Children's Musical Theater San Jose

Theatrical Training for Young Performers

HGA worked with Children’s Musical Theater (CMT) pro-bono for the programming and initial test fit through our community action program, helping them translate a former 25,000 square-foot dollar store into a highly functioning creative arts center that met their budget.

Understanding of user types was critical to space planning to create efficiency and make the space easy to use. Designers approached the project by defining user personas and determining their needs. This included the CMT staff who require a traditional office environment; students, with varying drop off and pick up procedures, who need a community room to gather and store their belongings; set builders, who required a full shop with rolling garage doors to move sets; parent volunteers, who need a robust costume storage/alteration room; and the space had to accommodate catering/food service for special events.

By approaching the project components as jigsaw pieces, designers incorporated each necessary space and helped the CMT operations flow more seamlessly than they thought possible. The community and green room were placed next to each other and to a new side entrance to accommodate drop off and include moveable furniture for dual use, including donor events or busy rehearsal days. The box office at the front, connects to the office space to streamline staffing and space types. The shop was placed in the back for easy access to the rehearsal spaces to move set pieces and provide security from the tools. The two large rehearsal spaces, each of which are the same size as the Montgomery Theater stage, where performances take place, were placed to accommodate column placement.

CMT’s early acknowledgment to invest time in programming and space planning helped them to maximize their budget and creatively consolidate all of their prior spaces into one thriving creative arts center.