads of the viewers.

The front center speaker should ideally be in the same position as the screen; the front left and right speakers should be placed approximately 25 degrees to the left and right of the direction the viewers face, and about the same distance from the viewers; the surround left and surround right speakers should be 90 degrees to the left and right of this direction, and, again, about the same distance from the viewers; and the surround rear, as its name suggests, should be directly behind the viewers. A subwoofer if used can theoretically be placed anywhere in the room.

For many people, and I include myself in this, the design of your home is such that it does not comfortably permit a room set up in this way. After all, unless you are very lucky, the chances are that the room that contains your home theater equipment doubles as your living room, and you will not want it to be dominated by a screen. You may not wish to call it your home theater as such. To solve this problem, you need to draw a scale diagram of your room. Add your intended screen placement to the drawing, along with the seating arrangements (your sofas and chairs), and identify where people will be sitting when they watch movies, and the direction in which they will be looking.

The next thing you need to do is to draw a line from each viewer directly to the screen, which shows the direction in which each viewer faces. Then draw a line angled 25 degrees to the left of the line you have just drawn from the viewer, for each viewer, until it meets the wall. If the speaker is placed anywhere along that line, then it will be at the correct angle for the appropriate viewer. You need to identify a point along the wall fairly close to the position at which these lines reach the wall. This will usually be somewhere near the middle of the collection of lines. You have then identified the optimum home theater placement for your front left speaker.

You now need to do the same thing, but angle the lines 25 degrees to the right of the direction in which the viewers face. With these lines you can identify the optimum home theater placement for the front right speaker.

Repeat for lines angled 90 degrees to the left, 90 degrees to the right, and 180 degrees (a continuation of the line from viewer to screen, but in reverse). With these lines, you can identify the optimum home theater placement for the surround left speaker, the surround right speaker, and the surround rear speaker.

Ideally, the front left and right speakers should be placed at the same distance from each viewer, as should the surround left and right speakers. This will normally not be possible to achieve, so it should be approximated. Far more important are the speaker placement angles for each viewer, which should ideally not be more than about 15 degrees away from the optimum position. Optimum home theater speaker placement depends on minimizing the angle error for each viewer.

Your subwoofer could be placed theoretically at any point in the room, because the ear cannot easily determine the direction of low-frequency sounds. However, you may find that positioning the subwoofer at different parts of the room change the sounds from the subwoofer; some frequencies may be amplified, while others may be reduced, especially if the subwoofer is placed near a wall or corner of the room. It is suggested that you experiment with the placement of your subwoofer until you find a position that you like.

Some other considerations may affect the position in which you place the speakers. You will not want your speakers in a position where they obstruct a path that is regularly walked through, e.g. too close to a doorway. Also, if you do not have magnetically-shielded front speakers, they should not be placed too close to a cathode ray tube (old-style) TV, because they will cause the color purity of the display to be affected. This does not apply to LCD or plasma televisions. Using this approach, you can successfully place your speakers in such a way that you can be proud of your home theater and of your living room at the same time!

Always remember that the idea behind home theater is to set your system up so that you can enjoy movies to the fullest. Some people lose sight of this goal. Whatever you do with your home theater design, don’t fall into the trap of over-analyzing your results. Start enjoying those movies!

David Thomas was a design engineer in an acoustic field for nine years, and currently runs many information websites. His sites cover many topics, and a directory is available at http://djt-engineer.co.uk. Why not visit one of his sites today that covers home theater design?

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