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The new Performing Arts Center at Montgomery College's Takoma Park/Silver Spring campus stands out. With its long steel lines and massive windows stretched along Georgia Avenue, it's an obvious contrast to the fast food joints and filling stations that populate the rest of street.

As gorgeous as it is, the building has seen little substantial use beyond classroom activity. Soul legend Aretha Franklin christened the main performance space, Theater 1, in September, but not much else has happened. Right now, the center looks like a model home — beautiful but not yet lived in. Communication and Performing Arts chairman Perry Schwartz is breaking in the building one event at a time. The Israel Ballet visits in February and the bluegrass band Seldom Scene swings by next summer.

On the second floor, the 116-seat Theatre 2 has yet to be used for public performance. That will change on Friday evening with the opening of Don Nigro's "Three Fantasies." The trio of one-act plays takes place in medieval times and hovers around the themes of love and loneliness.

"I look for plays that are not mainstream and have a highly theatrical bent to them," says Schwartz. "[Nigro's] plays are produced Off Broadway and around the country, but he's just not a household name. He's got this very interesting way he approaches the world. His plays tend to be fantasies or at least odd and unusual."

Schwartz, who has been teaching at Montgomery College since 1978, is in charge of bringing professional theater to the Takoma Park/Silver Spring campus through Arts Alive. The school's theater department is headquartered at the Rockville campus, so the series presents performances on the other side of the county. Several professors require students to attend the plays.

"We don't call it a residency because we don't do that," Schwartz explains. "We partner with these theater groups and we change them to appeal to everyone and then just for variety."

"Three Fantasies" is a coproduction with Happenstance Theater, a company that specializes in shows that combine poetic movement with text, dialogue and multimedia elements. The word "coproduction" is a little misleading, as Happenstance is playing more of a consulting role. Artistic directors Mark Jaster and Sabrina Mandell have attended several rehearsals to provide movement coaching and input about the plays.

"We love it," Mandell says. "If any theater company out there would like us to come consult with them, we would be glad."

Even with its minor role, Happenstance is proud to be affiliated with "Three Fantasies." Jaster has known Schwartz for more than 30 years.

"It's been great," Jaster says. "They're receptive to our input and he's doing fascinating works that I would never have known about, probably."

Amy Quiggins, who appears in two of the three one-acts, says that Happenstance's involvement helped attract her to the production.

"I enjoy a lot of movement-based theater," she says. "I had never worked with them, so I was excited to do that."

Washington area theater fans might recognize Quiggins from her work with Constellation Theatre and at Rorschach Theatre in Georgetown. The Kentuckian lived in London and Austin, Texas, before settling in D.C. She compares the fairytale-like structure of one of the plays, "The Woodman and the Goblins," to a previous experience.

"It reminds me a lot of my work with Constellation Theatre when we worked on [Aeschylus']‘The Orestia.' I played one of the fairies. We had to come up with ways to move and [figure out] our differences. The goblins are very similar. There's only three of us, but that's something we focused on with Happenstance Theater: finding the ways that we are all alike and the ways we are different."

Along with the plays, Schwartz is proud of a new sculpture that is hanging in the Performing Arts Center's lobby. The Public Arts Trust of Montgomery County hired David Hess to create the piece. The Phoenix, Md., artist is no stranger to commissioned work. Last year alone, the Dartmouth College alum put together works for the Emerson Corporation in St. Louis and the Claybourne House in Alexandria.

"For me, it's about what has to happen at the site," Hess says. "In this case, it had to hang from the ceiling and be brought through the doors of the building. The building itself is so clean and contemporary. I wanted to make something that was very simple, but didn't mimic the lines of the building. It has a very organic quality to it."

At 12 and a half feet long, the sculpture looks like a cross between a bird's nest and a boat. It's shockingly earthy, especially when contrasted with building's geometric frame and towering glass windows. Inside the metal structure are several glass egg-like spheres.

"I wanted to have this long elegant curve in the space," Hess explains. "Then I wanted to have a metaphor. The idea is that the people in the audience are in this boat, which is the performance. You sort of go through the performance as a group; the audience members are sort of the egg pieces."

The plays and the sculpture are part of something larger. Schwartz worked closely with the architects to create an ideal creative space for students and artists. He has high hopes for the center, including finding a benefactor to chip in for naming rights.

"We'd sell our souls in a heartbeat," Schwartz says with a laugh. "We're not too proud."

"Three Fantasies" premieres on Friday evening and runs through Nov. 22 at the Montgomery College Takoma Park/Silver Spring Performing Arts Center, 7995 Georgia Ave., Silver Spring. Shows start at 8 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday, and 2 p.m. Sundays as well as Saturday, Nov. 21. Tickets are $20 for the public and $5 for Montgomery College faculty, staff and students the night of performances. "Pay what you can" performances will take place this Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Call 240-567-5775 or visit montgomerycollege.edu/pac.