The Guthrie’s new groove
By Adam Pulchinski

The Guthrie Theater of Minneapolis has seen many changes throughout its history. There have been financial woes, numerous artistic directors and a few facelifts for the building. While all this was going on one thing remained the same: everyone
involved has tried to maintain the principles and idea on which it was created
in the first place.

The idea for the Guthrie came from one man. Sir Tyrone Guthrie was disillusioned with Broadway and wanted to create a space in which creativity and artistic expression would be nurtured over the need to earn back the cost of a production. Guthrie believed that Broadway and places like it had lost their edge. Friends and colleagues, Oliver Reed and Peter Zeisler, agreed with him.

So in September of 1959, the drama page of the New York Times ran a paragraph inviting cities across the country to express interest in the idea of a new kind of playhouse. There were seven cities that responded. Out of contenders that featured cities such as Chicago and San Francisco, Minneapolis/St. Paul intrigued Guthrie and his colleagues. The eagerness for the project, as well as the existence of a large university and many small colleges, had a hand in the decision.

A committee called the Tyrone Guthrie Theater Foundation was created in 1960 to begin the process of getting funds for the construction of the theater. The T.B. Walker Foundation donated land behind the Walker Art Center and contributed $400,000. The committee had agreed to try and raise $900,000 from the surrounding area but a statewide fundraising campaign helped them to exceed that and raise over $2.2 million.

The architect in charge of the building was a man by the name of Ralph Rapson, and Tanya Moiseiwitsch designed the 1,441-seat thrust stage that was an attempt in itself to make the theater more progressive and interesting. Traditional
stages are referred to as proscenium stages, the kind most people are used to seeing in playhouses, where it appears as though the audience is looking into a box or through a window.

A thrust stage is one that is surrounded by the seating. It is thrust into the audience.
The thrust stage in the Guthrie was a seven-sided symmetrical platform approximately 32x35 feet and raised three steps above floor level.
In 1963 the theater was completed on the spot the Walker Foundation had donated,
and the first production was Hamlet as directed by Guthrie himself. A professional
company of actors that included the likes of Hume Cronyn, Jessica Tandy, Zoe Caldwell, George Grizzard, Joan van Ark and others complemented the inaugural
season. There was also $300,000 in advance ticket sales as well as 22,000 season ticket holders upon the opening.

In 1968 Guthrie expanded the work he wanted to do on to smaller stages and many plays were performed at The Other Place, an alternative theater that experimented
with both new plays and ways to produce them. While this garnered critical
success for actors and audiences, it also led to more financial burden that the Guthrie had fallen into since its opening five years earlier.

In the late 1960s the Walker Art Center decided to rebuild. Seeing an opportunity
to expand, the Guthrie partnered with the art center. It received $1 million of a $6.3 million fundraiser and when the new Walker Art Center opened in 1970 it shared an entrance and lobby with the Guthrie. Rehearsal spaces, a set shop and offices were also a benefit. These were things left out in the original construction to cut costs.
This gain followed a few setbacks that had begun in 1969 for the Guthrie though. The original company was gone and artistic direction wavered causing attendance to fall. As box office earnings dropped the Guthrie’s debt grew.

In 1971 a friend of Guthrie’s, Michael Langham, was named the new artistic director. The board of directors for the Guthrie green lit the new season despite thoughts of postponement. Langham recruited veteran actors from his previous experiences and opened with two box office hits- Cyrano de Bergerac and The Taming of the Shrew. The theater continued this way through 1977.

Performing classic plays that had wide appeal helped the financial situation. The board of directors required the Guthrie to earn 70 percent of its budget, versus the national average of 50 percent. With the strong box offices, however, as well as a grant from the Ford Foundation in 1972, the Guthrie ended each year deficit free. Also during this time, The Other Place was torn down and another grant allowed the Guthrie 2 to be established to continue cutting edge productions.

The next few years were filled with ups and downs. Financial woes continued to resurface but strong fundraising continued, and the number of private contributors
grew. In June of 1986 Garland Wright became the sixth artistic director of the Guthrie. Wright committed himself to maintaining a resident acting company as well as a second, more experimental stage. The latter gave birth to the Guthrie Laboratory in the Minneapolis WarehouseDistrict. This space was created to continue the work of The Other Place and the Guthrie 2.

Continuing to 1992, the Guthrie reached a few milestones and hit a few records. It completed a five-year fundraising campaign that set a record amount raised by any American theater at a time, and for the first time individual contributions trumped those given by corporations.

A facelift not much later was the theater’s reward. The four-month, $3.5 million renovation included better acoustics, improved wheelchair accessibility, in-house lighting and prop modifications, and a general reupholstering of the interior.
In February of 1995 Joe Dowling was named the artistic director, a job he still fulfills to this day. Dowling came from The Abbey Theatre in Ireland where he also served as artistic director. He has directed plays in major houses all over Ireland as well as in London, New York, Washington, Montreal and Alberta. Dowling had the honor of directing the last production of what has now been dubbed the “old” Guthrie Theater. It was the play Hamlet, the same production with which it opened.

In 2002 plans were announced for the Walker Art Center to expand onto the location of the theater. This spurred a search for a location to construct a new Guthrie with plans for the old one to be torn down before the end of the year. Fate being what it is, the location chosen happened to be one of the reasons Sir Guthrie wanted to bring his vision to Minnesota in the first place- the banks of the Mississippi River. Architect Jean Nouvel was commissioned to design the new Guthrie. Nouvel, a Frenchman, begins each project without any preconceived notions. While he borrows from traditional architecture, he uses design to reflect a harmony with the specific location of the building he is designing as well as that which will surround it. Some of Nouvel’s favorite motifs deal with transparency, shadow, light and color.

The mills surrounding the location provided many of the inspirations in Nouvel’s design. He also believed that the main public gathering spaces must be high above ground level to truly appreciate them. Dowling had his doubts about this particular aspect, as it would make the theater logistically very difficult. Nouvel simply took Dowling up on a scaffold to show him the view and the argument was ended almost immediately.

Many of the features of the new Guthrie that have garnered acclaim from such publications as TIME Magazine include an Endless Bridge that extends out from the building the equivalent of 12 stories with separate views of surrounding landmarks. An Amber Room just outside the new Dowling Studio has amber tinted glass and windows in part of the floor. There are also three vertical LED signs on the building
intended to reflect the industrial signing intended to reflect the industrial signing of the area.

Two other spectacular sights to be seen include the exterior of the building itself in addition to the wallpaper lining the public spaces inside. The new Guthrie’s
exterior was done in a twilight-blue metal that blends into the sky allowing screen-printed images of past productions and actors of the old Guthrie to be seen against the night sky.

Similarly the wallpaper inside is printed in much the same way. Sometimes faint images of old Guthrie productions line the walls and ceiling. Together these images are considered ghosts of the old Guthrie and guardians of the new space.

Of course the new Guthrie offers the essentials of the old one. Specifically, a recreation of the thrust stage as well as a proscenium stage and the Dowling Studio that is used for more experimental fare. Nouvel and company also incorporated a restaurant, café, lounge, bar services at numerous locations, a learning center and business institute and the Guthrie Store.

Going to the new Guthrie is an event in and of itself, even if you are not attending
a performance. However people like Dowling and Nouvel have done what they can to keep Guthrie’s original vision intact. The new building is considered yet one more tool in bringing quality theater to a broad culture of audiences. That Guthrie, she ain’t what she used to be. In some respects, though, nothing has changed.

Guthrie Performances and Events* 2006

Lost in Yonkers by Neil Simon
Sept. 23 - Nov. 12
Wurtele Thrust Stage
Edgardo Mine
Nov. 4 - Dec. 17
McGuire Proscenium Stage
The Boys
Nov. 16 -19
A Christmas Carol
Nov. 26 - Dec. 30
2007
The Glass Menagerie
Jan. 20 - March 25
The Merchant of Venice
March 10 - May 6
Major Barbara
May 5 - June 17
Boats on a River
May 19 - June 10
1776
June 23 - Aug. 26

*For more information about these
productions as well as concerts and
shows in the Dowling Studio please
visit the Guthrie Theater’s website
at http://www.guthrietheater.org