The Victoria Gardens Cultural Center is a community library and performance venue attached to the Victoria Gardens lifestyle center in Rancho Cucamonga, California. The building, which links the Lewis Family Playhouse, the Paul A. Biane Library, and the Celebration Hall under one roof, officially opened on August 19, 2006. It is supported, in part, by The Rancho Cucamonga Library Foundation and the Rancho Cucamonga Community Foundation. These two organizations joined together in 2002 to create the Promoting Arts and Literacy fundraising campaign. Since then these two groups have continued to hold their annual fundraising events: the Rancho Cucamonga Public Library Telethon and the Community Foundation Gala for the sole benefit of the PAL campaign. The $33.8 million project was completed without the use of any City of Rancho Cucamonga's General Fund. Instead it was financed through a $7.8 million State Library Grant, $5.7 million partnership with Victoria Gardens regional town center developer Forest City Enterprises, private partnerships, Community Development Block Grant funds, and Redevelopment Agency Tax Allocation Bond Funds.
Lewis Family Playhouse
Lewis Family Playhouse is a city-owned and -operated performing arts center in the city of Rancho Cucamonga, California. The Playhouse is unique in that 65 percent of its shows are also owned, operated and produced by the city.
The resident companies, which are owned and operated by the city, include the following:
The MainStreet Theatre Company is an Equitytheater company producing theatrical productions especially for children and families. Previous shows included Ferdinand the Bull, Suessical, James and the Giant Peach and If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.
The Rancho Cucamonga Community Theatre program is designed to provide a quality learning and performance experience for youth, teens, and adults in the community. Previous shows include A Christmas Carol, Oliver! and Steel Magnolias.
Broadway at the Gardens presents a single high quality, high tech, high energy musical theatre production each year. Their premiere production was ' in 2009.
The Black Box Productions' are presented in the Studio Theatre and offer more intimate, more dramatic works. Shows include The Diary of Adam & Eve and Proof''.
Seating
The Playhouse has a total of 536 seats. This includes 8 spaces for wheelchairs. Additional assisted seating is available by removing seats in row G. An additional 24 seats are available when the apron of the stage is at floor level. The 536 seats are distributed as follows:
190 Lower Orchestra
196 Upper Orchestra/Mezzanine
150 Balcony
Stage
Proscenium Opening: 40' wide x 22' high
Stage Width: 78' - 5" clear from fly rail stage left to stage right wall
Stage Depth: 34' - 9" clear from smoke pocket to face of rear wall.
Grid Height: 57' - 6" from finished floor
SR Wing: 21' - 1" from Proscenium to SR Wall
SL Wing: 17' - 4" from Proscenium to Locking Rail
Fixed Stage Apron: 7' - 10-1/2" depth from face of main drapery to edge of pit
Orchestra Pit : 9' - 11-1/2" deep, maximum radius point at center line
The Playhouse has a single-purchase Counterweight fly system with 33 lines available. These general-purpose battens are 54 feet long, 1.5-inch schedule 40 black pipe, with a loading capacity per batten approximately 30lb/linear foot.
Paul A. Biane Library
The Paul A Biane Library opened alongside the Lewis Family Playhouse with the Victoria Gardens Cultural center in August 2006. The building was named after San Bernardino County Supervisor Paul Biane who secured more than $1 million USD in tax money to build the library. There have been talks to expand the Biane Library, which has of space on the second floor that is not utilized. The proposed concept for the space is a children's center. The Library features a 21 computer technology center, 5 study rooms available for public use that accommodate anywhere from 2 to 6 people, a quiet reading room, a 'Boutique Bookstore' and free wireless internet provided by the city of Rancho Cucamonga. The library also has a wide variety of programs designed especially for children and adults. They also occasionally team up with the Lewis Family Playhouse to put on events that use the Celebration Hall rental facility, The Lewis Family Playhouse, the Imagination Courtyard and the library itself.
Celebration Hall
Celebration Hall is a facility with the flexibility of sectioning the hall in up to three rooms. Its main function is to serve as a multi-purpose room with full kitchen amenities and audio/visual capabilities. Patrons utilize the space for anything from business meetings to wedding receptions.
