Staller Center For The Arts

What opened in 1978 as the Fine Arts Center of Stony Brook University took its present name ten years later, after a gift of 1.8 million dollars from the Staller family — at that point the largest private donation the university had received. Five theatres sit under one roof: a main stage of 1,050 seats with a forty-foot screen, a recital hall of 380, and three studio spaces, with a gallery of five thousand square feet attached. A flood in 1993 had one happy consequence, Billy Joel replacing the ruined piano with a Bösendorfer Imperial. Since 1996 the building has also housed the Stony Brook Film Festival, ten days that draw audiences of more than fifteen thousand to a campus on Long Island. Opera has reached the main stage as well, including Verdi's Aida and Puccini's Turandot.