ON ORGANIZATION AND ORDER

“ ...reminds me of Louis Kahn's statement that at a certain point in the design and development of a building, the building turns back on the architect and determines how it wants to be finished. It becomes a living element, a personified partner in the design process.

In the case of the Oklahoma [Mummers] Theatre, the organisation is not compositional in the conventional sense, but has an order that is adopted from the electronic organisation of elements.

The basis is the chassis, and the components and sub-components are attached to them, which of course are serving elements for the major components. Then there is the harnessing and the communications system, which are for circulation. This freed me in my thinking, just by its pure terminology, to organise the building. I think that's unique and hope it's original in the sense of going into an organisation that is adopted from another field of endeavour. Otherwise there is no organisation there, and it looks like chaos. I was very proud to have it look like chaos!

You pass between certain forms that relate to each other and in turn to the organisation - one on the left and one on the right relate to the organisation, so it's a tripartite organisation with three different centres of order.”  

- John M Johansen interview with Hans Ulrich Obrist

LIFE OF THE BUILDING

Great architecture only gets better with time. So it is with the Mummers [Stage Center] Theater, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Incorporating movement into his design, Johansen Integrated decentralized, lightweight, highly-colored metal “tinker-toy” modulars with interior and exterior ramps and compartments of heavy concrete.

In its day the Mummers Theater was perceived as a radical departure from the mainstream of modern architecture.  Evolving from an analysis of the multi-dimensional programs of the Oklahoma City Mummers Theatre Company, the complex requirements of a city in search of a new creative identity, and the ever-present grain elevators found throughout Oklahoma’s dry, wind-swept lands, the Theater stands today as a modern marvel of innovation, adaptability and endurance.

When invited by James Tolbert, the Director of the Oklahoma City Arts Council, to revisit the building in 2008 and attend the Oklahoma City Festival of Arts Reception, which is held each year in the Stage Center [Mummers] Theater, then-92 year-old Johansen flew from New York to Oklahoma City by himself to participate in the event. The party, held in the Theater complex, was attended by over 1000 arts and architecture enthusiasts.

BUILDINGS THAT TEMPT AND ENTRAP

“My purpose in... [building] the Mummers Theater... was to excite, intrigue, tempt, and entrap. In the Mummers Theater... theatergoers are drawn into a building as stage set and feel themselves actors among professionals on the stage itself, in a total, combined performance. As I like to make the analogy, such buildings are like artful, subtle women who, offering love, do not give themselves, but ask to be taken.”      - John M Johansen

Awarded the prestigious American Institute of Architects Honors Award for his design, the Mummers Theater is a true work of art, a bold statement of integrity of purpose and design, an inspirational force of creativity that continues to serve the community in new and experimental ways.

Alive and well for more than 40 years, this great yet highly controversial building still demands to be utilized to its fullest potential. Each spring hundreds of thousands of art lovers descend upon Oklahoma City for its annual Festival of the Arts; central to the entire event is the Mummers Theater.