Theatre Design & Technology - Summer 2003 - 14

In 1974 Chuck Levy arranged a walking tour of the four brand new midtown Manhattan theatres: the Minskoff,
Uris, Circle in the Square, American Place Theatre. I wish I could have backed off and filmed that tour. Imagine, if you
will, about 350 people trouping en masse through Times Square. In each of these venues when we went inside, someone
did a presentation-either the architect, or the consultant, or the users-and sometimes all of them. They would tell us
the important features and how the buildings came to be. And then that wonderful, (magical) moment would come and
they would invite us all to come up and look around. But inviting this group to look around your theatre is, as David Lofton
once said, like inviting 350 people to go through your underwear drawer.
Of particular note was the Minskoff Theatre. It's the only theatre I know where the lock rail is along the back wall.
It was originally designed to have hydraulic rigging in it, but that didn't work so it was taken out before the theatre ever
opened. Because of the design of the backstage area, it was impossible to put the rigging on either side of the stage. As a
result, it has the lock rail along the upstage wall. The line sets all go up and mule out to the sides. When the person doing the presentation was explaining this, I could see the wheels turning in the minds of my colleagues. That moment
came when the presenter said, "And, if you'd like to come up and look, please do," and about twenty guys got up and
headed for the ladder to the grid. I still remember the look of horror on that man's face, something like, "Who are these
people, and where did they come from?" Of course he called them down and wouldn't let them go to the grid. But where
else can you see performance facilities, talk to the people who use them, and get the perspective of your colleagues
through their disciplines?
Back then we didn't have many of the Commissions that we now have. We were a small group and every night after
dinner we would meet. That night Rudy Kuntner, who was the technical director for the Metropolitan Opera, stood up
and said, "I understand you visited some beautiful theatres today, but you have not yet seen the best theatre in New York
City. That is the Metropolitan Opera. Tomorrow you should all come and see the Met. Just come to the stage door." I
think he knew not of what he spoke.
I'm sure he envisioned that we would all come as a group, but of course we didn't. Small groups of four and six
and eight wandered up to the stage door and said, "Rudy told us to come and tour the theatre." And Rudy, bless his
heart, being a man of his word, would pull a stagehand off his job and have him conduct a tour for the current group.
And each tour was a complete tour that went from the basement where the hydraulic lifts were housed, all the way up to
the 110' level of the upper grid, and through all the shops along the way. As my group went through one of the prop

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