Summary:
Designed specifically to seat 5,000 for Bel Geddes's never-realized production of Divine Comedy (job 69), this conceptualized theater had no proscenium or curtain, balconies, or galleries. Instead a steep ramp enabled all spectators an unimpeded view of the performance. All scene changes were done with lighting effects alone.
Dressing rooms, costume and prop rooms, and sound resonators were beneath the stage. Offices, public lounges, and, inexplicably, a hospital occupied the space under the auditorium.
Geddes proposed building this theater and mounting his production of Divine Comedy for the 1933-1934 Century of Progress International Exposition in Chicago, but the project fell victim to the stock market crash of October 1929 and the onset of the Depression.