Suffolk Dorms / Modern Theatre

[AmericanFolkLegend]

'Felt', which is being renovated from an overpriced billiards/bar/shitty 80s music/corporate steak-head douchebag joint

Lurker, you should write for Fodor's Boston. You've captured the essence of Felt in one beautiful sentence.

[mass88]

Originally Posted by AmericanFolkLegend

Lurker, you should write for Fodor's Boston. You've captured the essence of Felt in one beautiful sentence.

Hahaha, do you all honestly think that low of Felt? I have been there a handful of times, maybe 7-8 and it's a decent place.

[AmericanFolkLegend]

Do you have an earring and/or use 55-gallon drums of hair gel and/or have a barbed wire tattoo around your biceps? If the answer to any of these is no, then my memory of Felt may be outdated.

[Boston02124]

Originally Posted by BarbaricManchurian

I wonder what did people do in porn theatres? Did they just fap openly or discreetly or what?

people had sex with each other!

[TomOfBoston]

Those were the days!

[Ron Newman]

According to http://www.suffolk.edu/modern_theatre/index.html , Suffolk's programming of the Modern Theatre will include movies, as well as 'conversations' (lectures) and live performances. DocYard Productions will move their documentary series here from the Brattle Theatre, and Actors' Shakespeare Project will produce Antony and Cleopatra next spring.

The page also says that "selected interior elements are being restored and re-installed", including a "decorative frieze that formerly covered an "acoustic hole built into the three-story wooden proscenium wall."

[Ron Newman]

From http://www.cas.suffolk.edu/43595.html :

ADAMS GALLERY PRESENTS "MODERN THEATRE ENCORE"

Modern Theatre Encore: Breathing New Life into the Theater District, at the Adams Gallery through Feb. 6, 2011, celebrates the history of the Washington Street Theater District as well as the many tradespeople and artists who labored to restore the Modern Theatre.
...
Photographs by Renee DeKona document the painstaking process of refurbishing each stone from the facade of the historic movie house, reassembling it like a giant puzzle, and adapting historic interior designs for the new theater.

The Adams Gallery is free and open to the public from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily. It is located in the first floor of David J. Sargent Hall, 120 Tremont St., Boston.

[JohnAKeith]

The white facade / edifice in the front is not marble; it's like concrete or some sort of terra cotta. Or terra ricotta, I don't know the name.

[AmericanFolkLegend]

Suffolk has a free public exhibit regarding the Modern restoration. Go in the Suffolk Law building (the one on Tremont opposite the graveyard). It's inside in a room immediately on the left. Nothing ground breaking or really any new info, but a fine diversion if you've got 10 minutes to burn.

[tmac9wr]

Originally Posted by mass88

Hahaha, do you all honestly think that low of Felt? I have been there a handful of times, maybe 7-8 and it's a decent place.

I've been there a couple times and I remember the bartenders were blazing hot. Definitely snooty, but I don't care about that if I'm just staring at titties.

[erikyow]

Originally Posted by tmac9wr

I've been there a couple times and I remember the bartenders were blazing hot. Definitely snooty, but I don't care about that if I'm just staring at titties.

[Ron Newman]

I found this press release from a Google Blog search, but don't see anything like it on Suffolk's own web site:

Modern Theatre to Open 11/5

...The University will welcome the general public to the new Modern Theatre during a Friday, Nov. 5, 2010 community open house, part of a two-day grand opening that begins with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Thursday, Nov. 4, for invited guests. Mayor Thomas M. Menino, who has supported the University's preservation efforts and whose vision for the revitalization of Boston's Theater District has become a reality, will be the guest speaker....

The CBT architectural firm designed the new jewel-box theater and residence hall in harmony with the restored Modern Theatre facade, which was rebuilt in the exact spot where it previously stood.

The interior of the theater also draws on the original. Tony-award-winning theater scene painter and designer John Lee Beatty created a mural design for the stage house walls, inspired by colors and themes from the earlier theater.

Meanwhile, the first exhibit in the lobby gallery will feature artifacts from the original movie house, vintage photographs of the building, and images of the movie posters and Hollywood stars once featured there.

Modern performances will include a reading by F. Murray Abraham of The Last Will and the Actors' Shakespeare Project's production of Antony and Cleopatra, featuring Paula Plum.

The theater will host a documentary film series with DocYard Productions, and its Conversations lineup includes comedian Lewis Black, Daily Beast political journalist Peter Beinart, author and columnist James Carroll, psychiatrist-author Robert Jay Lifton, and author Maxine Hong Kingston.

The grand opening celebration will be held from noon to 6 p.m. Friday, Nov. 5 with a community open house featuring tours of the lobby gallery and theater, and original site specific entertainment as part of the tour.

[Ron Newman]

The Boston Preservation Alliance will hold its 2010 Preservation Achievement Awards ceremony this Thursday, October 21 at 5:30 at the "newly restored Modern Theatre". The event is sold out. One of the award recipients will be Emerson College's neighboring Paramount Center.

[bdurden]

The curtain is finally down on the Modern theatre and the facade is gloriously reconstructed to its former elegance, and the new Modern Theatre marquee is a nice touch.

Was it necessary though for Suffolk to blare its name across the front of the building? This reduces the elegance of the reconstruction greatly. They could easily have accomplished name recognition with a smaller sign, or one that is just more appropriate to the scale of the theatre (Suffolk, look to your neighbor Emerson).

[Lurker]

Suffolk wants the public to know IT WAS RESPONSIBLE for the reconstruction of the theater. With Emerson next door they don't want confusion between the institutions. It's like having Coke next to Pepsi, they don't want to be confused for or out done by their competition.

[Ron Newman]

Photo please?

Branding it doesn't bother me -- it's their theatre now, just as the Majestic is Emerson's (and appropriately signed).

[mcus29]

These are just some crappy iPhone photos but should be good enough to give you the idea.

[briv]

Damn, you beat me to it!

[mcus29]

Ha ha, much nicer though. Well mine were taken around 6pm and those look more mid morning if that makes any difference.

[palindrome]

wow, that looks really good!