Lisa Hahn, executive director of Windhover Performing Arts Center: "Why not have performances where creativity can bloom?”
Outdoor venues will be the first spaces where audiences can gather safely. Rockport’s Windhover Performing Arts Center, which has hosted live performances since 1967, brings in more events than ever this summer with new partnerships and enhanced facilities.
The Gloucester Stage Company plans to play its upcoming summer season outdoors on Windhover’s garden stage. GSC’s season—four productions, each running about three weeks—will serve as a linchpin for a sweeping variety of live performances.
The Quarry Dance artistic team—Dusan Tynek’s Dance Theatre—returns for the tenth year of the site-specific dance, likely to be a repeat of last summer’s successful film version. Multiple regional dance companies—many directed by students of Windhover’s founder, the late choreographer Ina Hahn—will perform.
New York’s tango choreographer Valeria Solomonoff will stage performances and hold workshops in July. Katherine Hooper’s BoSoma Dance Company will appear in August. Former Paul Taylor principal dancer Michael Trusnovec will perform a modern-dance legacy presentation and teach in August as well.
“He’s going to curate a program, and he’s open to collaborating with musicians,” says Windhover’s executive director Lisa Hahn. “There could be a premiere while he’s here.”
Other major music events are also in planning stages. “We’re squeezing things into days and evenings when the stage company isn’t here,” Hahn says. “We’re still talking to other directors.”
To accommodate the busier-than-ever schedule, Hahn has purchased a new stage for the garden—“adaptable,” she says, “in sections that can be re-arranged. It has wings, and it can be configured to play in the round. It’s completely flexible.”
GSC will supply lighting and sound systems. A sail-tent covering for audiences is being designed. Windhover’s buildings are getting new roofs, and other infrastructure improvements have begun.
Presenters will monitor state restrictions on audience capacity and safety regulations. “We’ll follow the governor’s guidelines,” Hahn says. “There’s plenty of space and parking here.”
Hahn wants the mix of events to stimulate the artistic possibilities.
“I want Windhover not only to be a refuge, but a place where creativity can bloom across the arts,” she says. “Where work can grow because expectations are broken down.
“We will continue to do all the things that Windhover does, and broaden it to be a place where the performing arts really flourish.”
Windhover certainly bears that legacy. Ina Hahn was always an enthusiastic collaborator, and many notable dancers, composers, choreographers and instrumentalists spent summers on Windhover’s four-and-a-half acres.
“It’s always been a place for experimentation,” Hahn says. “My mother had dance programs based on poetry. Back in the ’60s she was doing improvisation with music.
“Why not have performances where creativity can bloom?” she asks. “There’s only a handful of these pockets of creativity in the country—fewer and fewer all the time. There’s space and silence here.
“If a company comes, I want them to think, ‘How can I break the boundaries of what I’m doing?’ This could blossom in ways you can’t predict. Being outdoors means you’ve got nature as another partner.”
The Gloucester Stage Company’s summer season opens June 11 with “Tiny Beautiful Things,” Nia Vardalos’s adaptation of Cheryl Strayed’s book. For the complete season, and an overview of the CDC’s protocols on audience health and safety, visit gloucesterstage.com. Visit windhover.org for a complete list of Windhover’s summer events.
Keith Powers covers music and the arts for Gannett New England, Leonore Overture and Opera News. Follow @PowersKeith; email to keithmichaelpowers@gmail.com.