Anticipation and great expectations are often two roads to disappointment! But, this morning, somehow I just knew, that what I was hoping and waiting for would truly be a wonder! This was the day of my personal tour of the new digs at Emerson College: the fully restored Cutler Majestic Theatre and the brand new Tufte Performance and Production Center adjacent through a closet door. Actually, I had two tour guides.
First, Theater Manager, Lance Olson, opened the doors to the Cutler Majestic Theatre lobby where Tremont Street gives way to the story, magic and secrets of the Majestic; its red marble columns, murals created in 1903 by William de Leftwich Dodge, Rococo gold gilded cherubs beckon. One knows instantly that you have been captured and the outside world has been left behind, as this is a magical and sacred place, wired, but no doubt sacred.
In the summer of 2001, the College began a multi-year program to fully restore the Majestic including reopening its long retired second balcony. The theater reopened in the fall of 2003. Simultaneously, the College opened its first new building ever in its 123-year history, the awing 11-story Norman I. and Mary E. Tufte Performance and Production Center, a dichotomy standing side-by-side. The Center is named in honor of Emerson College Trustee Marillyn Zacharis' parents. She and Board Chair Ted Bernard-Cutler broke the ground.
"The two buildings are as different as night and day in style and architecture," says Emerson President Jacqueline Liebergott, "but they are connected physically and programmatically. Together, the Majestic and the Tufte Center support our academic mission. What makes them unique is the melding of the old and the new, the fusion of elegance and technology. I do not know of any other college that has anything comparable."
The 80,000-square-foot shiny new Tufte Center houses two additional theaters, two television studios, a host of classrooms, an art gallery, laboratories, dressing rooms, support facilities and faculty offices. Not only can you access it through the theatre, you can walk right out of it into the Walker Building although I can't remember which floor to do it on. Our tour guide here is David Rosen, Associate Vice President, Office of Public Affairs at Emerson College. He knows the territory having had his own PR office in the Little Building during an earlier Boston period, before the rise of Emerson's Campus on the Common.
Many, including faculty, are still learning their way around inside this oddly shaped tall building that has a most unusual footprint, somewhat sandwiched or nestled amongst the Majestic Theatre, the Little Building, the Walker Building and the Transportation Building. Robert Koup, vice president and project manager for Elkus/Manfredi (the architect for both the Cutler and the Tufte projects), described the lot as "an irregularly shaped site given its identity by the irregularly shaped geometry that defined the project."
The Tufte's formal entrance is at 10 Boylston Place, an inviting and picturesque, red brick walkway alongside the Walker Building. "This is perhaps the most creative use of surplus space I have ever seen," says Koup of what many considered an unusable piece of land.
The architects and the contractors, the Lee Kennedy Co., viewed the entire building as "performance space." As a result, the functionality and purpose is obvious throughout. I can only conjure in some enormous way that it must have been like putting together a giant puzzle cube with the added conundrum that its shape is so irregular that it is not a cube at all. Theatre 1, for example, spans four levels, has a "thrust stage" and seats 210 people. While the facility is equipped with the latest digital lighting and audio equipment, the stage is quite reminiscent of the one Shakespeare used four centuries ago. Three fixed camera locations connected to the Center's main television studio facilitate the broadcast and taping of performances. The Kermit and Elinore Greene Theater built in end proscenium style, has 130 seats. Both are intimate and fully state-of-the-art.
Tufte's cutting-edge digital broadcast and production equipment are configured to support instruction as well as production and broadcasting. Technical support for lighting and aspects of the theaters and studios was provided by Auerbach, Pollock, Friedlander of New York, which also consulted on the Majestic restoration.
March 19 marked the Di Bona Family Tribute at Emerson College, a special celebration in recognition of the gift that made the Vin and Cara Di Bona Control Room and the Di Bona Family Television Studios possible (students swoon here as this studio is comparable in size to Boston commercial TV stations). Vin Di Bona is a graduate of the College and creator and executive producer of America's Funniest Home Videos. As part of the celebration, the Di Bona family and friends attended the taping of the first production of "Emerson Roomies: A Game Show" in the studio.
Evidence that students are already inspired by their hi-tech habitat, Emerson students have won an AP award for producing a PSA that aired on WHDH. This is very cool since it is an Emerson College student group Emerson Independent Video (EIV) production that won a professional award. The PSA, for the Salvation Army, was produced in partnership with WHDH. The students wrote and submitted script ideas, shot all footage and performed all editing. The three profile-style 30-second spots each feature someone who has been helped by Salvation Army programs. The footage for the interviews was shot in the new Tufte Center studios and at Salvation Army sites like a Dorchester daycare center and a Lynn after-school program.
The undertaking of restoring the Cutler Majestic Theatre, a national treasure, and its magnificent results is an immense story requiring extensive real estate in this magazine, so I've broken this story into two parts. We're saving the Cutler Majestic Theatre part of our tour with Theater Manager Lance Olson for the next issue of IMAGINE so we can give it the space it deserves, look for it in May.