A new outdoor performing arts and event venue informed by the historic campus context at Missouri State University, the longstanding tradition of Tent Theatre, and a progressive vision to better integrate arts, education, and community.

During a hot summer in 1963, a tent was erected at Missouri State University to house a series of summer performances conducted by the theatre department.  Conceived as a response to poor indoor environmental conditions, the inaugural production was so wildly popular that it quickly outgrew its initial venue, cementing an annual event and prompting a series of expansions and modifications to both its capacity and format over the next fifty years.  Now entering its 56th season, Tent Theatre has become synonymous with the region’s summer offerings, attracting thousands of theatre-goers to a unique affair in which students perform alongside professionals.

This historic event warrants a venue which reflects its legacy within the current trajectory and contemporary needs of the University and surrounding region.  The focus of this transformation centers on both site and shelter; a reimagination of a campus quadrangle as well as the venue itself.  An inclusive outdoor pavilion for the performing arts evolves from a temporary festival to a site of year-long engagement and events.

The pavilion floats above a landscape of shallow terraces that merge performance and program.  Two large, accessible paths frame a series of renewed outdoor spaces which host an array of formal and informal program.  Incorporating themes of light, diffusion, resonance, and sightline, the envisioned canopy synthesizes all performative requirements into a single, translucent pavilion roof that dramatically enhances the experience for both actor and audience while recalling its origins under tent.

The pavilion floats above a landscape of shallow terraces that merge performance and program.  Two large, accessible paths frame a series of renewed outdoor spaces which host an array of formal and informal program.  Incorporating themes of light, diffusion, resonance, and sightline, the envisioned canopy synthesizes all performative requirements into a single, translucent pavilion roof that dramatically enhances the experience for both actor and audience while recalling its origins under tent.