In November 2020, the Doris Duke Theatre at Jacob’s Pillow was destroyed by fire. “The Duke,” as it was known, was a studio theater often used by creative artists and performers as an incubator for cutting-edge performance pieces. Thus, the Duke was a key connection point between the past and the future of dance. Volunteer fire companies from Becket and four neighboring towns responded to the fire and thankfully prevented the conflagration from consuming any more of the historic structures and facilities at Jacob’s Pillow. This past Wednesday, July 9, after four and a half years, the phoenix has risen from the ashes, as Jacob’s Pillow, the surrounding communities, Berkshire County, and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts celebrated the opening of the new, reimagined Doris Duke Theatre on the same site at the Pillow, and clearly with the same mission.
Wednesday night’s opening fête capped a week of events and performances at the Pillow surrounding the opening, and, as usual, the Pillow was quite thoughtful in the presentation. In the first instance, the Pillow consistently reminded us how crucial cooperation and teamwork were in rebuilding the theatre and how that cooperation came from so many different places. Of course, the opening-night festivities were peppered with both local and state politicians and important folks in the arts and philanthropic world. The celebration also included, however, members of the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohicans (the original inhabitants of the land upon which the Pillow sits); the theater’s architects from the Netherlands; fire fighters from the towns who assisted in fighting the fire that destroyed the original theater; and personnel from Allegrone, the construction company who built the new theater, among many others. It was abundantly clear that all the people who collaborated on the new theater had very diverse backgrounds, and that the theater which resulted was much the better for it. At its most basic, the new theater is just a beautiful structure to look at. More than that, though, it is designed to harmonize with its surrounding ecology and Indigenous history—both inside and out—and also be adaptable, inclusive, and flexible enough to accommodate just about any performance possibility the most creative minds of this generation (and beyond, it is hoped) could imagine. Not to get overly dramatic, but, in a way, it is kind of like an immediate and physical manifestation of hope for the dance and performance world in these difficult times.
Following opening night’s food and drink, speeches, and the ribbon-cutting, we arrived at the business end of the evening: the opening-night performance. The program was eclectic and included: “Dance for the Duke,” an original piece created for this night, with a movement score by Annie-B Parson, and dance/movement by Bebe Miller, Susan Marshall, Brian Brooks, Eiko Otake, Irene Rodríguez, David Thomson, Liz Lerman, David Dorfman, Dianne McIntyre, Dormeshia, Doug Elkins, Jawole, and Willa Jo Zollar, all artists associated with the original Doris Duke Theatre; an excerpt of the evening-length “Touch of RED,” by Shamel Pitts | TRIBE, a multidisciplinary piece; an excerpt of “OTMO Live,” a piece by the Alexander Whitley Dance Company, where motion-capture technology, in real time, connected a dancer in the Doris Duke Theatre with a dancer in the Ted Shawn Theatre; an excerpt from the film “Superradiance” by Memo Akten and Katie Peyton Hofstadter, which included dance, poetry, music, and AI generative imagery; a performance by body percussionist and Guggenheim Fellow Ryan Johnson of SOLE Defined; and the students from the Contemporary Performance Ensemble from The School at Jacob’s Pillow in an energetic piece befitting the young dancers by Ryan K. Johnson.
According to the Pillow, the theater has the infrastructure to allow creative artists to “integrate artificial intelligence, extended reality, robotics, and immersive platforms into live performance,” and includes technologies such as “a spatial audio system, infrared camera tracking of performers for interactive video content, and live performance interactions with recorded/projected dance content.” I don’t necessarily know what any of that means, but what I do know—judging from some of the pieces performed opening night—is that the theater is state-of-the-art. The integration of the technological and digital with the physical was remarkable, and the visual clarity of some of the projections was simply stunning. Add that some of the pieces incorporated social commentary and a specific point of view, like the excerpts from “Touch of RED” and “Superradiance” did, and we begin to realize we are moving forward at an ever-increasing rate of speed.
Not lost in all the technology, however, is the fact that dance, in its purest form, is people moving from their heart and soul, and it is an expression of our history, our immediacy, and our humanity. Thus, extremely appropriately, the entire performance began with an honor song of dance, drumming, and singing performed by Shawn L. Stevens and Friends, of the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohicans. In addition to sharing their creative spirit, the grace, compassion, understanding, and forgiveness which must reside within these individuals cannot be overstated.
On last Wednesday’s opening night, artists and performers kicked the Duke Theatre’s tires and took it out for a test drive, and it performed like the race car it seems to be. The first official week of the season for this new, reimagined Duke begins next Wednesday, July 16, with performances by Andrew Schneider, and both this summer and the future look very bright indeed for this jewel of a theater.
Information about the new Doris Duke Theatre, and all the summer performances both there and around the Jacob’s Pillow Campus, can be found here.
