As tuxedoed men and women in long shimmering dresses filed into Western Carolina University’s Fine and Performing Arts Center for the venue’s grand opening Saturday night, Paul Lormand, the performance hall’s founding director, stood amongst the crowd, a look of mild consternation on his face.

With his left hand on another man’s right shoulder, Lormand leaned in to discuss something unheard, as the minutes before show time — a performance by comedian Jay Leno with opening act Kat Williams, an Asheville-based blues singer — ticked by.

Honestly, the set up, with its pre-show champagne reception and overtly formal attire, wasn’t Lormand’s idea or exactly his cup of tea. It was something cooked up by University administration and passed on to the former executive director for the Sequoyah Institute at Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, Okla., upon his acceptance of the position at Western last year.

The Fine and Performing Arts Center, set to become the signature structure on Western’s campus, represents $30 million of nearly $100 million in construction and renovation at the school made possible by a $3.1 billion higher education bond package approved by N.C. voters in a statewide referendum in 2000.

“The new center gives us the opportunity to position the university, the county and the surrounding region as a major player in the arts,” said Western’s Chancellor John Bardo. “I’ve said it before – it’s no accident that the very first building you see when you come on campus is the Fine and Performing Arts Center.”

The performance hall itself, with its football field sized stage, five-story stage height, and 1,000-seat auditorium, could have easily handled a more grand production for its grand opening. Something more akin to the Broadway-quality music and theatrical performances the venue is predicted to bring to the area.

“The adage is for $30 million you’re opening up with a guy with a microphone,” Lormand said.

That may be true, but Leno — the guy with a microphone — appeared to win over the capacity crowd, proving a better entertainer in person than on NBC’s “The Tonight Show.” Score one for the planning powers that be.

Moreover, many black-tie audience members returned to the Fine and Performing Arts Center Sunday afternoon to co-mingle with area artists for the free — and by the way, casual — grand opening of the center’s art museum (see related article).

Together the two spaces have the potential to better connect the university with its surrounding community.

“I often point to the city of Asheville as an example of what happens when a high quality of life, high quality of culture, and high quality of education all come together in the same place,” Bardo said. “Asheville — in fact, much of Western North Carolina — is suddenly considered a ‘cool’ place to be because of what is happening regionally in terms of the arts, creativity and entrepreneurial spirit. The new Fine and Performing Arts Center will help invigorate that creative synergy for the Jackson County area.”

Despite a wide offering of university theatre, cultural education programs and visiting lecturers, Western has long been unable to draw any significant portion of its audience from non-university related residents. Some have said they feel unwelcome at the higher education institution, a mantra Lormand first became familiar with at Northeastern State University’s Sequoyah Institute. The Sequoyah Institute is a nonprofit organization designed to provide cultural enrichment beyond the classroom and promote understanding of the fine arts as a critical part of the lives of students, faculty and staff at Northeastern.

“The community kind of liked the university, but kind of looked down on it at the same time because it was kind of highbrow,” Lormand said. “The Sequoyah really helped bridge that gap.”

Lormand also has served as head of the department of performing arts at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, and was the first executive director of the Schauer Arts and Activities Center in Hartford, Wis. He worked for 10 years as artistic and managing director for the city of Collierville, Tenn., developing a municipal theatre from inception to a full schedule of events that included five major plays per year, two choral groups and a community band.

In Collierville, Lormand helped create a program known as Pay What You Can, in which community patrons were invited to come and watch cultural programs on their own budget, be it a nickel or a $100. Whatever they could afford to pay is how much their ticket cost.

The idea was rooted in a story Lormand heard during an anniversary celebration at the Collierville theater. A gospel band that played the area noticed that whenever they came to town a young boy always was in the audience. The boy would always compliment the band, say how much he had enjoyed the show.

One day the boy stopped coming to the band’s performances. Band members thought he’d lost interest. When he finally showed up in the audience again, the band asked where he’d been. He told them that he didn’t come because he couldn’t afford a ticket. The band’s leader said that from then on, whenever the boy came to a show to come to the back door and he would personally let the boy in at no charge.

When the boy grew up he stopped coming to shows and years passed until one night the bandleader got a message that there was someone there to see him. The band went back to the dressing room where they found Elvis waiting for them. Elvis asked the band to join him on the road. The band protested, saying that they were gospel and Elvis was rock ‘n roll, what could he want with them.

Elvis said, “Remember that little boy who came to all your shows, that was me.”

The story has stuck with Lormand, motivating him to create a program similar to Pay What You Can for local school children. Selected performances at the center, such as this season’s The Von Trapp Children, a singing group descended from the family in “The Sound of Music,” and LUMA, a circus with a high-tech light show flare, will feature matinee showings for school groups at a cost of $1-2.

“We just feel it is a very rural community in need of things like this,” Lormand said. “We include it in our letter (to schools) that if (students) can’t afford that $1 or $2, go ahead and put them on the bus. Because you never know who you might influence.”

Regular ticket prices also have been kept down, with season tickets to eight of the center’s performances going for $100. University students may purchase tickets for $5 a show or $40 for the season.

For the performance center’s inaugural year, a decision was made to book acts that had wide appeal and weren’t in any way controversial.

“If you really look at our season it’s a very safe, very traditional season,” Lormand said.

The idea is to aim for a core, family-based audience — mom, dad and two kids going to see singing cowboys “Riders in the Sky” bring in more money that one 20-something looking for something a little more edgy, like maybe The Blue Man Group or Stomp or “Rent.”

Which isn’t to say that those types of shows won’t ever be at the Performing Arts Center.

“You’ve got to build up to that first,” Lormand said, as the success of the center so greatly depends on support from the community.