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Guthrie unveils new face for its new riverfront theater
December 15, 2004

This photo of "Othello," produced by the Guthrie in 2003, is one of eight being installed on the exterior of the new Guthrie Theater complex. The images are silkscreened on stainless steel panels. (Image courtesy of the Guthrie Theater)

Crews working on the Guthrie Theater's new home on the Mississippi River have started installing giant photographs from plays produced by the Guthrie over its 41-year history. The photos are going up in pieces on the exterior of the complex. The new Guthrie is scheduled to open in June 2006.

Minneapolis, Minn. — (AP) - The future has begun merging with the past as the Guthrie Theater's new $125 million home takes shape on the Mississippi River.

Crews are installing giant photographs from plays produced by the Guthrie over its 41-year history on the silvery and midnight blue exterior of the nine-story, three-stage complex, which is scheduled to open in June 2006.

	The original photo

The eight photographs, ranging in size from several feet to several stories, are silkscreened on 557 5-by-3 foot stainless steel panels and are designed to stand out especially at night.

The images date from the theater's 1963 founding by Sir Tyrone Guthrie through the current artistic leadership of Joe Dowling. Installation is scheduled to be complete by late February.

"The theater will recede at night, and the images will be lit to stand out so you'll see the images of actors playing great roles in great plays," Dowling said in an interview Wednesday. "That whole sense of what we do inside will be reflected on the outside."

Dowling said the photos are a good way to retain a sense of the history of the Guthrie, which was a landmark in the creation of theater outside New York City.

	Hamlet on the exterior

"I think the idea that we would constantly reflect and honor what had happened in the first 40 years of the theater's existance, combined with the almost startlingly contemporary design ... made the perfect combination for a theater that's very proud of its past but is also looking forward to the future," he said.

By day, the circular form of the thrust stage part of the complex echoes the form of adjacent grain silos, part of the city's roots as a grain-milling and agricultural center. The taller, block section recalls nearby flour mills. The metal sheeting is intended to evoke the city's industrial past.

Photographs chosen by French architect Jean Nouvel include the May 7, 1963 opening production of "Hamlet" starring George Grizzard and Jessica Tandy. The most recent of the photographs is of the 2003 production of "Othello" directed by Dowling.

The other photos are from "Henry V" (1964), "Uncle Vanya" (1969), "Of Mice and Men" (1972), "King Lear" (1974), "Foxfire" (1981) and "Iphigeneia at Aulis" (1992).

	Night scene

The complex is the largest cultural project currently under construction in the United States, Dowling said.

The building will house a 1,100-seat thrust stage, a 700-seat proscenium theater and a 250-seat studio theater, along with offices, production and support facilities, classrooms, restaurants, bars and adjacent parking for 1,000 vehicles. The theater's scenery-building shop will be located atop the parking ramp with a wide industrial skyway over the street for moving sets into the theater complex.

A cantilevered bridge extends 175 feet from the building toward the river, providing spectacular views of the river and the city's historic stone arch bridge from 50 feet above the ground. To keep the floating bridge from tipping toward the ground, four large steel columns are sunk in concrete and anchored in limestone bedrock under the building.

"You could put thousands of people on that and it wouldn't damage it," Dowling said.

The Guthrie has raised almost $79 million in private money for the new building, close to its goal of $85 million, spokesman James Morrison said. The state of Minnesota is contributing $25 million toward the project.

(Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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