Even by 2020 standards, Jacob’s Pillow had a tough year. Not only did the Becket, Massachusetts dance center cancel its annual summer season for the first time in its history, it also lost one of its theaters, the Doris Duke, to a fire.
But 2021 has started brighter: The pillow, as it is called, announced on Thursday that it will host an outdoor festival from June 30th to August 29th this year and that it will soon start renovating its main performance room, the Ted Shawn, theater will begin.
Pamela Tatge, director of Jacob’s Pillow, said the festival’s summer schedule was “a combination of contract work and existing work from companies that people know well and are associated with the pillow, in addition to a significant number of Jacob’s Pillow debuts . ” The list will be announced in April.
Many of the groups featured are from or near New York. “We’re leaning on companies that are within driving distance of Jacob’s Pillow this summer.”
Performances will take place in the centre’s outdoor amphitheater, whose seating will be rearranged and expanded to safely accommodate as many spectators as possible in accordance with government regulations, and on the 220-acre campus. “It was so exciting to work with artists to think about which of their work would be appropriate and exciting to show off outdoors,” said Tatge.
The online audience also has the option to tune in. Videos of some of the performances can be streamed until September 10th.
The renovation of the Ted Shawn Theater is the final phase of a five-year plan that is slated for completion to coincide with the pillow’s 90th anniversary in 2022. The new design will enlarge the stage and dressing room. It will also add ventilation and air conditioning, without which, according to Tatge, Ted Shawn “simply wouldn’t be a viable theater in the post-Covid world”.
Of the $ 22 million the pillow will need to meet the plan’s goals, $ 20 million has been raised since 2017. On Thursday, Dance We Must launched a new campaign to get yourself over the financial finish line.
Plans to replace the Doris Duke Theater will be announced in the fall.
