Becoming attractions

It has been six years since Southeast Missouri State University first announced plans for its River Campus, which would include a performing arts center, while about 90 minutes away in Paducah, Ky., 10 years went by before the Luther F. Carson Four Rivers Center finally opened to the public in February.

Already both facilities share one thing in common: years of investment. They are also both intended to provide people with a convenient, local venue for cultural activities such as dance, theater and musical performances.

But the most obvious difference is that the River Campus' opening is still at least two years away.

According to Martin Jones, the dean of the university's school of liberal arts, the River Campus plans are midway through the design and development phase of construction. Design and development should wrap up by May 15, and then work on the blueprints will begin. Construction will likely not get started until early 2005, and the projected completion date is August 2006.

But the performing space does have a name --The Bedell Performance Hall, named after the university's largest donor, Don Bedell of Sikeston, Mo.

Bedell Hall and the Four Rivers Center have other distinctions. The hall will be part of a larger building, while the center stands on its own.

The plans are to house Bedell Hall in the same building as the regional museum, rooms for students and faculty, a welcome center, a dance studio, and a smaller theater that can be used for experimental performances and is designed for flexibility in order to accommodate several different types of productions and seating arrangements.

Bedell Hall will seat 950 patrons, which makes it much smaller than the 1,806-seat Four Rivers. This size difference goes together with how the performance venues are presented. In Paducah, the Four Rivers Center is the star attraction, while in Cape Girardeau Bedell Hall will be a group player.

On the rivers

Both arts venues do, however, share a great riverfront location. The Four Rivers Center is at 417 S. Fourth St. near Paducah's downtown, and it offers an unbeatable view of the Ohio River. Bedell Hall will have an equally prized plot of land with a view of the Mississippi River.

Both venues also aim to have a facility that attracts visitors from the four-state region.

When people walk into the lobby of the Four Rivers Center, the first thing they are likely to see is a mural that depicts a large map of the four-state area underneath a quilt motif.

"The regionality of the center is very important to us," said Rayla Trigg, public relations coordinator at Four Rivers. "We get people from all areas, and that's nice."

With an official Missouri welcome center housed in the same building, Bedell Hall is also intended to bring in more than Cape Girardeau visitors.

The fact that Cape Girardeau is home to a university does make it different from Paducah in that a good deal of the complex where Bedell Hall will be placed, and the hall itself, will be used by students and faculty from the arts department. Four Rivers is home to Paducah's symphony, and while Bedell will be home to the Southeast Missouri Symphony Orchestra, that orchestra is mostly made up of university students and staff.

Also, Bedell Hall came out of the need for better performance facilities on campus.

When Jones first came to the university in 1989, he was part of a task force that did an analysis of the arts needs of the region. The task force determined there was a need for a substantial performing arts center for the university and the region. With the exception of Rose Theatre, which is starting to show its 39 years, there were no venues designed specifically for theatrical, music and dance productions.

In Paducah, there was a concern that the city did not have an adequate venue that would bring in more visitors to the city.

The Four Rivers Center now has a number of well-known acts booked through the fall. Some of the performances in the coming months include Bill Cosby, "Grease," "Beauty and the Beast," Itzhak Perlman, Bob Newhart, The Smothers Brothers and George Carlin.

It is too early in the development of Bedell Hall to know what mix of acts might be booked, but Jones said it will include university and outside acts.

As for whether it will be in competition with the Show Me Center, which can seat up to 7,200 people, Jones said a great deal is determined by size.

"There are a lot of things you can book with 950 seats, but there are some things you can't," he said.

Bedell Hall will not be housing rodeos or wrestling as the Show Me Center does.

"I think there will be an interesting mix in Cape" because of the two venues, Jones said.

While for now Cape Girardeau residents might have to travel to Paducah to enjoy a play, ballet or musical performance at a state-of-the-art facility, work on the River Campus is moving along, and with it a performing arts venue Cape Girardeau call its own.

"There's a sense that the reality of the River Campus is coming along," Jones said. "I'm very optimistic about it and looking forward to it with a great deal of delight."

kalfisi@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 182