The Birth of Non-Profit Residential Theater
The Guthrie Theater, serving in the twin cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, has been in operation for over 50 years. Unlike theaters on Broadway, which are designed for optimum return on investment, Sir Tyrone Guthrie was primarily devoted to the idea of establishing a playhouse that would exist primarily to nurture and cultivate artistic expression. Run as a nonprofit enterprise, the playhouse he envisioned would keep important works of literature alive by presenting them to appreciative audiences while also cultivating the artistic talents of the performers on stage.
The History
Tyrone and two colleagues had become disenchanted with Broadway. They had this idea to build a major residential theater somewhere in America. His first step was to place an article in The New York Times drama section in 1959 to see if his idea of nurturing the arts garnered any interest from any city leaders in the U.S. It did, and Guthrie and his friends narrowed down the list of interested cities to seven finalists and traveled to each.
As the story was told to me by Trisha Kirk, director of marketing for the Guthrie theater complex, and David Stewart, its director of production, many of the people Guthrie met with were getting on in years. One of Guthrie’s chief concerns was that the theater he was proposing be sustainable over the long term. What would happen to his theater as the seniors closed in on retirement? When the old guard passed, who would keep the theater running?
As he made his rounds of the seven cities, Guthrie was most impressed with Minneapolis. Along with the enthusiasm and eagerness for the arts that he found in the Twin Cities, city representatives didn’t just want to build a theater for their community, they wanted to spend their careers working and growing with the establishment. The fact that the people were all in their 30’s did not go unnoticed.
Guthrie was also impressed by the cultural riches in the Twin Cities area and the dedication of its residents to the arts. Centrally located in the heartland of America, the region is home to a major state university and other colleges. Picking Minneapolis proved to be a good call as the theater remains a popular spot for the locals to enjoy works on three distinctly different stages.
A committee formed to bring the project to the area, backed by a grant from the T.B. Walker Foundation. They committed to giving up the land behind the prestigious Walker Museum along with $400,000 in construction costs. The committee set a goal to raise additional funds and far exceeded it, collecting $2.2 million in donations — the equivalent to about $17.7 million today. And so it began, the birth of the not-for-profit residential theater.
The original theater was completed in 1963. The program engaged many graduate students from the University of Minnesota in many capacities, from actors to directors and playwrights to technical theater skilled positions. The first season produced four plays, and an estimated 22,000 season tickets were sold.
The Guthrie depended on a grant from the Ford Foundation to stay afloat for the first six years. By 1968, the theater began producing smaller plays at other locations, starting a tradition that still goes on today (albeit with three separate performance spaces located in the same building now). Eventually, the theater was closed due to urban development and they moved to a second location, made possible by a huge grant from the Andrew W. Mellon foundation. The construction of the new theater in the Mill District was completed in 2006.
Amber Room and Dowling Studio
The Guthrie building now resides on the banks of the Mississippi river. Along the top floors is a viewing area called the Amber Room. A place for patrons to mingle before an event, the room is made of glass that is tinted in a yellowish tone. A panoramic view of the river and the surrounding city is breathtaking. Upon wandering away from this area, I find myself staring at an empty room; a black box studio. The Dowling Studio is named after former Guthrie artistic director Joe Dowling, and fits up to 199 people. All kinds of events take place in the room, ranging from wedding receptions to performing arts ensembles and storytelling sessions. It is booked constantly.
Trisha explains about how they engaged in the “Level Nine Initiative,” a program that is part of the Guthrie’s way of running the Dowling. “When we dreamed up the new theater, we knew we wanted three separate stages. We wanted to open the building up to other art partners. We would do our own productions in this space, but at other times invite other companies to join us. We’ve built upon this greatly the last couple of years, with all kinds of productions in this room. We now have conversations that happen in the space, either before or after every performance or other kind of activity.
“The price of admission for any event in this room costs nine dollars to the public,” Trisha continues. “Many performing arts groups in the city have been around for a long time, but do not have a dedicated house to perform in. We have a group called ‘The Telling Project,’ which is a group of veterans that tell their own stories. We have a big variety of companies in town; some established, others brand new. Part of our theater’s goal is to give these groups a place to perform.”
This gives a chance for many artists to display something that may not necessarily be part of the Guthrie Theater’s aesthetic, that they would be able to produce on their own, Trisha adds. “It’s really a win-win scenario for both of us. These people get a stage where they might not have been able to perform on before.”
“This speaks to one of our core values at the Guthrie,” adds David. “Reaching out to the community and making sure they have this resource that’s available for the community. The community is the reason we stand here today. It’s a giving back approach for the arts.” The local companies playing the room get a guaranteed fee to perform, which hopefully covers their costs. Trisha explains, “This provides some stability to these groups. Knowing that they will not have to depend on box office receipts to get their production financed is huge. This is just us giving back to the community.”
A Look at the Lighting
The room has a tension grid suspended over the floor. This is like a large steel net where technicians can walk around and hang any lighting fixtures or scenic elements anywhere in the room. The lights shine right through this mesh with no noticeable blockage of light.
“We are an old ETC house dating way back,” David notes. “In fact, every lighting fixture from our old house is still in use here today.” Large numbers of ETC ellipsoidals, pars and Fresnels are hung on all three stages.
As I walk around all the stages, I notice ETC Source Four Revolution fixtures, an ETC-manufactured moving light. Besides the thousands of ETC fixtures, I also take note that the theater has purchased quite a few of the High End Systems’ SolaWash 2000 moving lights.
David explains, “While we have a large inventory of lighting fixtures, we often bring in fixtures that a lighting designer requests for his show. Every year people bring up the idea of changing over to LED fixtures, but we feel we are just not ready to commit to that technology yet. We still love the even dimming curve and pure color temperature of the tungsten fixtures.”
On my tour of the facilities, I see a space that contains three classrooms and a conference space, all part of the Guthrie’s ties of giving back to the community. “John Q. Public can use this space if they reserve it,” David says. “Often enough we have local theater companies do auditions, corporations will come in and do team meetings.”
Trisha then adds, “We have our own set of classes as well. We do actor training, for instance. Many of the actual actors around town teach here.”
Over the years, the Guthrie had to depend on other buildings to house their scenic shop, paint room and store unused sets to be used again or refurbished for another production. A key benefit of the theater’s new location is its proximity to these shops — across the street, above a parking garage.
“In Minneapolis we are known for our series of skyways that get people from one building to another without going through the elements,” David notes. “While they don’t allow these skyways in our section of town, we were grandfathered in in this case. Our sets used to have to be built to fit in a truck. Now we are only limited by the height of this hallway (approximately 18 feet) and the corners we have to get the set carts around.”
The scenic shop itself is massive. I watch the crew as they construct a large prop for the upcoming performance of King Lear. I peek into the painting room and there are over a dozen people working just in that department. All the welding and woodwork is done by scenic artists tied in with the local IATSE union.
“The IATSE was a big part of the Guthrie coming to Minneapolis,” I’m told by Trisha. “They actually went door-to-door to solicit contributions to build the theater and expand their union. The community drive reached far. We actually received one donation of six dollars and change that was collected by school kids in the town of Mankato, a municipality 70 miles away.”
January is a slow time for the theater-going public, and the Guthrie can take time to do maintenance work. Of course, the prep work is still going on for upcoming events, but it gives the employees time for vacations from the cold winter as well. The fact is, there are things that cannot be done when the public is in the building, such as maintenance on the elevators. As Trisha notes, “we equate the Guthrie to having a house party, six days a week. You can only do so much on that one day a week, and all of us need a little downtime. So, we seriously look at the calendar when we schedule our year.” But “we are not in a business that ever rests,” David notes. “The marketing team never stops, nor do the production people. We look for these lulls in the action to fix any major technical issues.”
The Wurtele Thrust Stage
We take a tour of the Wurtele stage, a thrust type stage that is not too common in modern theaters. This stage was constructed to replicate the original stage from the old house. Trisha expands on that, “The original stage was designed by Tanya Moiseiwitsch and Tyrone Guthrie. When we moved here [in 2006], we did not want to give up the uniqueness of this stage. People come in here and go ‘What is this? I’ve never seen anything like it.’ It’s our signature stage.”
Unlike a common proscenium stage, this one has a five sided, wide thrust that sticks out from the upstage rectangular area. The three-sided audience area contains 1,100 seats, and not one of them is further than 52 feet from the stage or has a bad view. The seats alter in width slightly. They are specifically laid out so that no attendee is forced to look directly at the head of the person in front of them. The seating surrounds the stage by approximately 160 degrees.
The stage is separated from the audience by a section of concrete and two separate hidden voms in the house that actors can enter from. There are five sections of stage that surround the perimeter and are affectionately referred to as the “moat.” These sections operate on a chain motor system allowing them to lower down to the concrete level. On certain performances, there are steps surrounding the thrust and connecting to the moat. Trap doors and elevators are often used during performances. The Guthrie has the capacity to engineer and install its own mechanical lifts and set pieces including a turntable on the stage when a production calls for it. Under the stage is the trap room, where one can view all the mechanical apparatus including push-pull devices on pulleys and lifts that are currently being constructed for an upcoming show. The majority of all this is built in house. Upstage of the thrust is a full width stage that includes a fly rail system and ample room for storing additional sets and props in the production.
As explained on their website, “The thrust stage itself is designed to change dramatically as each new production demands. By building a customized stage floor for each play, the size, shape, color and texture of the stage floor changes. This flexibility is essential in creating an appropriate environment for each individual production.”
The McGuire Proscenium Stage
Next up is a short walk over to the McGuire Proscenium Stage, where everyone in the audience faces straight forward in the same direction. This theater also follows the guidelines of aligning the audience seating so everyone gets a good view. The stage is fairly large and comfortable for a 700-seat theater. While there are fewer seats in this theater, there are more rows, and more people are seated farther from the stage. The layout is also more traditional and less intimate than its larger brother.
The Guthrie Theater is now building an apron, to add onto the permanent stage. “We don’t tell our designers where to locate their scenery on stage, or how much space they can have for their production,” David notes. “When we start out, we give them a drawing with strict limitations of how far out they can build a stage. We’ve had folks come in here and declare that they needed to remove hundreds of seats to build a runway down the middle, and that simply cannot happen. So, we do have some rules. Another thing to be aware of is how deep the stage is and the sightlines on the side seats. Quite often, we have to advise a show director that his plan doesn’t always jibe with our sightlines.”
“We had an architect who wanted to do something significantly different from the original thrust stage,” Trisha adds. “The absolute opposite is this proscenium. But if you notice, it goes straight back. Traditionally theaters expand their width as the seating moves away from the stage.” There are two balconies in this space as well with three levels of booths in the space. Spotlights move locations up there, depending on the show.
Next up is a look at the costume department. David explains, “For the most part, the Guthrie produces their own shows, though on occasion they do host touring shows. We like everything to come from in house. As far as the costumes are concerned, we build, rent, even borrow stuff. We have a large costume inventory in storage.”
Even though there are no shows playing this week, there are easily a dozen stitchers and costume artisans working away on tables, building what the Guthrie’s costume designers have spec’d. The Guthrie had the foresight to build a floating floor in this large room to facilitate the staff who often spend long hours on their feet. This helps ease back pain tremendously.
Additional rooms include the craft services and dye rooms. “They dye the fabric in here and have a spray booth where they can safely go in and spray the costumes with anything necessary. Around the corner is the crafts room where the millinery (manufacturing of hats) is done. “Crafts” is a theatrical term used for hats, masks and specialty attire a show demands. The room is surrounded with hat forms and rows of materials and every color feather you can imagine. In fact, “Samantha, who works in the crafts department, is sometimes called upon to act as a costume designer for one of the Guthrie’s productions,” explains David. “She’s really a jack of all trades.” There’s a separate wig room across the hall as well as rows of dressing rooms.
The Personnel
While the Guthrie Theater may employ upwards of 500 people in any given year, I inquire how the management system works in a major theater complex such as this. David explains. “There is a board of trustees. Then they hire the artistic director (in this case Joe Haj, who took over for Joe Dowling after 20 years). He’s the main guy. He has four direct people that report to him. The managing director, a director of development who goes out and fundraises, an associate art director who helps out with artistic departments, and me, as the director of production. We then go out and run the rest of the organization.
“My department deals with the lights, projection, sound, costumes and wardrobe, scenery, paint, run crew, as well as stage, production and events managers,” David continues. “I have 75 full-time people working for me at all times, and that’s a minimum.” The run crews for the shows are on staff full time, but with the amount of over-hires (stagehands employed at times for show where more hands are needed on deck) can often double that amount. David has a production manager that looks after the three stages as well. He and David alternate their run schedules so one of them is always on site while the other gets some normal time with their family.
“We have an amazing crew here, with an extremely low turnover. In the 16 months I’ve been here we’ve only hired three people. One retired, one moved, and we created a new position. We are one of the most prestigious theaters in the country. We pay well, have steady work and we do exceptional things. People enjoy coming to work here, and that means a lot. Because if you like your work and take pride in your craft, you produce better work.”
For more details about the Guthrie Theater, go to www.guthrietheater.org.
