{"id":177056,"date":"2025-08-26T12:58:16","date_gmt":"2025-08-26T12:58:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/177056\/"},"modified":"2025-08-26T12:58:16","modified_gmt":"2025-08-26T12:58:16","slug":"inside-sds-new-43m-performing-arts-center-at-liberty-station","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/177056\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside SD’s New $43M Performing Arts Center at Liberty Station"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rows of untouched seats face a stage still smelling faintly of sawdust and fresh paint. The air is quiet, almost reverent, as if the newly constructed theater is holding its breath before the curtain rises. After years of planning, one of the remaining puzzle pieces of Arts District Liberty Station<\/a> is finally finding its place: the $43.5 million Joan and Irwin Jacobs Performing Arts Center<\/a> (The Joan).\u00a0<\/p>\n

Named in honor of co-benefactor Joan Jacobs, The Joan is Liberty Station\u2019s most recent addition to its lively Arts District and the new home of the Cygnet Theatre<\/a>, which spent the past two decades in Old Town<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Housed in Building 178 (formerly a 1940s-era Naval Base Exchange) at Truxtun and Roosevelt roads, the project marries history and modern design<\/a>. Inside the 42,000-square-foot space is a 282-seat mainstage, flexible 150-seat black box theatre, and open-air lobby. Backstage, the full kit includes green rooms, dressing rooms, and even an orchestra space.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"BreakingCourtesy of Cygnet Theatre<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is beyond anything we\u2019ve ever done,\u201d says Lisa Johnson, president and CEO of Arts District Liberty Station (formerly NTC Foundation). \u201cIt\u2019s going to elevate our entire Liberty Station community<\/a>.\u201d Since the late \u201990s, the nonprofit has overseen the transformation of its 27 historic buildings into a cultural playground full of galleries, dance studios, and the Public Market. Adding a dedicated performance venue, she says, was always the missing piece.<\/p>\n

The idea first surfaced in 2008, when there was talk of converting the space into a theater, but the plan was deemed too costly to operate. By 2017, however, the demand for live performance space was impossible to ignore. Meanwhile, Cygnet Theatre was ready to trade its Old Town nest for something more permanent<\/a>. A partnership was born, and the two nonprofits got to work raising funds and getting the show on the road.<\/p>\n

To execute the vision, Arts District Liberty Station tapped Christopher Bittner of obrArchitecture<\/a> and the theater-design wizards at Fisher Daxon Associates<\/a>. For Bittner, who\u2019s been behind some of Liberty Station\u2019s most striking renovations, including the Public Market, the challenge was less about creating something flashy than about honoring the bones of a 4,000-square-foot historic building with a layered past.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"CastCourtesy of Cygnet Theatre
The cast of Follies at The Joan<\/p>\n

And what a past it was. Before The Joan, Building 178 was basically a sailor\u2019s one-stop shop: a department store, a tailor, a coffee shop, a disco called \u201cHot Sounds,\u201d a movie theatre, and even a bowling alley tucked in the basement. \u201cThe bowling alley was one of the biggest design inspirations,\u201d Bittner says. \u201cWe thought it was so unique and weird that it was in the historic building, so the entire lobby was inspired by its design.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Not in the neon bowling pins and cosmic carpet way, but with a sleek, open-air design; wood and steel detailing; and triangular floor inlays that point guests toward the stage like arrows on a lane. Think Gatsby, if he traded his Champagne tower for a bowling alley. Behind the scenes, the original lane numbers hang quietly by the dressing rooms\u2014a wink to the building\u2019s past life.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything we talked about design-wise, we talked about acoustically,\u201d Bittner explains. It\u2019s one thing to build a well-designed theatre. It\u2019s another to build one right under a flight-line\u2014you can\u2019t have the \u201cPoint Loma<\/a> pause\u201d cutting off the final act of the show. Eight inches of concrete and layers of acoustic materials and treatments fixed that right up, essentially grounding all flights until the cast takes their final bow.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Not a bad landing spot for a theatre company that spent the first five years of its life in a renovated women\u2019s gym in Rolando. Despite its humble beginnings, Cygnet has now made a name for itself in the performing arts community and already has its full season at The Joan mapped out. Co-founder and artistic director Sean Murray compares it to \u201cartistic whiplash,\u201d or planning a multi-course dinner party. \u201cYou don\u2019t want all dessert or all main entr\u00e9es,\u201d he says. \u201cEvery dish is one that complements the other, but [they] are totally different.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"CastCourtesy of Cygnet Theatre<\/p>\n

Kicking off its full-course season<\/a> is Goldman and Sondheim\u2019s Follies<\/a>\u2014the gripping story of former Follies girls returning to the theater where they once performed, now to be destroyed and turned into a parking lot. The irony only makes it more riveting: the first show in a brand-new space featuring an old, crumbling 1930s theater as a set.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Plus, it\u2019s a \u201cride home play,\u201d according to Murray. \u201cYou leave the show and you don\u2019t just forget what you saw. You actually have a conversation about it driving home,\u201d he explains. \u201cFor us, that\u2019s what theatre\u2019s about. It\u2019s not just being entertained. It\u2019s about looking at ourselves, other communities, and other ways of living and opening our eyes to life.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

But The Joan isn\u2019t just for loyal Cygnet fans. It\u2019s meant to be part of the larger Liberty Station experience. The venue deliberately serves no food, nudging patrons to wander across the campus for dinner or a drink, while flyers for local artists<\/a> and pottery classes dot the walls.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to create that feeling that you\u2019re not just going to see a play at Cygnet; you\u2019re actually going to come have an experience,\u201d Murray says. \u201cGo to dinner, walk the grounds, have a bottle of wine, see the show, and linger after and argue about it. It\u2019s all a part of the circular love fest.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Ribbon cutting for The Joan will be held September 5, followed by a first preview of Follies on September 10 and an official opening date of September 13.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rows of untouched seats face a stage still smelling faintly of sawdust and fresh paint. The air is…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":177057,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,9971,1582,276,18473,42025,37443,3549,7264,1072,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-177056","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-arts-culture","10":"tag-ca","11":"tag-california","12":"tag-everything-sd","13":"tag-liberty-station","14":"tag-living-design","15":"tag-san-diego","16":"tag-sandiego","17":"tag-things-to-do","18":"tag-united-states","19":"tag-united-states-of-america","20":"tag-unitedstates","21":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","22":"tag-us","23":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115095188651702125","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177056","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177056"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177056\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/177057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}