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Dancers Brianna Dawkins and Eboni Edwards lead a community pop-up dance at the new Doris Duke Theatre.
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The new Doris Duke Theatre at Jacob's Pillow. The original burned in 2020.
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The dancers practice before the pop-up on Sunday.
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Jacob's Pillow Celebrates Rebuilt Theater With Pop-up Dance

By Sabrina DammsiBerkshires Staff
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Executive Director Pamela Tatge, left, says Jacob's Pillow is about the 'past, present, and future of dance.' See more photos here.
BECKET, Mass. — More than 100 community members of all ages celebrated the opening of Jacob's Pillow's Doris Duke Theatre with a community pop-up dance and open house on Sunday. 
 
The event precedes the theater's ribbon-cutting ceremony, which is scheduled to take place on Wednesday. 
 
The day was filled with smiles, laughter, tears, art unveilings, and, of course, lots of dancing. 
 
Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival at 93 years is the longest-running dance festival in the nation, and the only national historic landmark dedicated to dance, said Pamela Tatge, executive and artistic director. 
 
"There are very few places in our nation that care about, revere, preserve, and celebrate dance like Jacob's Pillow. This theater is all about dance," she said. 
 
"It's dance in the future. It's dance in a way that will not only include artists that have made their artistic homes at Jacob's Pillow, but artists of the future. We are about the past, present, and future of dance at Jacob's Pillow."
 
Since the 1990s, the dance venue has had three stages: the Ted Shawn Theatre, the first theater built for dance in America; the outdoor stage, which has the backdrop of the Berkshire Hills; and Doris Duke Theatre. 
 
The Duke Theatre, named for the philanthropist and arts supporter, was the smaller of the two performance venues at the dance festival. The Ted Shawn Theatre, named for the festival's founder, has more than 600 seats. 
 
"Doris Duke Theatre was an intimate space, a flexible space, where artists who experiment, who are emerging, have the opportunity to present their best work," Tatge said. 
 
The theater opened in 1990 and was Jacob's Pillow's first large studio. It was used for developing new work in class, rehearsals, and performances. 
 
That was until 2020, when it burned down in a fire amid the pandemic. Despite that, the dance community banded together, rising above the ashes, and brought the theater back to life. 
 
"The new Doris Duke Theatre will not only have all of the intimacy and warmth and character of the original Duke, supporting emerging artists, artists who want to have a visceral connection to their audience. We will also have as a hallmark of our work, dance that integrates with technology," Tatge said. 
 
"That is work that gives an audience an experience that they wouldn't otherwise have in person, and also contributes to our online presence, bringing dance to audiences around the world."
 
In preparation for the pop-up dance, the Pillow sent a request out for volunteers who had learned a dance commissioned for the event by Broadway and five-time Tony-nominated choreographer Camille A. Brown. 
 
"What dance does is it builds community. When we move together, we experience the kind of feeling that we wish we had all the time in our world," Tatge said. 
 
Following tours of the new space, the volunteers rehearsed with Camille A. Brown dancers Brianna Dawkins and Eboni Edwards. 
 
Following lunch, the fun and joyful dance was performed in front of the new theater, on its roof, and on the veranda. 
 
"The idea being let's birth this building together and put our good energy and all of the future that awaits us," Tatge said. 

Tags: jacobs pillow,   open house,   

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Pryor & Peacock's Whimsical Furniture Environmentally Friendly

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
 

The company uses digital printing to create the upholstery fabric, saving water and saving vintage furniture from ending up in landfills.

STOCKBRIDGE, Mass. — A unique furniture store has popped up on Elm Street this month.

Mom-and-daughter store Pryor & Peacock is hosting the pop-up storefront from Aug. 13 to Aug. 25 at 6 Elm. The New Marlborough business is co-founded by Rosalina Wright and Luca Shapiro, who is also the creative director. 

Their online shop was created in 2024 but they wanted people to see the pieces in person, so they're renting the space for a limited time before a long-term tenant moves in.

The store sources prints to create unique fabrics and reimagines vintage and antique furniture acquired at auctions, local shops, and online.

"We source prints from all over the world that date from the late 1600s up through mid-20th century, and Luca turns those prints into fabric by manipulating them, scanning them, oftentimes has to add or subtract things, and then we manufacture the fabric using only digital printing, which is very environmentally friendly, unlike traditional textile printing," Wright said.

Upholstering the furniture can take weeks of work. Shapiro looks for the perfect design for each piece and, if need be, uses Adobe Photoshop to extend the art work to fit or enhance the print.

"One of the most difficult parts comes in marrying the fabric to a piece of furniture because we only use antique and vintage frames also to be earth friendly, and they're also more beautiful and durable than new furniture," Wright said. "So the image has to go with the furniture, so that takes a lot of work."

One of Pryor & Peacock's missions is to be environmentally friendly. Digital printing doesn't use the same amount of water as traditional textile productions do nor does it contaminate water with ink according to their website.

Not only are they saving water, but they are saving furniture from going into the landfill while also using more durable furniture that doesn't break as easily as current pieces. They started their business to create something unique and to help the environment together.

"It's creating something nobody else is doing. People can't continue to buy throwaway furniture. Six percent of American landfills is furniture, and digital printing not only opens up the possibility of being able to put unique images on a piece of furniture, but it also is, as I said, environmentally friendly. So, for us, the excitement is to take an old East Lake settee that somebody's going to store in their barn and forget about, and make it something completely new and surprising," Wright said.

They hope their furniture helps bring a pop of fun to someone's home.

"We think our furniture is very whimsical and surprising, and most furniture today is oatmeal colored couches and gray neutral chairs, and it's boring," she said.

The two named their business after their mothers' maiden names to honor them and believe the name reflects their pieces.

Shapiro works in interior design outside of the business and the two liked working together and thought it would be great to start a business together. Shapiro says they can work well together and that her and her mother, Wright, has flipped houses before and have the same eye for design.

"So it's very easy for us to work together. When we see something, generally we agree on whether it works or doesn't work on a piece. We agree on the color schemes and that sort of thing. So it's very fun and fulfilling to work together," Shapiro said. 

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