Opening of the Telcel Theater: the best in Latin America
- The ribbon cutting ceremony was presided by Carlos Slim, Daniel Hajj and Alejandro Soberon.
- Activities started with the grand premiere of the successful musical WICKED.
- The venue boasts a stage similar to the best theaters in Broadway and London
Mexico City, October 13, 2013. – Mexico City feasted a gala evening with the opening of the Telcel Theater, the best in Latin America, inaugurated today with the premiere of the most famous musical in the world: WICKED.
The ribbon cutting ceremony was presided by Carlos Slim, Honorary and Lifetime Chief Executive Officer of Grupo Carso; Daniel Hajj, General Director of Radiomovil Dipsa and Alejandro Soberón Kuri, Chief Executive Officer of Ocesa.
Telcel Theater has already become an icon in Mexico’s arts and culture scene thanks to its design, technology, comfort, security and sustainability. The venue was opened to the public with the premiere of the greatest show in recent Broadway history, WICKED the musical; performed in Mexico by a talented cast led by Danna Paola and Cecilia de la Cueva.
Winner of 50 of the most prestigious awards in the world, including a Grammy® and three Tony®, WICKED has been viewed by a world audience of 38 million during its 10 years of nonstop shows in New York, with box-office sales of over US$ 3 billion dollars.
This sequence of success is now crowned with the arrival of WICKED to the best of all possible places: the Telcel Theater which was designed by Spanish architect Anton García Abril from the Ensamble Architects Studio. Mexican architect José de Arimatea Moyao designed the stage and the auditorium.
Design
Telcel Theater is a dynamic and multifunctional venue adapted to host the most demanding productions from around the world, as is the case of WICKED. The architectural design got its inspiration from the spatial concepts developed by the Mexica culture, based on open terraces or platforms that resemble pre-Columbian topography, with access to natural light during day or night time.
The architects faced the challenge to build a venue adapted to the requirements of grand format musicals, thus building the best theater in Latin America. The state of the art auditorium and the stage are among the best equipped and more versatile in the world.
Technology
The theater has an impressive curtain as well as 40 racks capable of holding 650 kilograms each. Some of these racks are electrified and can sustain up to 1.2 tons of weight. The stage front measures 15 meters and the arch of the fixed proscenium is 15 meters high. The stage i
s 13 meters deep, its lateral entrances are almost 6 meters to the left and right, and its wooden floors allow for the construction of any type of stage traps. Telcel Theater can host any type of production, no matter how big or complex.
The theater is equipped with the innovative and sophisticated Constellation audio system. Thanks to its 270 loudspeakers distributed throughout the auditorium and an additional 28 in stage, the Theater offers what is now known as “virtual architecture”, where the spectator feels the show as if he/she were seated just a few meters away from the stage, regardless of his/her seating location.
Telcel Theater has a capacity of 1,384 seats. 819 seats are located in the lower part of the auditorium where 7 hydraulic platforms can freely modify the seating arrangements. The seat backs are fully collapsible and allow for the complete transformation of this area into a perfectly flat surface adaptable for multiple purposes.
Telcel 4GLTE network
Inside the theater one can enjoy access to Telcel’s 4GLTE network, offering the public high-speed Internet surfing capabilities by means of their own mobile devices. The audience can enjoy video streaming, contents and file downloading, transmission of high definition audio and video; all this simultaneously to high mobility and at a speed of 20 Mbps.
Comfort
Telcel Theater was inspired by the classical theaters located in Broadway and London’s West End, where it is essential to guarantee the proximity between the audience and the stage. Architect Moyao suggested a series of adaptations to allow the spectator to enjoy at the same time an intimate performance or a grandiose show.
The public can enjoy great comfort since the distance between the seats is 95 centimeters. This allows the spectator to fully enjoy the show while permitting easy mobility between the rows. Seats are 52 centimeters wide, a little wider than the standard, and spectators are distributed in a staggered seating arrangement, thus optimizing visibility.
The first three rows are slightly curved so as to embrace the stage, providing a more intimate feel to each performance.
Furthermore, this design makes the theater a majestic and intimate venue at the same time. The distance between the stage and the last row in the lower area is only 24 meters; and only 27 meters to the last row in the higher area. It is worth noting that the mezzanine has been designed to allow the complete enjoyment of the show, with a total view of the stage, as good or even better than in the lower part of the auditorium.
Security
The theater has four entrances to the auditorium and 12 emergency exits. Four of these exits lead to the ground floor and 8 of them to the different levels of the underground parking area. The venue has permanent medical services.
The building is covered with fire resistant panels and a fire retardant paint coating protects the structure. Moreover, all the walls in the zones open to the public and the service areas are covered with fire-resistant sheet-rock panels.
Sustainability
The Telcel Theater has its own plant to treat used waters and send them to the gardens and the sewerage. Likewise, rainwater is collected into two injection wells located in the underground laying foundations of the building.
Public urinals are waterless; most of the service lighting is energy saving, and the illumination in the auditorium is provided by led lamps that consume less energy.
Today, Mexico City feasts and boasts the most modern, elegant, functional and best equipped theater in Latin America; one of the most complete and versatile theaters in the world: the Telcel Theater.
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