Huntington to Celebrate Calderwood Pavilion's 10th Anniversary, 9/29

On September 29, 2014, the Huntington Theatre Company will commemorate the 10th anniversary of its Stanford Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts with a ribbon-cutting ceremony followed by a private rededication ceremony and celebration. The Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA is the Huntington's home for new play development and provides a much-needed resource for the local theatre community by offering a world-class facility and services at rates subsidized by the Huntington to dozens of Boston's small and mid-sized theatre companies.

Members of the media are invited to attend the ribbon-cutting ceremony on Monday, September 29 at 5:30pm at 527 Tremont Street, Boston.

Named #3 on Boston.com's "Biggest Arts Stories of the Decade" (December 2009), the opening of the Calderwood Pavilion marked the first new theatre to be built in Boston in more than 75 years, and helped to revitalize city's South End neighborhood and make it a "new cultural hub" for the arts. In its recent report, The ArtsFactor, ArtsBoston commended the Calderwood Pavilion for being a model of collaboration, acknowledging, "The Calderwood Pavilion has hosted thousands of performances and events...In addition to having a positive impact on the Boston arts scene, the Calderwood has helped catalyze the development of the South End into one of Boston's most desirable and dynamic neighborhoods."

"The work we do at the Calderwood - creating an audience for new and innovative theatre and assisting the dozens of small and emerging theatre companies for purposes ranging from first auditions to full productions - remains just as challenging and rewarding as it was that very first season," says Huntington Managing Director Michael Maso, who led the Huntington's 10-year drive to open the Calderwood Pavilion. He was named the Boston Herald's 2004 Man of the Year in recognition of his efforts. "Thanks to the vision of then-Mayor Thomas Menino, the collaborative spirit of developer Ron Druker, and the leadership at the Boston Center for the Arts, we replaced an empty parking lot with a vibrant space that is used to capacity nearly every day of the year," says Maso.

"The Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA has been a game-changer for SpeakEasy," says SpeakEasy Stage Company Producing Artistic Director Paul Daigneault. "It has brought thousands of new visitors to the South End and provided us with a beautiful new home and expanded opportunities. The entire Boston theatre community and our audiences are richer having this fantastic facility in our city."

Following the public ribbon-cutting, there will be a private rededication program featuring remarks from the building's benefactors, beneficiaries, and artists, performances by SpeakEasy Stage Company and Obie Award-winning actress and jazz performer Lea DeLaria, and a celebration throughout the building.