CMU School of Drama


Monday, September 29, 2008

Dueling egos begat the Guthrie

OnStage: "Shortly before the new Guthrie Theater opened in 2006, architect Ralph Rapson toured the building. It was bittersweet for the man who had designed the iconic original on Vineland Place in Minneapolis. But Rapson found some solace in the new place. The signature thrust stage, with that gloriously asymmetrical scheme, was largely intact. Better yet, there was more legroom for patrons. Rapson smiled. Guthrie believed in jamming people together, and this new arrangement would have driven Sir Tyrone crazy."

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Fun article about the interesting mix up of architecture and theater. I could only imagine the amount of ideas that were toss'd aside. It had to be pretty interesting the dialogue between them coming from different views.

Anonymous said...

I always find it interesting when plays are written about real people, especially if they’re still alive. It seems like sometimes there is a good response, and sometimes the people being biographied get really angry. I believe I heard that Liza Minelli refused to go see the Boy from Oz in which she was a character, and I can imagine it is a little strange to go see a play about yourself.