Announcing the Platt Student Performing Arts Center
Designed by Steven Holl Architects and currently under construction at the corner of Chestnut and 33rd Streets, our new building will include 38,700 square feet of performance, teaching, rehearsal and practice spaces. When it opens in early 2027, the Platt Center will include the Edward W. Kane Theatre, a 326-seat performance space with a full fly tower and orchestra pit; a 125-seat studio theatre with flexible performance and rehearsal capabilities; five rehearsal studios; a student lounge; and an atrium lobby as well as performance support spaces and a loading dock. The building will target LEED silver certification and serve as an exemplar of sustainable theatre design.
- From Christopher Gruits, our Executive & Artistic Director:
“As the University’s home for the performing arts, our role is to nurture, incubate, present and support the full ecosystem of performance on campus. Julie and Marc’s generosity will be transformational, as more than a quarter of Penn’s undergraduate students participate in the performing arts. Expanding on their 2006 gift that created the Platt Student Performing Arts House, this new facility will greatly enhance opportunities for students to learn, create and refine their craft in state-of-the-art spaces. We are sincerely grateful to the Platts for their ongoing generosity and enduring commitment to student artists."
With the opening of the Platt Student Performing Arts Center and addition of the Stuart Weitzman Theatre at the Annenberg Center, our footprint expands to eight performance spaces, providing an increasingly wider array of creative opportunities. Stay tuned for more updates as we get closer to being able to share these exciting new venues with you.
About The Platts
Julie Beren Platt serves as Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees and is also on the Board of Advisors for Penn Live Arts and Penn Hillel’s National Board of Governors. She previously served on the Board of Advisors at the Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies and as President of the Penn Alumni Board of Directors. Marc E. Platt is a film, theatre and television producer, and serves on the Director’s Advisory Council for Penn Live Arts. Both Marc and Julie are former members of the Parent Leadership Committee, and four of their five children are Penn graduates. The Platts have generously supported multiple initiatives across the University, including establishing the Platt Student Performing Arts House and the Julie Beren Platt and Marc Platt Rehearsal Room in Houston Hall. In addition, they have funded initiatives at the Katz Center and endowed numerous undergraduate scholarships and professorships, and recently donated two leadership gifts to support the Jewish Studies Program at the School of Arts & Sciences.
