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Studio 210 isn't Broadway. Home to many student productions, it's a large room on the second floor of the Boston University Theatre on Huntington Avenue, without the traditional proscenium stage, a curtain, or clearly delineated audience and actor spaces. That lack of boundaries makes such black box theaters important for young actors and directors honing their craft, according to Stewart Lane (CFA'73). The Broadway producer, director, and playwright feels the limitless, undefined space pushes a director toward more inventive staging. "The black box theater was probably where I saw the most exciting, creative work at Boston University," Lane says of his time at BU.
Lane isn't just tossing around kind words. He is giving $200,000, matched by $100,000 from the Leventhal fund (see front page), that will go to repairing and upgrading Studio 210 and the costume shop, equipment, public spaces, and backstage areas. The refurbished venue will be christened the Stewart F. Lane and Bonnie Comley Studio 210 Theatre. "We're thrilled to place these names on one of our important performance venues," says Walt Meissner, College of Fine Arts dean ad interim. "With this generous gift, Stewart and Bonnie will lead and inspire other alumni and arts patrons to be more involved."
Among Lane's memories of innovation in Studio 210 is lots of dirt. For a production of Tobacco Road he directed, Lane decided to cover the stage area with dry earth. "You really got a sense of the Depression, the dry South," he says. There was some controversy around the decision-some worried that theater-goers would be made uncomfortable by being near so much dirt. "But it was exciting, exciting different theater," Lane says. "And BU did it first." The idea made its way to Broadway fifteen years later in Peter Brooks's production of Carmen.
Lane has enjoyed a long series of successes in a business notorious for its difficulty. He won a Tony award as producer of La Cage Aux Folles in 1984 after having been nominated for Woman of the Year (1981), Can-Can (1980), West Side Story (1980), The Grand Tour (1979), and Whose Life Is It Anyway? (1979). His 1991 show, The Will Rogers Follies, netted Lane another producer Tony. He has also written for the stage, including If It Were Easy, which starred his wife, Bonnie Comley, and In the Wings. Lane and his wife are currently producing the musical Princesses, which will make its Broadway premier this fall. He co-owns the Palace Theater and, with Robert De Niro, the Tribeca Grill.
Though he has worked with many forms of theater, Lane has been drawn to comedy and musicals throughout his career. Noting the years it may take to bring a play, even a classic, from inception to the stage, Lane says, "I don't want to live with Medea for seven years. I want to enjoy and celebrate the human condition. That's my nature."
He also notes the difference in the approach to theater at BU when he talks about his oldest daughter, Eliana (COM'07), who is vice president of a BU theater club. "When I was at BU, we were serious," he says, drawing out the word comically. "She's having fun with it-not a bad way to go."
—Nathaniel Beyer
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