DO NOT let the architect design the theater without the help of experienced stage hands, lighting designers (the kind who work in the real world, not just designing and letting someone else put it up), and audio system designers, and a rigger.
Here are a couple of pointers, from someone who has worked in all of those rolls.
MOST important, is the loading dock. This is one thing I have NEVER seen an architect get right, and it pisses off stage hands like you wouldn't believe. Doing this wrong wastes HUGE amounts of time during load ins and outs. You the load in door as close to the stage as possible, while leaving enough room for cases on the way to the stage, and room for dead case storage, also close to the stage. Ideally, the stage and dock (if you have room for one) should be on the same level, and that level should be at truck bed level. If you can, you want to have a built in dock plate (the electric ones are great, but the manual ones are fine.) They make life much easier, and speed up loads, which saves money in the long run. What ever your architect says, docks are not a last priority. A good dock can be the difference between a room with a good reputation, and a bad. One of the arenas in St. Paul has a dock which is about 50 yards from the floor of the room, and when you get there it has a 30 foot ramp. Load ins usually take an extra 1.5-3 hours. Docks matter a lot.
A couple of little things. Ladders are preferable to step stairs. If the stairs are not of a normal grade, go with a ladder. There are quite a number of recent theaters which have gone with stairs with an 18/12 rise, or worse. They suck.
You will not be able to put in a full fly loft, but you can put in a good grid. Please put in a grid which will allow riggers put points up faster. A good grid saves so much time with riggers, you would not believe it. And riggers get the highest rate on the crew, so making their job easy matters. Ideally, I want to be able to do any point with a simple dead hang. Bridles take three to four times as long as dead hangs. Riggers (in Minneapolis) get $50-$60/hour, at regular time. You do not want them there any longer than they have to be. On top of their rate, no one else gets anything done until the riggers are done.
Make sure you get people who will work in the room in on the design. If you don't, the work will be much slower, and the room will waste time. I promise you, I do my best to discourage clients from using rooms which are inefficient.
I was really planing on making this a short post. I really was.
Light
"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
