Judging solely from its name, one would expect the Houston Hobby Center to be a quaint community center that hosts quilting bees and scrap-booking parties.  But upon seeing the HHC, a visitor quickly realizes that it’s anything but a place for Texan soccer moms to do arts and crafts.  Made of 60-foot sheets of glass, the massive, architectural wonder known as the Houston Hobby Center was designed by reknown architect Robert M. Stern with the goal of catering to cultural connoisseurs from around the world.  The state-of-the-art entertainment complex, located in the heart of Houston’s arts district, is the stunning result of a $102 million dollar effort to create an opulent home for the region’s finest theater.

The HHC hosts acclaimed touring Broadway productions in the swank Sarofim Hall, an accoustically tailored 2,650-seat theater, while the center’s smaller but equally luxe Zilkha Hall welcomes more intimate performances from local theater organizations.

Among Zilkha Hall’s regular performances is “Uniquely Houston,” HHC’s program series that celebrates diverse Houston-based talent by providing small and local non-profit performing arts organizations with the resources they need to maximize the quality of their productions.  The 2010 Discovery series, a part of Uniquely Houston, showcases classroom-oriented music, theater and dance performances from Houston’s Musiqua and Travesty Dance Group.

But the extravagant HHC is still best known as an elegant place for patrons to experience world-class theater on the third coast, and the center’s calendar is dominated by some of Broadway’s most successful touring acts.  This season’s “A Chorus Line” is a nine-time Tony Award-winning production, and the longest-running Broadway musical ever, while “Cirque Dreams: Illumination” is the stunning sequel to Neil Goldberg’s Broadway hit “Cirque Dreams: Jungle Fantasy.”  And residing permanently at the Houston Hobby Center is Theater Under the Stars, an acclaimed production company whose internationally-touring performances have raked in Tony Awards since its 1968 founding.  Sarofim Hall’s domed fiber-optic ceiling brings the Texas night sky to TUTS’ for an even more breathtaking theater experience.

While its name may be unassuming, you can be sure that there’s nothing quaint or down-home about the Houston Hobby Center.