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New Jacob's Pillow theater to empower artists to be 'audacious and bonker balls'

Jacob's Pillow in Becket, Massachusetts has unveiled the design of a new building to replace the Doris Duke Theater, which was destroyed in a fire in November 2020.

The Doris Duke first opened in 1990.

"It was the very embodiment of dance history," said Sydney Skybetter, a Brown University professor of choreography and robotics, who was an advisor on the plans for the new Doris Duke.

Pamela Tatgei, the executive and artistic director of Jacob's Pillow, said the new design is "grounded in Indigenous values," pointing out that it's on the homelands of the Stockbridge - Munsee Nation.

The design is connected to the natural environment.

"We've asked that this building be entirely flexible so that it can be used in multiple configurations so that there is a blurring between the indoors and the outdoors," Tatgei said.

There is also a focus on accessibility.

Doris Duke Theatre at Jacob's Pillow in Becket, Mass. before the Nov. 2020 fire.
Christopher Duggan
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Jacob's Pillow
Doris Duke Theatre at Jacob's Pillow in Becket, Mass. before the Nov. 2020 fire.

"We will have the capacity to do audio description. We will have new siting for people in wheelchairs. In the past, they all had to be only sitting in the front. What about someone who prefers to see dance from the back, which many people do," she said.

The new Doris Duke will accommodate technology that can be integrated into choreography, including large, heavy robots.

"What we found is that by making the space accessible for robots, we're actually making it more accessible for people," said Skybetter.

Skybetter hopes the new theater will support artists so they can experiment with all kinds of technology, including ones that allow a performance to happen in multiple sites simultaneously or that could generate "live" animation or virtual reality.

"The artists are the folks who will ultimately determine what the dance of the future looks like," Skybetter said. "And this new space is an attempt to honor that, but also to empower artists to be as audacious and bonker balls as possible."

The Pillow hopes to start construction on the new building next year, which is expected to cost $30 million. The group is still raising funds to complete the project.

Nancy Eve Cohen is a former NEPM senior reporter whose investigative reporting has been recognized with an Edward R. Murrow Regional Award for Hard News, along with awards for features and spot news from the Public Media Journalists Association (PMJA), American Women in Radio & Television and the Society of Professional Journalists.

She has reported on repatriation to Native nations, criminal justice for survivors of child sexual abuse, linguistic and digital barriers to employment, fatal police shootings and efforts to address climate change and protect the environment. She has done extensive reporting on the EPA's Superfund cleanup of the Housatonic River.

Previously, she served as an editor at NPR in Washington D.C., as well as the managing editor of the Northeast Environmental Hub, a collaboration of public radio stations in New York and New England.

Before working in radio, she produced environmental public television documentaries. As part of a camera crew, she also recorded sound for network television news with assignments in Russia, Guatemala, Mexico, Cuba and in Sarajevo during the war in Bosnia.

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SOMOS CONNECTICUT es una iniciativa de Connecticut Public, la emisora local de NPR y PBS del estado, que busca elevar nuestras historias latinas y expandir programación que alza y informa nuestras comunidades latinas locales. Visita CTPublic.org/latino para más reportajes y recursos. Para noticias, suscríbase a nuestro boletín informativo en ctpublic.org/newsletters.

The independent journalism and non-commercial programming you rely on every day is in danger.

If you’re reading this, you believe in trusted journalism and in learning without paywalls. You value access to educational content kids love and enriching cultural programming.

Now all of that is at risk.

Federal funding for public media is under threat and if it goes, the impact to our communities will be devastating.

Together, we can defend it. It’s time to protect what matters.

Your voice has protected public media before. Now, it’s needed again. Learn how you can protect the news and programming you depend on.

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