(upbeat music) - [Host] Step inside the Spa Little Theater as it undergoes a $12 million renovation.

- That's really going to make it an unprecedented space in the Capital Region.

(violin music) - [Host] And catch a performance from Bluebird Strings.

It's all ahead on this episode of "AHA!"

- [Announcer] Funding for AHA!

has been provided by your contribution and by contributions to the WMHT Venture Fund.

Contributors include the Leo Cox Beach Philanthropic Foundation, Chet and Karen Opalka, Robert and Doris Fischer Malesardi, and the Robison Family Foundation.

(upbeat music) (singer vocalizing) - Hi, I'm Matt Rogowicz, and this is "AHA!

A House for Arts," a place for all things creative.

The Spa Little Theater, built in 1935, 31 years prior to the construction of the Saratoga Performing Arts Center's main amphitheater, is undergoing a major $12 million renovation.

I recently spoke with SPAC's CEO, Elizabeth Sobol, to learn about what we can expect to see when the theater reopens.

But before we hear from Elizabeth Sobol, here's a special look back at WMHT's 2016 documentary, "SPAC at 50."

This clip showcases the special relationship that chamber music has to the Spa Little Theater.

(classical music) - My love story with SPAC started in 1990, actually, when I was performing with a soloist with the Montreal Symphony at Carnegie Hall.

And Herb Chesbrough, who was the president of SPAC at that time, said, "We have the little theater at Saratoga.

I really want to start a serious chamber music series."

I think there had been a few attempts in the past, but nobody was in charge of the series.

So some musicians would get together and play concerts, and it wasn't publicized, and it wasn't organized.

(classical music) I remember, if I may say so, we had some fantastic concerts.

Most people that came through Saratoga have very fond memories of these summers that we spent together making beautiful music.

(classical music) - You know, when Chantal started Chamber Music series, that was quite visionary.

Chamber music was not as popular, but now chamber music is everywhere in the world.

(classical music) Chamber music is that art form without a conductor.

It's a diplomatic act.

It's a communication tool.

- It's on a more personal level.

You have to share intimacy of the music.

I would say it's like the gathering of a few friends together and sharing opinions.

(classical music) - It's incredibly passionate and intimate all at the same time.

I myself is one of those people that discovered chamber music much later in my life, and I just fell madly in love with this art form.

It's so much fun to watch musician looking at each other and throwing different musical idea on stage right on the spot, and everybody respond to it.

So when Marcia invited David and I to continue this incredible tradition, we're very, very proud.

We studied the program.

We study all of the things Chantal has done, and it's extraordinary what she has accomplished.

- When I first came into the little theater, it was a complete surprise because I had been many years before to The Shed where the orchestra plays, and I didn't even know this building was here.

But I have to admit that when I walked in here and I looked at it, for some reason, I thought, oh, maybe it's not going to sound so great.

And as soon as we got in here and started to play and I started to listen to rehearsals, we said to each other, "My God, this place sounds great.

It's an acoustical gem."

(classical music) - We love it here.

We love the audiences.

We love the theater.

Our musicians love playing here.

Saratoga is centered around the idea of good health and renewal back from the days of the springs.

And so that to us fits together with classical music and especially chamber music.

(classical music) - SPAC has such incredible reputation, and Chamber Music Society is very proud to join that roster and make SPAC our summer home.

(classical music) - So, 10 years ago, whenever I think about my beginning at SPAC, I think what really blew me away was this incredible embrace of nature that is so much part of this amphitheater.

I mean, look at where we are.

(classical music) And so when I got here, I really thought of the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, not just as a big amphitheater where huge spectacles take place, but kind of as a perfect confluence of human being and natural beauty.

And when I got here, the physical campus had suffered from many decades of neglect and deferred maintenance.

So I knew that in order for this to be a welcoming, beautiful place that honored the history and the beauty of what we do, that there needed to be a transformation of the physical campus.

There were a lot of issues of safety and security that needed to be solved for; issues of functionality.

There were tons of restrooms that did not work because the plumbing was just so old.

A lack of functionality, a lack of gathering space outside of the amphitheater.

So all of these things were issues that, in our minds, we were looking to solve.

And on October one of 2019, we broke ground for this new campus, the Pines campus.

And it's just grown and flourished since then with the addition of literary programs and visual arts programs and our culinary programs.

A lot more family activity on the campus.

It's just a more welcoming, aesthetically pleasing campus.

The Spa Little Theater is so unusual and so remarkable.

It was built in 1935 with money from then Governor Roosevelt.

It was part of what was then called the "Roosevelt Campus," one of America's first hydrotherapy spas.

So the Spa Little Theater was a lecture hall.

And the beauty that came from that is that it was created with a perfect acoustic.

(classical music) My first time in the Spa Little Theater, to be honest, I had a mixed reaction to it.

When you walk into the theater itself, there is an intimacy to it.

And then around it, everything else I saw was in decline.

Heartbreaking, actually.

And so these two things sort of stuck in my mind of what the core essence of the Spa Little Theater was, which was perfection, but how much work it needed, you know, after a 1935 build to have so many decades without any real care or renovation.

One year ago, we embarked upon a $12 million renovation of the Spa Little Theater that's really going to make it an unprecedented space in the Capital Region.

It is a total transformation except that what's being done in the theater itself is really more cosmetic than anything.

There are things being done to the stage because there were very serious issues around accessibility and just the functionality of the stage itself.

Because, remember, it wasn't built as a theater, so it didn't have a lot of the things that a basic theater setup would've had.

So we're trying to address those things on the stage and behind the stage.

But in terms of the listener experience, the seats will be in the same positions.

The acoustic will be the same.

We've given a lot of attention to preserving that pristine acoustic.

But it's really the outside, the sort of peripheral part of the theater.

So some of the things are creating a much more ample and robust ADA entrance to the theater.

It was very problematic previously.

There have been changes made to the entrance to the theater so that there won't be as much sort of packing into the entryway, moving of the box office.

But where it really starts to get interesting is that the building was never provided with dressing rooms and a green room for the artists.

Theater, like, first and foremost, has to attend to the artists, and there was no real dressing rooms and green room for the artists.

So parks very generously gave up some of their space in the admin building to provide for a very ample, beautiful backstage area for the artists themselves.

That then freed up rooms on either side where we will have a beautiful bistro on one side and a gorgeous community room on the other.

And so when patrons come for a performance, they're not just stuck in that entrance lobby.

There will be an ability to go have a coffee or a glass of wine or something in the bistro, the ability to go into the community room when there are pre-show events and everything.

And it would just provide not only gathering space, but a kind of spaciousness that didn't exist in the theater before.

(classical music) 99% of the work will be done by December of 2026.

So we are very hopeful to be able to start welcoming people back in January with some more community-oriented events and give us a chance to get used to the newish space.

And also tune it up, as it were.

It's like an instrument, you know?

You get a brand new instrument; it takes time to let it settle and tune it up.

And then in March, we will embark upon a very ambitious schedule of programming in the non-summer season.

Obviously, these physical structures are of paramount importance because that's where the performances largely take place.

But what we've also been doing is serving the community.

And one of the biggest ways we serve the community is through education.

And so when I got here in 2016, we were serving 5,000 kids here in Saratoga.

Now we're serving 60,000 individuals throughout the Capital Region.

After 10 years, I feel incredibly grateful.

You know, I had a great run in New York City.

It was amazing years at IMG, amazing years at Universal.

But being here at SPAC, being here in Saratoga has brought a kind of beauty and connection to this incredible community that I never dreamed of.

It's just an incredibly rich and incomparable kind of feeling to be here.

- Please welcome Bluebird Strings.

(chamber music) (chamber music continues) (chamber music continues) (chamber music continues) (chamber music continues) (chamber music continues) (chamber music continues) (chamber music continues) (chamber music continues) (chamber music continues) (chamber music continues) (chamber music continues) (chamber music continues) (chamber music continues) (chamber music continues) (chamber music continues) (chamber music continues) (chamber music continues) (chamber music continues) (chamber music continues) (chamber music continues) (chamber music continues) (chamber music continues) (chamber music continues) (gentle music) Thanks for joining us.

For more arts, visit wmht.org/aha, and be sure to connect with us on social.

I'm Matt Rogowicz.

Thanks for watching.

(upbeat music) - [Announcer] Funding for AHA!

has been provided by your contribution and by contributions to the WMHT Venture Fund.

Contributors include the Leo Cox Beach Philanthropic Foundation, Chet and Karen Opalka, Robert and Doris Fischer Malesardi, and the Robison Family Foundation.