By Jonathan Wemette

	Why are these two men smiling? Because Caldwell Theatre Company artistic director Michael C. Hall has a brand new $10 miilion theatre, and playwright Michael McKeever has a new play premiering there next month.

“Who knows why this got painted pink,” Michael Hall muses as he passes through one of the Caldwell’s new brightly-colored backstage corridors. “Basically, we’re doing [a color scheme of] yellow and—Hey, how you doing?” He interrupts himself to greet a haggard-looking man carrying a ladder, but the meeting is brief. “Work!” he bellows as the man and his ladder pass by.

His energy isn’t panicked, though. He seems more like a homeowner going through last minute touch-ups before the guests arrive for a big party. “It was worse about three months ago,” Hall admits, “when it was like, ‘Are we going to make it?’”

	Amy Monminy, Pat Nesbit and Terry Hardcastle in Doubt by John Patrick Shanley, the first production in the new theatre Photo: Courtesy Sigvision

Now, there is little question about their making it. The chandeliers are up, the wheelchair-accessible ramps are down, the roomy seats are in and the finishing touches are being put on Doubt’s Catholic school setting. The first audiences should expect to see a polished product, both onstage and in the lobby.

Polished, though, doesn’t necessarily mean finished. One of the first things you notice when Hall talks about the Count de Hoernle Theatre is how many plans he still has for the new space.

“We’re going to reveal it in increments,” is the way technical director Tim Bennett puts it as he looks over a new shade of green for the lobby. So while audiences eager to see the theatre’s potential should check out Doubt for the early buzz, they’ll have to come back again for the full picture.

The theatre itself will look both familiar and improved. Its layout is nearly identical to Caldwell’s home for the last 18 years in the Levitz Plaza: two seating sections, front and back, with the front split down the middle by a wide aisle. “Our people love their center aisle seats,” Hall says. The size of the house is also similar, though precisely how similar is hard to pin down. “One person says 332 [seats], somebody says 333,” Hall says, looking at some of the chairs still covered by tarps and laughing. “There may be some more, but we haven’t been able to uncover them and count.”

	The Caldwell Theatre Company’s new Count de Hoernle Theatre in Boca Raton

Improvements that will be evident on opening night include the wider seats, a higher ceiling, and—for those with sharp ears—a rich, vibrant sound. Hall is particularly proud of the theatre’s acoustics.

“We have an acoustician who has been down several times. He was here the other day and he was very happy.” This was of the utmost concern to Hall, because, as he says, “We don’t mic. I’m really strong about [the importance of] the human voice.”

Something audiences won’t see right away is the full scope of the Caldwell’s new stage. While the Doubt set is meticulous in its detail and fills the 38’x18’ proscenium, it doesn’t take full advantage of the stage’s depth, fly space or wings.

“This is a shallow set on purpose,” Hall explains, “simply because we never worked in here before.”

Their second show, the world premiere of a farce by South Florida playwright Michael McKeever, won’t necessarily lend itself to an enormous set either. But Hall says of their third show, Marie Antoinette: The Color of Flesh, that it “could very well be massive,” and he expects it to make full use of their new expanse.

	An aerial view of the Count de Hoernle Theatre while it was under construction

The Founders’ Room is another big space in the new building. A valuable asset to the Caldwell, it’s a hall perfect for hosting social events and celebrations. It features a chandelier left to the theatre by Frank Bennett, the Caldwell’s other co-founder, and opens onto an outdoor patio.

The lobby, too, is strikingly large, particularly for South Florida, where few theatres have the luxury of an entire building to themselves. The dominant feature is the giant window looking out onto Federal Highway, giving the lobby an open, airy quality that will be especially welcome at sunny-day matinees. With a slight curve, it’s meant to evoke the proscenium arch, though at 42’x21’, it’s even larger by a few feet.

Like the theatre, the total experience of the lobby isn’t quite finished yet.

“What I’m going to do eventually is hang huge blowups of some of our favorite photographs of the shows, like a mural,” says Hall. “That’s in the future, maybe even this season.”

Speaking of photographs, another benefit of the new building, is more room for the archives. And in 33 years, the Caldwell has built up quite a collection, including what Hall describes as “every musical ever recorded, ever,” which will now be stored in a room adjacent to the Founders’ Room. Hall has future plans even for these: they’re largely on records, he says, and “somebody in time will put them onto CDs.”

	Pat Nesbit and Terry Hardcastle in Doubt

The building has more valuable features that the public won’t see—a generous load-in area for the sets (which will continue to be built offsite), ample prop and costume storage, an ultra-private rehearsal room that Hall lovingly calls his “padded cell”—but the most important consideration in the design was always the audience. When the cost of the building doubled after Hurricane Wilma, one of the first things to go was the staff’s office space.

Hall ends the tour at Caldwell’s old home where he’s rehearsing Doubt, just down the sidewalk from their new home. The lobby here is stuffed with old props, Caldwell memorabilia and office supplies. There’s no doubt this theatre is moving. When asked about the difficulty of directing a show in the middle of it all, Hall responds, “The good news is that I love the play and I love my four actors, so that is actually a joy. Going into rehearsal is really free of tension and worry.”

And a good rehearsal may be an apt metaphor for the Caldwell’s new home: it’s exciting as it is, but more exciting still for what’s to come.