‘End of an era’: Ohio State’s Drake Performance Center closing after 50 years
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‘End of an era’: Ohio State’s Drake Performance Center closes after 50 years
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For half a century, the Drake Performance and Event Center has been the home of The Ohio State University’s Theatre Department as well as Buckeye TV, WOSR and many other staples of student life. However, as the Wexner Medical Center expands along the Olentangy River, the building’s time has come to an end.
“It’s just filled with memories [of] transformational moments and I think those are the things that everyone is going to remember and really wants to celebrate as well as we stare down the last few days of the Drake,'” said Kevin McClatchey, associate professor of theatre, film and media arts.
The Drake opened in 1972 as not only home to the theatre department, but as a student union as well.
Intended to be a west campus partner to the Ohio Union, the building was complete with restaurants, a bowling alley, docks along the river for boating and many more amenities for student recreation.
“It was really quite the locale,” said E.J. Westlake, department chair of theatre, film, and media arts. “So much has happened in the Drake and I know so many alumni are going to have so many memories of this building and the things that they did here.”
To honor the history of the building and give it a proper sendoff, the department is organizing a “Farewell to Drake” event.
“We’re really excited about this Farewell to the Drake event,” McClatchey said. “I think it’s going to be an organic, spontaneous celebration, a gathering of alums, community members, family and friends who have all shared in some fashion the events and the history of the Drake.”
The event will come to a close with a candlelight processional. Attendees will help carry the ghost lights that illuminate the stages of the Drake across campus to their new home in the department’s brand-new, state-of-the-art facility at the heart of Ohio State’s Arts District off of High Street.
“That’s significant because the ghost light tradition is both practical where we leave a ghost light on for people to be able to navigate the darkness of the theatre, but also in a more, sort of, creative, spiritual, traditional manner. It’s the on light we leave on all the time when the theater is unoccupied to appease the ghosts of theater and also keep the ghosts company and also keep the spirit of what we do in the theater alive,” McClatchey explained. “So, that’s a really significant symbol of moving from one place, bringing that spirit, that ensemble, that collaborative nature…and bringing the tradition and the history of The Drake and the department to this new building.”
The new home for the department is nestled between College Road and High Street in the heart of the Ohio State Arts District.
Westlake expressed excitement about the move and said it’s a great opportunity for the department.
While the Drake was stationed along the Olentangy River, the new home will place the department closer to other arts and humanities buildings at Ohio State.
“Theatre should be something that where we’re making yes, really great art together, we’re making really amazing theatre together,” Westlake said. “At the same time, there are so many applications to theatre that we haven’t even thought of yet and I think that the closer we are to people who think in very different ways and are addressing several different problems in the world, the more we’ll be able to be a partner in that.”
Westlake trusts that their new home will help all of the arts at Ohio State work together more effectively to make that vision a reality.
“The arts permeating the entire campus and being a central part of how people address world problems is my goal.”