The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts has opened the Harvey Fierstein Theatre Lab at Lincoln Center, a one-of-a-kind, multi-use incubator space dedicated to the study and exploration of theater in all forms. Designed by David Rockwell and the LAB at Rockwell Group, the Lab is a welcoming, flexible learning environment for the next generation of theater artists to create or view all kinds of American Theater.
The Harvey Fierstein Theater Lab is an acoustically isolated environment allowing for an immersive experience into Lincoln Center’s rare archive of theater and Broadway performances. At the touch of a button, visitors can transform the Lab into the ultimate scenic partner, with deep, dark blue walls, millwork, and curtains suggesting a modern re-envisioning of a black box. Open to theater groups and the public, the Lab serves as an incubator for creation and collaboration.
On one end of the rectangular space is the “Play Wall,” a state-of-the-art digitally integrated storage wall with modular acting blocks, a mobile media panel and curtains, portable furnishings, and display cases showcasing a rotating selection of set models – a series of elements that can pop out, roll away, expand, collapse, illuminate and inspire.
Functioning for both creative ideation and storage, the Play Wall’s mobile media panel features an integrated OLED TV screen that pulls out and can be flipped to reveal a whiteboard on the back to be used for workshops. An overscale screen that spans the entire wall opposite the Play Wall allows the space to become a screening room.