The Ferguson Center For The Performing Arts is a new theater and concert hall on the campus of Christopher Newport University in Newport News, Virginia. It is scheduled to fully open in September of 2005. Christopher Newport University, locally abbreviated CNU, is a small liberal arts university located in Newport News, Virginia. ... Newport News, Hampton, Portsmouth and Norfolk, Virginia from space, July 1996 Newport News is an independent city located in Virginia. ... September is the ninth month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar and one of four Gregorian months with the length of 30 days. ... 2005 is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar and is the current year. ...

The Name

The site of the Ferguson Center is the former Ferguson High School. The name "Ferguson" is well-known in the Newport News area. Homer L. Ferguson was a President of the nearby Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company, and the high school was named after him. Additionally, Newport News is home to the corporate headquarters of Ferguson Enterprises, a leading plumbing-supply company. That company has sponsored the construction of the center, and has been granted naming rights as a result. Naming the building the Ferguson Center turns out to be a "perfect fit" for the center and the community, as the site of the building would have likely been referred to as "Ferguson" by locals anyway, given the long time frame by which it was known as such during its time as a high school. Northrop Grumman Newport News, formerly called Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company (NNS), is the largest privately owned shipyard in the United States and the only one that can build Nimitz-class supercarriers. ...

Role at CNU

The Ferguson Center has long been considered the centerpiece of CNU President Paul Trible's expansion efforts. When Trible assumed the presidency in 1996, he put forward a lofty plan to build the university from its perceived status as an "overgrown community college" to something with a bit more influence in the region. Since the beginning of the expansion effort, the Ferguson Center has been the main construction project on campus. Trible's original goal was to have the Center ready for a gala on New Year's Eve, 1999. Funding did not quickly enough to meet this ambitious goal, however. Paul Seward Trible, Jr. ... 1996 is a leap year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year for the Eradication of Poverty. ...

As plans for the theater progressed, there had been criticism within the university community that money being spent on the project could have been better spent in a more academic way. It was originally planned that the building would be unavailable for the college's music and theater departments, or for student organizations to book events. It would, essentially, simply be a concert hall that happened to sit on a college campus. It appears that the policy has since been relaxed, and the school's Music and Theater Departments will have access to at least some of the building. Whether or not the student body, via its campus organizations, will be able to book acts to the building remains to be seen.

Trible has managed to impress several in the community with the big names brought in for the project. The architectural firm of Pei Cobb Freed and Partners, led by famous modern architect I. M. Pei, was selected to design the building. This has led many at the school and in the community to acknowledge the viability of the Center, rather than dismiss it off-hand as a fantasy of Trible's. I.M. Pei Ieoh Ming Pei (b April 26, 1917) is a Pritzker Prize winning architect, known as the last master of high modernist architecture. ...

Construction and first events

The building has been put together in two construction phases. The first phase, completed in the summer of 2004, included a 440-seat Music and Theater Hall, along with a 200-seat Studio Theater. The second phase, with an anticipated completion in the summer of 2005, will contain the Concert Hall, a 1,700 seat theater acoustically designed for stage performance. It is believed that this hall will be what most local residents refer to when they mention "The Ferguson Center" in conversation. 2004 is a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 2005 is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar and is the current year. ...

American singer Tony Bennett was chosen to be the first to perform in the building. He did so on September 1, 2004, in one of the theaters completed in the first phase of construction. He is said to have remarked, "They don't make theaters like this anymore!" Actor and singer Michael Crawford has been chosen to open the Concert Hall, backed by the New York Pops. Tony Bennett, 2000 Tony Bennett (born August 3, 1926) is an American popular music, standards, and jazz singer who is widely considered to be one of the best interpretative singers in these genres. ... Michael Crawford as the Phantom of the Opera, wearing the now famous half-mask, in the 1986 musical by Andrew Lloyd Weber. ...

External link

• Ferguson Center site at cnu.edu