Tony Award-winning stage and screen star Patti LuPone performed at a gala opening to dedicate Buffalo State College's renovated Warren Enters Theatre on June 7, 2003, in Upton Hall on the campus at 1300 Elmwood Avenue.

Emmy Award-winning writers and producers, and Buffalo State alumni, Tom Fontana and Diane English - who spearheaded the drive to raise part of the $2.6 million needed to renovate the former Upton Theatre - also appeared in honor of their mentor, retired director and theatre Professor Warren Enters.

Enters, a Tony Award-winning director of both Broadway and off-Broadway productions, taught at Buffalo State from 1968 until he retired in 1992. He also served as Studio Arena's first resident director after directing successful Buffalo runs of "Barefoot in the Park," and "A Delicate Balance" there. During his tenure at Buffalo State, Enters served on the State University of New York Committee on the Arts, and was responsible for the establishment of the Thayer Awards fellowship program for aspiring performing artists.

Both Fontana, who wrote and produced such groundbreaking television series as "St. Elsewhere," "Homicide: Life on the Streets" and "Oz," and English, who wrote and produced TV's "Murphy Brown," credit Enters with their success. In the dedication he wrote for the gala, Fontana remembers Enters as a teacher who "fired the imaginations of his students."

The former Upton Theatre had become unusable after its fly gallery - the rope and pulley system that operates curtains and scenery backdrops - broke. Fontana, who as a student had worked in the theater, learned of its disrepair on one of his frequent visits to his alma mater, and offered to help raise money to restore it. He and English spearheaded the drive.

The new Enters Theatre is a state-of-the-art, 350-seat pro-proscenium arch theatre that features fully digital surround sound, full-function moving lights and color lighting with an Ethernet-based control system and new control rooms. Fully ADA-compliant, the theater offers an intimate relationship between performer and audience.

The gala opening was emceed by Buffalo State College Theatre Associate Professor Drew Kahn, and included a reading of Shakespearean sonnets and performance of a scene from "Romeo and Juliet" by alumna Rachel Cornish and student Luke Wager, as well as videos documenting the renovation and a tribute to Warren Enters, and LuPone's 40-minute performance.

Lupone, a Juilliard-educated actress and singer, won a Tony Award for her starring performance in Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Evita" in 1979. Her subsequent work includes the London productions of "Les Miserables" and "Sunset Boulevard." She is currently cast with Robert DeNiro in the film "City by the Sea."