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Two and a half years after burning to the ground, Jacob’s Pillow unveils design for Doris Duke Theatre 2.0

Jacob's Pillow
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In November 2020, a mysterious fire destroyed the Doris Duke Theatre on the campus of Becket, Massachusetts dance center Jacob’s Pillow. Authorities never determined the source of the fire, but noted that the building had an inoperable sprinkler system. Just days after the fire, Executive and Artistic Director Pamela Tatge swore to WAMC that the Pillow would rebuild. As progress toward a $30 million fundraising goal continues, the vision for a new Doris Duke Theatre has come into focus and has been released to the public. Tatge tells WAMC that the new structure will celebrate the center’s past, the land it occupies, and the future of dance.

TATGE: We have the first phase of the design process complete, so people can go to our website and see what this beautiful building being designed by Mecanoo, an architect based in the Netherlands – Francine Houben is their principal and founding creative director – has created with input from artists, community members, staff, audiences. We've tried to be inclusive as possible in the design process, including having Jeffrey Gibson and Indigenous artists on the design team to really have this building connect to the land, while at the same time being as advanced technologically as we can make it to support dance artists who are working at the intersection of dance and technology.

WAMC: So, let's get into some of the specifics. When folks go to check out this new design, what do you think is going to stand out to them?

Well, I think first of all, it's how it resonates with the campus. This is going to be a beautiful wood structure. It'll be different from other structures on the campus, in that you're going to be welcomed through a circular veranda. This is really, the circle is informed, again, by indigenous design principles, the importance of the circle. And we feel that this will just be an incredibly inclusive way to welcome people. So, there'll be a lobby for the first time, people will remember that we didn't have a lobby in the in the former Duke. They will go into the theater itself, and it will feel pretty much unchanged. It's about the same size as the former Doris Duke Theatre, there are a few more seats. But most of all, what there is in the space is ultimate flexibility. The doors on either side of- There are doors on either side of the box, what is typically a black box theater, that open up to the outdoors. So, what that means is that we can have a performance that maybe begins outdoors, travels indoors, and there's this really porous relationship between the Earth and the art that's going on inside. So, we have real ultimate flexibility for artists in terms of how they use the space. It can be entirely darkened for the highest quality projection, immersive sound, and projection design. But then it can fully open up. We really found that artists during the pandemic were activated by moving out of traditional spaces into more nontraditional spaces, and this theater is going to really resonate with that need. So, it's still a beautiful wood structure, like we've come to know about the buildings at Jacob's Pillow. The feeling when you're inside the theater will be largely the same except with peeks to the outdoors when we want it. And there'll be this addition of this veranda and multiple pathways into the space.

You've also talked about the new space being an opportunity to expand the technological capabilities of presentations. Talk to me about that- What is this going to offer artists trying to not just use the literal space in different ways, but also the virtual sense of space in different ways?

We will be working- In between festivals, the new theater will provide a new site for the Pillow Lab that's been going on in the Perles Family Studio. But now in this new theater that has this technological capability, artists who are working to integrate technologies such as motion capture, the idea of augmented reality, you might have a performer that's actually in another part of the world that will be able to be visible in the theatre space, as an example. You might have an ability to livestream collaborators and have them actually show up in some ways in the piece itself. You might have an immersive sound or projection experience that you want people to experience that where the art happens all around them. So those in-person experiences will be refined and developed in the Pillow Lab. We’re thinking of the theater as a makerspace for those works. In addition, though, many artists have for a while and then in an accelerated way during the pandemic made digital first works. In other words, works that are just meant to exist virtually and online. And so, we intend to be a place where dance filming can be done, interactive pieces where people might go online and participate in some way, not live, but virtually. Those kinds of works will also be developed and nurtured in the new Duke.

And remind us on the timeline here- when are folks going to be able to get an experience in the Doris Duke 2.0?

Well, this all depends on how the fundraising goes. Everyone knows we, like other performing arts organizations, are coming out of the pandemic and need to have audiences come back in full strength this summer. So, we are actively fundraising, and if we have what we need by the first quarter of ‘24, we'll get to have the theater sometime in ‘25. If the monies are raised by the first quarter of ‘25, we'll have it by ‘26. So, it all depends on, frankly, people's investment and support of this new evolution, this really transformational moment for Jacob's Pillow.

Josh Landes has been WAMC's Berkshire Bureau Chief since February 2018, following stints at WBGO Newark and WFMU East Orange. A passionate advocate for Western Massachusetts, Landes was raised in Pittsfield and attended Hampshire College in Amherst, receiving his bachelor's in Ethnomusicology and Radio Production. His free time is spent with his cat Harry, experimental electronic music, and exploring the woods.
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