Great Barrington — ”When there’s something important going on, this is the meeting place,” said Maggie Buchwald of the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center. Believe it or not, she first toured the former Mahaiwe Theatre more than 15 years ago when the three-story, French Renaissance Revival brick-and-marble giant was stripped down to its bare bones. A background in theater coupled with being an ardent theatergoer allowed her to see the potential in what she calls, “this truly magnificent building.” On that fateful day, it was Lola Jaffe, the founding president of the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center Inc., who served as Buchwald’s tour guide.
At that time Lola’s husband, Ed, was creating Berkshire South Regional Community Center in the early 2000s as Lola was founding the Mahaiwe.
Lola Jaffe’s vision for making the Mahaiwe a real community-oriented performing arts center struck Buchwald as being “absolutely right for this community.” On Saturday evening, comedian John Mulaney will headline the 2019 Mahaiwe gala in a festive evening to benefit the performing arts center’s year-round programs and to honor Buchwald in appreciation of her Mahaiwe board leadership and lifelong commitment to the arts.
“It was Lola Jaffe that initially captured my attention and sparked my interest [in supporting the Mahaiwe],” Buchwald shared in a recent phone interview. “I met her socially, and I knew she was restoring a theater. In fact, at that point, there were two theaters being restored.” Buchwald, who splits her time between New York City and the Berkshires, recalled that there wasn’t year-round performing arts in the southern Berkshires at that time. “The thought that there could be something here for us in the winter as well as summer, when there is such a richness of opportunities around—just very, very appealing,” she said of her involvement with the nonprofit.
Buchwald served as chair of the Mahaiwe board from 2013 through 2018, leading the Mahaiwe for six significant seasons. During her tenure, the organization completed the IMPACT campaign, raising over $2.7 million to eliminate all debt from the theater’s mortgage and lines of credit, and creating a healthy operating cash reserve. The organization continues to operate debt-free to this day and has grown in every dimension, from the number of performances mounted and tickets sold to the number of students welcomed at education programs and other nonprofit organizations hosted at the theater. She and husband Don Buchwald have provided support of every kind to the Mahaiwe since its founding, and generously underwrite the theater’s classic film series.
“Maggie Buchwald’s leadership of the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center over the last six years was, like Maggie, quietly courageous. She led during times of institutional growth—from a very young organization to an established institution—and of broad economic shifts in our country,” said Mahaiwe board Chair Margaret Deutsch. “Throughout, her dedication to the Mahaiwe has been wholehearted, clear-sighted and steady, and her gracious inclusion of others brought us far. I am personally grateful for Maggie’s example as a compelling advocate for the performing arts.”
The Mahaiwe Theatre first opened in September 1905 and is one of the oldest surviving theaters in the country. Its name, which means “the place downstream” from the Housatonic River, is derived from the Berkshires’ original Mahican settlers. Designed by architect Joseph McArthur Vance, the structure replaced an earlier corner building on Castle and Main streets that burned down in 1901. The theater faced prospective demolition and redevelopment when a cinema chain acquired it in 1988; in 1995, following a successful tenure that hinged on live performances and film, the beloved but aged building gained protection under the formation of the Great Barrington Downtown Historic District. The Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center was established as a nonprofit in 2002, and the following year, renovation under its present leadership began. Through it all, the theater has continuously run programs since its opening over 110 years ago.
Buchwald has a particular affinity for who she calls “the great ladies of the musical theater,” whom she has seen perform at the Mahaiwe and whose performances have been most meaningful to her: Bernadette Peters, Audra McDonald, Patti LuPone (who has performed twice) and her “absolute idol” Barbara Cook. “She was there several times, and I have seen her in New York, but to see her in that beautiful space with the intimacy was just magical,” added Buchwald of several moments that have stood out to her over the years. “Those are the ones I remember, although there certainly have been many.” That said, the residual effects of the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center have been myriad. “[These cultural institutions] are significant economic drivers in the Berkshires,” said Buchwald in a nod to the organization’s recent economic impact study. “[The data] shows that we significantly upgrade the economics of the region in terms of bringing visitors, and lengthening the stay of visitors, and employing local people both full-time and on a part-time basis, too,” she explained. And she is quick to point out that if there is a great impact on the economic side, on the cultural and community side, the impact is even greater: “[While] adults can go to see performances in many places, we do shows for the children—for the school children. We bring them into the theater [at present], but we hope to expand that so [going forward] we have more of a presence in the actual schools.”
“I think, for the future, it’s very important that the community continue to support these institutions in order to give the next generation a chance to experience what they themselves experienced, and to grow up to love these art forms,” said Buchwald of a persistent problem facing all cultural institutions: how to attract the next generation. Since 2005, the performing arts center has hosted over 1,500 events and welcomed over half a million people through its doors. More than 20,000 students from 68 different schools have benefited from the Mahaiwe’s school-time performances and residencies. It is this commitment to the next generation that fuels Buchwald’s passion for the organization. “We do music, dance, theater, film—all kinds of performances,” she explained. “Anything we can do to enrich the lives of the children, I think, is well worth supporting. And the other aspect is that the Mahaiwe is so central to Great Barrington and the southern Berkshires that it’s really a place that the community comes together,” she added.
Buchwald joined the Mahaiwe board after a career as a fundraising consultant, providing counsel to nonprofit cultural institutions in areas of board development, endowment and capital campaigns, major gift solicitation, and strategic planning. Prior to establishing her own business, she held senior positions at some of New York’s major cultural and educational institutions, including American Ballet Theatre, Thirteen/WNET, and NYU Medical Center. A graduate of Cornell University, she is active in community service; has taught professional workshops; serves on the board of Gingold Theatrical Group in New York; and is a past president of Women in Development, New York.
