The Building's Ready. . . Now for the Show!
by Cynthia Owen Philip

Ever since I wrote about the groundbreaking for architect Frank Gehry's ebullient performing arts center at Bard as a "Juan Miro in motion," I've been filled with wonderment—laced with garden variety curiosity—about this monumental project. Now called the Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts in honor of a long-time, supportive trustee, its joyfully anticipated, right-on-schedule opening will take place the weekends of April 25 and May 1.

The event, put together by director Jonathan Levi—writer, librettist, composer, in fact, polymath—will be spectacular. Among the offerings to be staged in the 900-seat Sosnoff Theater are: the Ballet Hispanico; dance by choreographer Merce Cunningham with sets by Robert Rauschenberg and music by John Cage played by the Kronos Quartet; the Charles Mingus Orchestra with singer Elvis Costello, and an evening of compositions by Bard faculty, one a commissioned work by Joan Tower presented by The Emerson Quartet. The first-night gala and another evening will be devoted to music drawn from and celebrating the thirteen years of the Bard Music Festival, a prime progenitor of the new Center.

Jean Racine's eighteenth century play Phèdre, adapted by Paul Schmidt and JoAnne Akalaitis, the internationally acclaimed chairperson of the Bard Theater Department, will adorn the 300-seat black box theater. Set in a spa in a place not unlike Long Island, it is a contemporary production that loses none of its ancient, gut passion. In all, these two weekends will be a glorious launching for the $62 million-dollar Center.

But, of course, the debut program is just that—a beginning. Flexibility of use, the primary design goal of the Center, has been handsomely achieved. Like a living person, the Center is expected to evolve and change. During the first year its spaces will be mainly for in-college work. "It will take that time for the faculty and students to put the two theaters and their learning and work rooms through their paces so they can use them to their full capabilities," Bard president Leon Botstein told me. Only by the second year will the Center be running at full tilt, with both college and public performances.

The major exception will be the Bard Music Festival, now incorporated into an expanded program called SummerScape. This August the Festival will focus in its usual insightful, innovative way on the life, times and influences of Czech composer Leos Janácek, (1854-1928). Abandoning its former tent home with its vulnerabilities, the Festival's main events will take place at the Center. Janácek's opera Osud, directed by Akalaitis, will receive its first American performance in the Sosnoff Theater. Accompanying it will be K.I. from Crime, adapted from Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment, directed by acclaimed Russians Kama Ginkas and Genrietta Yanovskaya and performed by the Moscow Young Spectators Theater; Don Juan in Prague, an updated setting of Mozart's Don Giovanni by David Chambers with renowned gypsy violinist Uva Bittova cast in the role of Donna Elvira; a puppet theater which ordinarily plays in cabarets and local halls as well as on main stages, and a number of Czech movies.

Levi tells me that his vision is "to mess things up," by which he means to offer classical, electronic, or pop music for what it is—music, pure and simple. He firmly believes, as does Botstein, that music, buttressed by theater and dance, is the essence of civilized society. Like Bostein, too, he is committed to opening these heady vistas to students at Bard. The fullness of their learning experience is fundamental. At the same time, in a continuation of Bard habitual outreach, the public will be invited to join in that learning.

One of the aspects of the Center that puts stars in Levi's eyes is the crossing over of disciplines. For starters, he has commissioned Gehry to design the sets for Osud. Watching the architect grapple with a new discipline is, he says, seeing creative genius at work. The effect of this approach on the students will be profound.

Form by Form
I have watched the Center grow form by form from the outside. The photographs that accompany this article give only an indication of the myriad splendors Gehry has created. At this writing, the brushed stainless steel panels that compose the flowing ribbon roofs are still covered with protective blue plastic. Pretty as it is now, when it's removed, their undulating surfaces will reflect the sun, the clouds, the moon and the stars. And come spring, fluttering leaves on the huge trees that surround the building will dapple its white walls.

The interior of the Center, which I had not seen previously is, if possible, even more exciting. Basically, it comprises two spaces, each with its own main entrance. One is for grand performances; the other for ongoing student work. They are joined at the back where administrative and conference rooms are located. The concrete, textured by marks left by the forms into which it was poured, and the blondish wood used in seating, lighting, sound baffles and other elements give the spaces a warm, inviting ambiance. Tall vertical and floating horizontal windows curved to match the roof lines not only draw in the sky but offer views of the exterior from multiple and often surprising perspectives. This is architecture you experience.

The larger, easterly wing houses the Sosnoff Theater. Its huge stage is scaled to accommodate operas with full orchestra, yet it is striking in its intimacy. The audience is so close to the performers that interaction will happen naturally. Moreover, the configuration of the stage and seating can be changed to suit the performance, be it a full symphony orchestra or a lone guitar, ballet or the spoken word. Even the acoustics can be altered to suit the differing qualities needed by the medium. I asked Mark Primoff, my guide on the visit, to walk down to the stage and speak in a conversational tone while I remained seated in the back row. What astonished me was that that although he made no effort whatsoever to project his voice, I could hear every word distinctly, a miracle in an empty auditorium still in the process of being "tuned."

The Center's smaller and westerly wing has been built for, and with, the ongoing guidance of the theater and dance departments. It has all the same cutting edge elements and flexibility of the Sosnoff. The theater can be either black box or not with a flick of a switch. Jean Churchill, the head of the dance department, is thrilled at last to have adequate dance spaces with proper floors. In the past, rehearsing dancers were forced to yield their space to dancers ready to perform. No longer will they face such limiting restrictions.

JoAnne Akalaitis is equally delighted with her new space. Although she is firm that buildings do not necessarily make good theater, she is proud of the role she and her colleagues were able to play in its design. The stage and seating can be easily reconfigured. In the huge flies there are rods for twenty—or more—set changes. The rehearsal spaces too are superb. To everyone's infinite joy there are shared rooms for set construction, laundry, costume storage.

Still — as Botstein, Churchill, and Akalaitis all emphasize — this is a "continuum of what the dance and theater department have always been doing. It is not a change, but a culmination in the performing arts realm." The performing arts experience at Bard will simply be stronger and richer.

I myself am aquiver at the thought of what the Fisher Center for the Performing Arts has in store for all of us far and wide. I've got tickets for the inaugural performances. (They went on sale for the general public on March 3.) What aficionado could knowingly miss choosing from them! Here's hoping to see you at the Fisher Center.