The Huntington Theatre Company is a professional theatre located in Boston, Massachusetts and the recipient of the 2013 Regional Theatre Tony Award, under the direction of Artistic Director Peter DuBois and Managing Director Michael Maso.
History
The Huntington was founded in 1982 by Boston University under President John Silber and Vice President Gerald Gross, and was separately incorporated as an independent non-profit in 1986. Its two prior artistic leaders were Peter Altman and Nicholas Martin. Michael Maso has led the Huntington’s administrative and financial operations since 1982 as the Managing Director, producing more than 180 plays in partnership with three artistic directors and leading the Huntington’s ten-year drive to build the Stanford Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts, which opened in September 2004. In 2016, as a result of Boston University's decision to sell the BU Theatre on Huntington Avenue, the Huntington Theatre Company and Boston University dissolved their relationship. The new owners of the BU Theatre Complex, QMG Huntington LLC, have proposed the creation of a new condo tower, while also allowing the Huntington to lease the renovated theatre space for $1 per year for the next 99 years. Construction is projected to be completed in late 2020.
The Huntington Avenue Theatre
The company's Huntington Avenue Theatre, located at 264 Huntington Avenue, was built in 1925 as the Repertory Theatre, and was designed by J. William Beal's Sons in the Georgian Revival style.
The Stanford Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts
The company built and operates the Stanford Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts, located at 527 Tremont Street in Boston's Historic South End, which provides facilities and audience services at subsidized rates to small and mid-sized theatre companies. It houses the 360 seat Virginia Wimberly Theatre, the Nancy and Edward Roberts Studio Theatre, Carol G. Deane Hall, and Hall A. The Huntington also operates BostonTheatreScene.com where tickets are sold for productions at the Boston University Theatre, the BCA Theatres on the Plaza, and Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA.
Notable productions
The Huntington has transferred 16 productions to New York, including two in 2012: the Broadway premiere of Lydia R. Diamond’s Stick Fly and the Roundabout Theatre Company production of Stephen Karam’s Sons of the Prophet, named a 2012 Pulitzer Prize finalist. The Huntington champions new play development and the local theatre community through its operation of the Stanford Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts, which the Huntington built in 2004. August Wilson had a unique relationship with the Huntington, as eight of his plays were produced here before they went on to New York. The Huntington's special relationship with August Wilson and his work began in 1986 with a production of Joe Turner's Come and Gone, Wilson's third play. For 25 years, the Huntington served as an artistic home to Wilson, developing and premiering seven of the ten plays of his Century Cycle during his life and producing two after his death. In 2012, the Huntington completed the cycle with Ma Rainey's Black Bottom. In the 2010-2011 season, the Huntington featured "The Shirley, VT Plays" Festival, with three plays written by Annie Baker being put on at the same time in three different theatres; Circle Mirror Transformation, Body Awareness, and Aliens. In 2011, The Huntington teamed up with Mary Zimmerman to produce a knockout production of Candide. Zimmerman returned in the 2013-2014 season to direct the world premiere adaptation of The Jungle Book in association with Chicago's Goodman Theatre.
New work
The Huntington has produced more than 100 New England, American, or world premieres to date.
Huntington Playwriting Fellows (HPF)
Since 2003, the HPF program has invited writers to participate in two-year residencies, during which playwrights receive a modest honorarium, join in a biweekly writers’ collective with artistic staff, attend Huntington productions and events, and are eligible for readings and support through the Breaking Ground Festival and the Huntington's Summer Workshop Program. The primary focus of the program is creating relationships with writers at all stages of their careers, from emerging talent to established professionals. The program provides a framework for an in-depth, two-year artistic conversation and a long-term professional relationship. Huntington productions of plays by Fellows include The Luck of the Irish by Kirsten Greenidge, Stick Fly by Lydia R. Diamond, The Atheist,Brendan, and The Second Girl by Ronan Noone, Psyched and “M” by Ryan Landry, and A Guide for the Homesick by Ken Urban.
Breaking Ground Festival
The Breaking Ground Festival is a periodic festival of new work featuring public readings of plays that have been developed by Huntington Playwriting Fellows or other nationally known playwrights with whom the Huntington Theatre Company has developed a relationship. In 2018, the festival featured readings of The Last Book of Homer by Jose Rivera, We All Fall Down by Lila Rose Kaplan, and The Purists by Dan McCabe.
Awards
Since its opening in 1982, the Huntington Theatre Company has been nominated for over 240 awards. The Huntington has won 3 Drama Desk Awards, 39 Elliot Norton Awards, 41 IRNE Awards, and 3 Tony Awards. The Huntington Theatre Company received the 2013 Tony Award for Best Regional Theatre.
Education
The Huntington’s Education Department serves more than 33,000 students, teachers, and community organizations each year with student matinees, statewide Poetry Out Loud and the August Wilson Monologue Competition.
