FDA News

We are always working on new projects and trying to support the field in a variety of ways, and some of our completed work finds itself in the news. These are the latest stories.

Mark’s Top Ten: The Bradley Symphony Center

President and Executive Director Mark Niehaus walks through his top 10 favorite things about the new home of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, the Bradley Symphony Center.

Picture: Joshua Dachs on the CI To Eye Podcast

In this episode, Joshua and Erik lift the curtain on the mysteries of theater design. They discuss how seat layout impacts the way comedy is received, why some roadhouses have “absurd capacities,” and why Broadway theaters are so uncomfortable.

screen capture of video call with Fundación Teatro a Mil's Sixth National Programmers

Fundación Teatro a Mil’s Sixth National Programmers Meeting – TeatroHoy: Rethinking space

Our very own Joshua Dachs weighs in on the conversation “Repensar el espacio. Cómo imaginamos los teatros del futuro” – Rethinking space. How we imagine the theaters of the future. Presented by Fundación Teatro a Mil and HowlRound Theatre Commons

End Structural Racism In America

Here at FDA we’re committed to working toward ending structural racism in America. We certainly don’t have all the solutions, but we can listen, we can learn, and we can act. FDA commits to the following actions:

What is Theater Planning and Design?

A question we are asked all the time. So here is Cathleen Bachman, our head of Planning and Room Design with a brief overview. We believe in providing knowledge-based design through real world experience, and provide a range of core services to support that objective. Take a listen.

Sharper vision

Expert brings proposed downtown arts center into focus
by Lawrence Cosentino

A national theater expert laid out the most detailed vision yet for Lansing’s proposed downtown performing arts center last week, moving a heavy ball carried by three mayors over 20 years a few more inches down the field of dreams…

Read the full article, originally published on the Lansing City Pulse

The Shed: Q&A with Fisher Dachs Associates

This article was originally published on Live Design
By Ellen Lampert-Greaux

Offscript: Theatre Architecture, ‘Disgraced’ in China

Full original publication on AmericanTheatre.org

Editors Rob Weinert-Kendt and Diep Tran are joined by Joshua Dachs, the founder of theatre planning and design firm Fisher Dachs Associates. They discuss the recent controversies around the Public Theater’s Julius Caesar and theatre critic Hedy Weiss, and what each case says about free speech and censorship. Then Dachs talks about his essay about the cyclical history of theatre design, which anchors AT‘s July/Aug. ’17 theme issue about theatre architecture.

The Neutrality Trap

By Joshua Dachs
(originally written for, and publishing in, American Theatre Magazine)

The great minds of 20th-century theatre wanted to free our thinking about theatre spaces. How did we end up in a black box?

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