The Guthrie Theater, founded in 1963, is a center for theater performance, production, education, and professional training in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The concept of the theater was born in 1959 in a series of discussions among Sir Tyrone Guthrie, Oliver Rea and Peter Zeisler. Disenchanted with Broadway, they intended to form a theater with a resident acting company, to perform classic plays in rotating repertory, while maintaining the highest professional standards.
The Guthrie Theater has performed in two main-stage facilities. The first building was designed by Ralph Rapson, included a 1,441-seat thrust stage designed by Tanya Moiseiwitsch, and was operated from 1963 to 2006. After closing its 2005–2006 season, the theater moved to its current facility designed by Jean Nouvel.
The Guthrie Theater in 1965 with the original exterior designed by Ralph Rapson before it was removed due to moisture in the wood and stucco panels. (Photo from Minnesota Star Tribune)
In 1959, Sir Tyrone Guthrie published a small invitation in the drama page of The New York Times soliciting communities' interest and involvement in a resident theater. Out of the seven cities that responded, the Twin Cities showed not only interest but also eagerness for the project.[2][3][4]
Frank Whiting, the director of the University of Minnesota Theater, introduced Guthrie to the arts community in the Twin Cities and helped gather support that persuaded Guthrie to locate his theater in Minneapolis. With the help of the newly founded Tyrone Guthrie Theater Foundation, a fundraising effort raised over US$2 million. The new theater was completed in 1963, in time for the May 7 opening of Hamlet. During its first season the Guthrie featured well known stage actors Hume Cronyn, Jessica Tandy and Zoe Caldwell as well as a group of younger actors including George Grizzard, Ellen Geer and Joan van Ark. Tyrone Guthrie served as Artistic Director until 1966, and continued to direct at the theater he founded until 1969, two years before his death. In 1966 Douglas Campbell was named as the next artistic director of the Guthrie, succeeding the theater's founder and namesake.
Throughout the 1960s, the Guthrie found critical acclaim in its productions of Henry V, St. Joan, Caucasian Chalk Circle, Three Sisters and The House of Atreus. In 1968, the Guthrie's production of The House of Atreus was taken on the road for a national tour, a first for a resident theater.[2] Also starting in 1968, the Guthrie established the tradition of producing plays on smaller stages within the Twin Cities area, including the Crawford-Livingston Theater in St. Paul and The Other Place.
After Langham left in 1977, the Guthrie crossed a milestone of sorts when, for the first time in its history, it selected as artistic director the American Alvin Epstein, the first person to hold that post who wasn't previously known within the world of theater as either an established collaborator with, or personal friend of, founder Tyrone Guthrie. Epstein's selection for the post also marked the first time in the theater's history that the position of artistic director was held by an American.
In 1980, Liviu Ciulei replaced Epstein. Ciulei had previously served as the artistic director of Teatrul Bulandra in Romania and had a profound influence on the Guthrie. He challenged audiences with his bold theatrical interpretations and his highly contemporary and international style. Ciulei's interest in theater didn't stop at the productions themselves. Ciulei was a designer and architect, and one of the first things he did was to redesign the theater itself.[5] His changes allowed more structural flexibility in the stage, granting each production a unique physical presentation. While Ciulei was not able to realize all the goals he had envisioned, he was able to maintain and advance the Guthrie's national and international reputation as a first-rate example of American theater, and under his direction, the Guthrie experienced critical success with productions of classics such as Peer Gynt, The Marriage of Figaro, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Seagull, and Tartuffe. During this period, in 1982, the theater won the Regional Theatre Tony Award. Ciulei also worked to reestablish the Guthrie's commitment to acting ensembles, gathering together a rotating repertory in his last season as artistic director in 1985.
That same year, the Guthrie tapped Garland Wright, who'd previously spent time serving as Ciulei's Associate Artistic Director during the early 1980s, as Ciulei's successor. Wright shared with his predecessor Ciulei a vision for the theater which included the desire to have a second, smaller stage which could serve as a kind of laboratory, enabling exploration of new work and performance techniques. Born from this vision was the Guthrie Laboratory (commonly referred to as the Guthrie Lab) located in the Minneapolis Warehouse District. Wright also shared Ciulei's desire to keep the concept of a resident acting company alive, using his ensembles to great effect. Wright was able to combine critical and popular success with a series of productions that helped reestablish a large, enthusiastic and loyal audience base. Productions from this period include The Misanthrope, Richard III, The Screens, Medea, As You Like It, and a trilogy of Richard II, Henry IV (Parts I and II) and Henry V. Wright also cultivated a series of outreach programs, which were designed to garner expanded interest in theater among young people, involving high school and college instructors in the effort.
Garland Wright announced his resignation as artistic director in 1994, and after an international search for his successor, Joe Dowling was chosen as the Guthrie's seventh artistic director. Dowling had already gained an international reputation for his tenure at Ireland's national theater, the Abbey Theatre, marked by Dowling's rapid ascent to become the Abbey's youngest artistic director in its long history.
Under Dowling's artistic leadership, the Guthrie enjoyed a period of unprecedented growth. Subscriptions reached an all-time high of more than 32,000, up more than 50% from the beginning of Dowling's tenure. Dowling's time at the Guthrie Theater was marked by a return to regional touring, co-productions by visiting international theater companies (WorldStage Series), collaborations with local theater companies, and his own dynamic productions of the classics.
Dowling retired in 2014. The eighth artistic director of the Guthrie, Joseph Haj, succeeded Dowling beginning in 2015.
Vineland Place
The Guthrie Theater on Vineland Place, during demolition in 2006. The original exterior screen had been removed in 1974.
Paired with an innovative philosophy that included a resident acting company with high professional standards was a unique design concept in the stage itself.
Ralph Rapson was selected to design the 1963 theater building. Rapson was a leading contributor to architecture's modern movement on the East Coast from the late 1940s through the 1950s, and served as head of the University of Minnesota School of Architecture in the late 1950s. Rapson had also worked on some preliminary sketches of the Walker Art Center, which donated land on Vineland Place for the Guthrie's construction. Guthrie and Rapson selected a modified theater in the round design that featured a thrust stage projecting from a back wall with seating surrounding nearly two thirds of it.[6]
Walker Art Center site of the first Guthrie (green lawn at right in 2008)
The Guthrie's design arose out of Ralph Rapson's work with the Walker Art Center, and concepts the Walker was considering for a small auditorium near their museum. The result was a theater designed by Rapson, that seated 1,441 people when it first opened its doors in 1963. Its irregularly-shaped stage, designed by Tanya Moiseiwitsch, had 7 sides and took up 1120 square feet (104 m2). Seating radiated outward and upward, and the ceiling was hung with acoustical panels that carried the asymmetrical theme to the top of the theater. The design concept encouraged the minimal use of large set pieces. In 1974 the distinctive exterior screen, which had suffered from corrosion by the elements over the years, was removed.[7] In 1980, Artistic Director Liviu Ciulei redesigned the stage. The stage itself was modified so that its size, shape and height was adjustable, and he opened up the back wall to create more depth.[8]
In 2002, the National Trust for Historic Preservation put the old Guthrie building on its list of the most endangered historic properties in the United States in response to plans announced by the Walker Art Center to expand on the land occupied by the theater.[9] However, demolition started in late 2006 beginning with the common area between the old Guthrie building and the Walker. The site has been turned into green space and an extension of the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden.
On the river
Guthrie Theater viewed from the east across Gold Medal Park at sunset, showing the scene shop at the left and the "Endless Bridge" cantilevering to the right.Guthrie Theater from the river sideThe set of 2009's Faith Healer under construction in the scene shop at the Guthrie
In 2006, the Guthrie finished construction of a new $125 million theater building along the Mississippi River in downtown Minneapolis. The design is the work of Jean Nouvel, along with the Minneapolis architectural firm Architectural Alliance and is a 285,000-square-foot (26,500m2) facility that houses three theaters: (1) the theater's signature thrust stage, seating 1,100, (2) a 700-seat proscenium stage, and (3) a black-box studio with flexible seating. It also has a 178-foot cantilevered bridge (called the "Endless Bridge") to the Mississippi which is open to visitors during normal building hours. The outside of the building's walls are covered in large panels which display a large mural of photographs from past plays visible clearly at night. Jean Nouvel was in association with dUCKS scéno and Jacques Le Marquet for the scenography of the theaters and the acousticians of The Talaske Group and Kahle Acoustics.
The first Guthrie production at the new location, The Great Gatsby (adapted for the stage by Simon Levy and directed by David Esbjornson), opened on July 15, 2006.
Auditoriums
1,100-seat Wurtele Thrust Stage
700-seat McGuire Proscenium Stage
199-seat Dowling Studio
Dining and retail
Guthrie Store
Public spaces
Endless Bridge
Target Lounge
Theater lobbies on Levels Four, Five and Nine
Street-level lobby on Level One
Semi-public spaces
The Guthrie Learning Center – education classrooms
The Stratford Festival is a theatre festival which runs from April to October in the city of Stratford, Ontario, Canada. Founded by local journalist Tom Patterson in 1952, the festival was formerly known as the Stratford Shakespearean Festival, the Shakespeare Festival and the Stratford Shakespeare Festival. The festival was one of the first arts festivals in Canada and continues to be one of its most prominent. It is recognized worldwide for its productions of Shakespearean plays.
Ralph Rapson was Head of the School of Architecture at the University of Minnesota for 30 years. He was an interdisciplinary designer, one of the world's oldest practicing architects at his death at age 93, and also one of the most prolific. His oldest son is the philanthropist Rip Rapson.
In theatre, a thrust stage is one that extends into the audience on three sides and is connected to the backstage area by its upstage end. A thrust has the benefit of greater intimacy between performers and the audience than a proscenium, while retaining the utility of a backstage area. This is in contrast to a theatre in the round, which is exposed on all sides to the audience, is without a backstage, and relies entirely on entrances in the auditorium or from under the stage. Entrances onto a thrust are most readily made from backstage, although some theatres provide for performers to enter through the audience using vomitory entrances. As with an arena, the audience in a thrust stage theatre may view the stage from three or more sides. Because the audience can view the performance from a variety of perspectives, it is usual for the blocking, props and scenery to receive thorough consideration to ensure that no perspective is blocked from view. A high-backed chair, for instance, when placed stage right, could create a blind spot in the stage left action.
Sir William Tyrone Guthrie was an English theatrical director instrumental in the founding of the Stratford Festival of Canada, the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and the Tyrone Guthrie Centre at his family's ancestral home, Annaghmakerrig, near Newbliss in County Monaghan, Ireland. He is famous for his original approach to Shakespearean and modern drama.
The Mixed Blood Theatre Company is a professional multiracial theatre company in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It was founded in 1976 by artistic director Jack Reuler, to explore race via the use of theater.
Resurrection Blues (2002) is Arthur Miller's penultimate play. Though Miller was not known for his humor, this play uses a pointed comedic edge to intensify his observations about the dangers, as well as the benefits, of blind belief: political, religious, economic and emotional.
The Mark Taper Forum is a 739-seat thrust stage at the Los Angeles Music Center designed by Welton Becket and Associates on the Bunker Hill section of Downtown Los Angeles. Named for real estate developer Mark Taper, the Forum, the neighboring Ahmanson Theatre and the Kirk Douglas Theatre are all operated by the Center Theatre Group.
Faith Healer is a play by Brian Friel about the life of the faith healer Francis Hardy as monologued through the shifting memories of Hardy, his wife, Grace, and stage manager, Teddy. It was first produced in 1979.
Joe Dowling is an artistic director. He was artistic director for the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. He is known for his work as artistic director of the Abbey Theatre in Ireland and his production involvement can be found in the Abbey Theatre archives. He has also directed plays in other theatres in Ireland as well as theatres in London, New York City, Washington D.C., Montreal, and Alberta. In 1975 he directed "Katie Roche" by Irish playwright Teresa Deevy.
Liviu Ciulei was a Romanian theater and film director, film writer, actor, architect, educator, costume and set designer. During a career spanning over 50 years, he was described by Newsweek as "one of the boldest and most challenging figures on the international scene".
Minneapolis is the largest city in the US state of Minnesota, and the county seat of Hennepin County.
The Guthrie Theater is a center for theater performance, production, education, and professional training in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The following is a chronological list of the plays and performances that it has produced or presented. Production information from 1963 through the 2005–06 season is sourced primarily from The Guthrie Theater: Images, History, and Inside Stories and The Guthrie Theater.
The Ivey Awards were an annual award show, celebrating Twin Cities professional theater. Established in 2004, the non-nomination based awards served to recognize outstanding achievements within the past theater season in direction, performance, design, etc. The awards were founded by Scott Mayer and administered by a panel of local theater professionals and theater patrons. The Iveys ceased in 2018 due to lack of funding.
Rex Partington was an actor, director and producer. Partington worked in the professional theater in the United States for over fifty years as an actor, production stage manager, director, producer, artistic director and producing director and was active on Broadway as well as professional regional theater. He was instrumental in the establishment of the League of Resident Theatres and played a vital role in the development of regional theater.
Rick Shiomi is an internationally recognized, award-winning Japanese Canadian playwright, stage director, artistic director and taiko artist, and a major player in the Asian American/Canadian theatre movement. He is best known for his groundbreaking play Yellow Fever, which earned him the Bay Area Theater Circle Critics Award and “Bernie” Award. Over the last couple decades, Shiomi has also become a notable artistic and stage director. He directed the world premiere of the play Caught by Christopher Chen for which he received the Philadelphia Barrymore Award Nomination for Outstanding Direction. He is currently the Co-Artistic Director of Full Circle Theater Company.
The Rarig Center is a brutalist theater, television, radio, and classroom building on the University of Minnesota's campus in the West Bank neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota, US. Designed by Ralph Rapson and built in 1971, the structure houses four theaters—a thrust, proscenium, theater in the round, and black box—as well as the studios for Radio K. An anchor for the University's West Bank Arts Quarter, the Rarig has been praised for its boldness and functionality but has also been described as "menacing".
Joseph Haj is an American artistic director and actor who is the eighth artistic director of the Guthrie Theater. Before joining the Guthrie, he worked at PlayMakers Repertory Company.
Requiem for a Nun is a play by Albert Camus, adapted from William Faulkner's 1951 novel of the same name. The play was published in 1962.
The Firehouse Theater of Minneapolis and later of San Francisco was a significant producer of experimental, theater of the absurd, and avant guard theater in the 1960s and 1970s. Its productions included new plays and world premieres, often presented with radical or inventive directorial styles. The Firehouse introduced playwrights and new plays to Minneapolis and San Francisco. It premiered plays by Megan Terry, Sam Shepard, Jean-Claude van Itallie, María Irene Fornés and others; and it presented plays by Harold Pinter, John Arden, August Strindberg, John Osborne, Arthur Kopit, Eugène Ionesco, Berthold Brecht, Samuel Beckett and others. In a 1987 interview Martha Boesing, the artistic director of another Minneapolis theatre, described the Firehouse Theater as "the most extreme of all the groups creating experimental theater in the sixties, and the closest to Artaud’s vision." Writing in 1968, The New York Times said that the Firehouse Theater "has been doing avantgarde plays in Minneapolis nearly as long as the Tyrone Guthrie Theater has been doing the other kind, and with much less help from the Establishment." That same year, when a federal grant was provided to support the Firehouse, it was pointed out in the Congressional Record that the Firehouse Theatre "is the only major theatre dealing experimentally with the writing of plays and their production outside the metropolitan New York area."
↑ Swanson, Walter (December 1, 1989). Minneapolis: City of Enterprise, Center of Excellence: A contemporary portrait. Windsor Publications. pp.94–95. ISBN978-0897812924.
↑ Hession, Jane King (January 13, 2015). "The Tyrone Guthrie Theater". Docomomo US. Archived from the original on December 20, 2016. Retrieved December 10, 2016.
Dowling, Joe (Summer 2000). "Theater and the Arts: A Personal Reflection". Daedalus. 129 (3). The MIT Press: 293–305. ISSN0011-5266.
Dowling, Joe (September 2006). "Inside the New Guthrie". American Theatre online. Archived from the original on March 23, 2007. Retrieved November 29, 2006.
Futagawa, Yoshio, ed. (September 2006). Jean Nouvel: 3 Buildings. GA Document. Vol.93. Tokyo: A.D.A. Edita. ISBN4-87140-193-6.
Grose, Polly (2012). Guthrie Theater: The First Fifty Years. Edina, Minnesota: Beaver's Pond Press. ISBN978-1-59298-538-8.
Guilfoyle, Peg (2006). The Guthrie Theater: Images, History, and Inside Stories. Minneapolis: Nodin Press. ISBN1-932472-39-8.
Guthrie, Tyrone; Ralph Rapson; H. Frederick Koeper (1963). "Architecture for the Stage: Tyrone Guthrie Theatre, Designed by Ralph Rapson, AIA". Design Quarterly. No.58.
Hession, Jane King; Rip Rapson; Bruce N. Wright (1999). Ralph Rapson: Sixty Years of Modern Design. Afton, Minnesota: Afton Historical Society Press. ISBN1-890434-14-0.
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