A Berkshire cultural organization is celebrating 10 years of performances in a theater whose birthday cake would have 110 candles on it this year.The Mahaiwe Theater opened during a time that seems so distant, even in small town America.
“The first years from 1905 through 1930 were vaudeville,” explained Beryl Jolly, executive director of the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center. “The performers would hop off train at the Great Barrington train station and walk down the hill with their props, costumes and suitcase.”
And though the theater has been continuously operating for the past 110 years in downtown Great Barrington, it has lived different lives and welcomed a variety of guests. When a 35-mm carbon-arc projector set up shop, things really got rolling.
“We’ve heard many stories from people who’ve seen their first movie here, had date nights here,” Jolly said. “Generations of moviegoers from 1930 all the way through the 1990s it was primarily a movie house.”
The theater’s architect was Joseph McArthur Vance, who had worked on Pittsfield’s Colonial Theatre two years earlier. Times were different then. Vance himself performed in a 1905 production of “Sunny Sicily” on the Mahaiwe’s stage. Under the ownership of international film companies, the theater, whose name comes from the Mahican word meaning “downstream,” fell into disrepair without heating or air conditioning. Today, executive director of theSouthern Berkshire Chamber of Commerce Betsy Andrus remembers bundling up to go a so-called flicker show as a youngster.
“It was a great place to go to go to watch movies because of course you wanted something,” Andrus said. “But there was no real pizzazz to it. It had lost its light a little bit.”
A $9 million restoration was completed in 2006, after the Berkshire Opera Company purchased the theater. In 2005, Beryl Jolly and the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center launched year-round programming.
“It was originally a major experiment to see how year-round performing arts would work in Berkshire County,” Jolly said. “The great success story is how well it’s been received and how the theater has thrived in this first decade. We’ve sold out different kinds of events in every season and every month. The winter is as vibrant as the summer. Different kinds of audiences, different types of shows, but all have worked successfully. There was real hunger and appreciation of having these opportunities not just in the summer but 12 months a year.”
Over the past decade, acts like Joan Rivers, Lyle Lovett and John Pizzarelli have performed at the 700-seat venue. It hosts school plays and field trips, and shows classic movies each month. In a place that was named the best small town in America by Smithsonian magazine in 2012, Chamber Director Betsy Andrus says the year-round attraction has become a valuable asset to compliment the area’s outdoor recreation and summer cultural venues.
“You can see that people are possibly going to dinner ahead and then traveling to the theater,” Andrus noted. “You can see that people are searching for a parking spot or crossing the road dressed up more than they would normally be. There’s just a buzz that happens in our town when something is happening at the Mahaiwe.”
Jolly credits the community for its commitment to keep the theater open. It draws some 40,000 people each year. About half are from Berkshire County. Roughly 50 percent of the non-profit’s $1.7 million annual budget is supported by its 1,300 members.
“For visitors it’s an intimate and beautiful space in a very beautiful small town so it really has a special quality,” Jolly said. “The acoustics are perfect. It was built as a vaudeville house so the acoustics are intimate and the experience both for the artist from the stage to the audience and vice versa is a very personal connection. It is the best way to experience performing artists and screened events.”
Jolly says the group will focus on expanding its offerings going forward with artist and critic talks, holiday shows and themed events with nearby restaurants. Like the theater itself, its hallmark—the marquee—has seen tough times. Paint chips constantly fell off. And it was marked by dents from passing trucks. But as Jolly explains, it has righted its course.
“Now the marquee sparkles year-round and the theater is in its full glory again,” said Jolly.
