The rebirth of the Doris Duke Theatre at Jacob's Pillow, signed Mecanoo

Jacob’s Pillow is a leading institution in the United States for the promotion of dance as an instrument of artistic expression and intercultural dialogue. The venue, founded in 1931 in the hills of Becket, Massachusetts, and recognised as a “National Historic Landmark District” since 2003, hosts the country's most important summer dance festival. The complex includes a dance school, spaces for cultural programmes, archives and various performance venues: the Ted Shawn Theatre, the first one designed specifically for dance in the USA, dating from 1942; Henry J. Leir Stage, an open-air space with mountain views, built in 1981; Doris Duke Theatre, for experimental sessions, opened in 1990. After the November 2020 fire that destroyed the beloved Doris Duke Theatre, in 2025 the building will rise from the ruins in a new form, thanks to a project by Mecanoo in collaboration with New York-based studio Marvel for the landscape aspects.

The soft-shaped, timber-clad building with an area of approximately 1,860 square metres will more than double the size of the previous theatre. The design envisages flexible spaces and variable configurations to accommodate different, contemporary functions according to requirements. The performance space will accommodate from 220 to 400 seats; two lobbies, one to the west and one to the east, will house the first the main reception area and the second the artists’ rehearsal rooms, which can possibly be transformed into meeting or event rooms. 

As Francine Houben, creative director and founding partner of Mecanoo, says: “At the heart of the new Doris Duke Theatre lies a celebration of movement, space, and connection. Inspired by Mecanoo’s core values of 'people, place, purpose, and poetry', the new theater captures the essence of dance, not only as an art form but as a deeply human experience intertwined with the landscape and community. Rooted in the rolling hills of the Berkshires, the theater honors the rich heritage of Jacob’s Pillow while pushing the frontiers of the performing arts. The design draws on the rhythms of nature, mirroring the fluidity and grace of dancers”.

High technology will make the Doris Duke one of the most advanced dance theatres in the world not only in terms of acoustic and lighting performance – from the high-speed internet, to the flexible locations for stage management and sound, to the improved lighting and audio capabilities – but also for the experimentation and elaboration of new forms of expression through sophisticated systems: from the digital spatial audio system with real-time tracking of dancers correlated to moving sound images, to the infrared camera tracking system of performers for interactive video content, to the hard-wired connectivity that will enable real-time collaboration among Jacob's Pillow venues, using simultaneous filmed performances.

Particular attention is paid to the project's insertion into its context, an ecologically relevant territory rich in indigenous memories: the landscape design, punctuated by native plants with medicinal qualities, pedestrian paths and works by indigenous artists, evokes the ancestral memory of the place, enriching it with contemporary artistic suggestions.

In the words of Pamela Tatge, Executive and Artistic Director of Jacob's Pillow: “we envisioned and built the new Doris Duke Theatre grounded in the Indigenous history of the land on which we dance. At the same time, it is a global hub for innovation. I am excited to see how artists and audiences join together and move beyond the limits of a traditional performance venue. In the new Duke, we will offer not just compelling and wide-ranging works that already exist today but also some of tomorrow’s most innovative mixed reality movement and dance experiences, which meld the virtual and the physical in deeply affecting ways”.