You have to plan it out a year in advance. Van Alstyne's method is to use what's out there, and so far, it has worked. But renting that venue is expensive, and he is still looking for a stage for this spring's production of the children's classic. Expense isn't the only drawback to using the Pioneer Center. Size of the seating area as well as the stage affects the quality of the performance, Denise Dozell of A Wing and a Prayer Dance Company said.
Some stages are too small to accommodate certain productions.
Other venues have an immense feel that dilutes the electricity of the performance if the house isn't packed. The Pioneer Center seats 1,500 people but can feel cavernous if only a quarter of it is filled. When you put 400 people in that huge auditorium, they feel lost, weird. Reno doesn't have much in the way of intimate venues for smaller dance companies such as Area 51, said founder Elizabeth Weigel. And even if the seating capacity is there, other problems arise.