Installations

Overture Hall in Madison, Wisconsin's Overture Center for the Performing Arts Hall is not "tunable" as much as it is transformable. It can sound, according to technical director Steve Schroeder, extremely dry, "like playing into an old sock," or it can be a superior orchestral hall with excellent reverberation and decay time.

Designed by Cesar Pelli & Associates in collaboration with Potter Lawson, Flad & Associates, Theatre Projects Consultants and acoustical consultants Kirkegaard Associates, the new 2,251-seat, multi-purpose hall is the heart of the Overture Center. It literally morphs from an acoustically dead space suited for amplified sound to an acoustically live space, both warm and brilliant, for symphony and opera.

Set in Arlington, Texas on more than 50 beautifully landscaped acres, at the heart of the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, is High Point Church (www.churchunusual.com), one of the fastest growing ministries in the country. Known as "Church Unusual," HPC's worship style has obviously struck a major chord with the public; from modest beginnings in 1999 among friends and relatives who gathered at the home of Pastor Gary Simons and his wife April, it has grown to encompass a 5,000-seat auditorium within a 423,000-square-foot complex that services 20 different ministries. And–according to Pastor Gary's master plan–this is only the beginning.

Everybody knows South Florida is a great place to retire–or at least a great place to spend the winter. But it may surprise those not in the know to learn that, besides warm weather, low taxes, early-bird dinners and great golf, there are some other pretty nice perks of "Gold Coast" retirement living. Such as regional theatre in some very cool venues. One of the classiest of those venues is the Palace Theatre for the Performing Arts, part of the Kings Point condominium complex in Tamarac, Fla. Situated between Miami and Palm Beach, Tamarac is a town of just more than 56,000 that's been voted one of the most livable cities in the country by the U.S. Council of Mayors. The Kings Point condominium complex, which opened in 1989, is a community of 8,000 over-55 residents. Designed for active adults, amenities include a lavish country club setting and greenbelt trails. It's a sweet setup, and, with the baby boomer retirement explosion on the way, it just might be the wave of the future.

Debuting in the completely rebuilt 1,951-seat theatre of Las Vegas' MGM Grand Hotel is KÀ, Cirque du Soleil's fifth Las Vegas extravaganza. Created and directed by acclaimed Québécois theatre and film director Robert Lepage, KÀ is one of the largest technical productions ever put together, combining acrobatics, martial arts, puppetry, multimedia, pyrotechnics, an original score and an elaborate sound design by Jonathan Deans. KÀ departs from previous Cirque productions by featuring a strongly defined story with clearly identified characters. Described by Cirque founder and CEO Guy Laliberte as "the most theatrical show we've ever done," KÀ is based on the ancient Egyptian belief in the ka, an invisible spiritual duplicate of the body that accompanies each person through this life and into the next. The tale is told as the saga of separated twins–a boy and a girl–who embark on a journey to fulfill their