Far North. World Class. With a 3,800 square-foot main stage and a 1,067-seat capacity in the main theater, the Dr. James A. and Margaret C. Black Performance Hall is built for great events. Its versatile design allows it to transform into a 1,067-seat proscenium theater, a 583-seat venue for smaller-scale occasions, or an intimate 250-seat backstage jazz club.
Performance and Preparation Spaces
Performance facilities and dedicated practice spaces include the 1,448 square-foot Choral Room and the 1,790-square-foot Band Room.
Ample space for preparation is provided by two large Dressing Rooms, two small Star Dressing Rooms, Green Room, and Scene Shop for constructing stage elements, giving companies and crews everything they need.
Where Engineering Meets Art
The Rozsa Center delivers high-quality sound, lighting, space, and technical expertise. We help create events that do more than go off without a hitch, they astound.
James and Margaret Black Performance Hall
Listen. You'll like what you hear. Our performance hall is pitch perfect for choral and instrumental performances. The Klungness stage proscenium unfolds—combined with other unobtrusive walls to form an acoustical shell that requires very little manpower to deploy. The natural sound projection from stage is enhanced to new heights of listening quality.
In theatrical mode, shell ceiling and walls disappear, revealing a proscenium stage 32 feet deep (from plaster line to cyclorama) and 38 feet wide. Four touch-screen-controlled electric winches and 32 counterweight line sets offer flexibility and precision.
Technically spectacular shows begin with top-of-the-line lighting consoles, 480 dimmers, and more than 400 new lighting instruments, including several intelligent lights. A two-mode sound system offers clarity and precision for distinguished lectures and the spoken word, and a 10,000-watt jazz-and-rock system to kick out 40 channels of house mix—with another 40-channel board in the control room.
Gallery
Art all day and night. Take in dynamic exhibitions throughout the year. No ticket required for exhibits in the Rozsa's lower level galleries. During the academic year, visit gallery b to view student works in progress. Students in Project Learning Lab (sculpture and design) hold classes there, developing works of art in real-time and space. Student works are shown twice each semester: mid-semester showcases feature projects underway and end-of-semester exhibits celebrate a fully transformed gallery.
Tour out-of-the-ordinary exhibits from guest artists in A-Space, a professional exhibition space that engages all the senses—work you won't see anywhere else in the region.
Want more? Our Concourse Gallery showcases the Keweenaw's exceptional local artists in its Featured Artist Series, where artists are selected for their long-standing contributions to our region.
Samuel and Grace Horner Lobby
Beyond the proscenium—gatherings, collaboration, creativity.
Easy, elegant, the Sam and Grace Horner Lobby features 20-foot ceilings and a soaring 160-foot glass wall, a welcoming, infinitely flexible space for pre-show get-togethers, intermission refreshments at our Concessions, and as a standalone venue that accommodates 500 for stand-up receptions, and seats 220 comfortably. Air-conditioned, with views of our sustainable native garden plantings for four-season interest, the Horner lobby is the largest of many Rozsa spaces available for your event—company presentations to wedding receptions. Location of the Rozsa Box Office.
McArdle Theatre
Education happens here. Beyond the Mezzanine and Green Room, offices, and the Rozsa Conference Room (comfortably seats 20), beyond concessions and the ticketing office—our classrooms. Connected to the Walker Arts and Humanities Center, home to Michigan Tech's Department of Visual and Performing Arts, the Rozsa provides space for talented faculty, students, and campus-community ensembles to perfect the craft—and shine. The McArdle Theater is a flexible black-box creative space for concerts, music festivals, and studio recording sessions that also serves as a sound stage.
