Drexel University Celebrates 50 Years of Performances and Events at the Mandell Theater
A close-up view of the Mandell Theater's exterior in 2024.
Back in 1973, Drexel University’s new Mandell Theater started with student performances of Noël Coward’s “Red Peppers” and “Ways and Means” and ended with Stephen Sondheim’s “Company.”
Now, during the 50th year of the Mandell Theater’s existence, the season features student performances from Drexel Theatre Program’s “The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical,” the Drexel Dance Program’s “Together We Move” concert and the Drexel Music Program’s “Perspectives: What We Hold Most Dear.”
It’s all part of Mandell at 50, a year’s worth of celebratory anniversary programming hosted by the Department of Performing Arts in the Antoinette Westphal College of Media Arts & Design. Students, faculty and professional staff from its theatre, dance and music programs were involved in the production of those aforementioned performances, just like generations of Dragons have been for the many concerts, recitals and plays presented in that space.
“Celebrating 50 years of the Samuel P. Mandell Theater is a testament to Drexel University's commitment to fostering creativity, scholarship and innovation in the arts. This milestone is not just about honoring our past but also about looking forward to the future, where the Mandell Theater will continue to be a vibrant hub for artistic expression and community engagement,” said Westphal College of Media Arts & Design Dean Jason Schupbach.
Mandell at 50
The anniversary celebration held during the 2023–2024 academic year featured one monumental event per term from each program. Two events with external performers — “Kristina Wong, Food Bank Influencer” on Oct. 12 and an April 18 concert by Afro-Indigenous musician Mumu Fresh — were put on through the Mandell Presents series as part of Mandell at 50.
A special opening night was held exactly 50 years after the Mandell Theater’s dedication on Nov. 10, 1973. It was attended by alumni who had been involved with the Mandell Theater during their time on campus — including a few alumni couples! — as well as Adelle Rubin, who had been the director of the theater program for 38 years and was involved with the creation of the Mandell Theater.
That night opened the Drexel Theatre Program’s “The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical,” which was also performed multiple times over the next week or so.
“Students take administrative and technical leadership roles like they would in a real theater company, and they read plays and musicals to recommend what we should perform based off of what’s appropriate, what would bring in a large audience, what could challenge us and what we have the budget to do,” said Nick Anselmo, teaching professor, Drexel Theatre Program director and producing artistic director for theatre. “They chose ‘Percy Jackson,’ and when I read through the script, I thought it would be a lot of fun and fit our mission.”
The winter term featured Feb. 9 and 10 performances of the Drexel Dance Ensemble and a Mandell 50th celebratory reception. Professional choreographers from the region and New York City worked with the ensemble to create eight premieres in “Together We Move,” a concert showcasing the dancers' versatility and skills in genres ranging from hip-hop to contemporary ballet.
“The dance programming for the 50th anniversary year is reflective of the University’s core values,” said Jennifer Morley, associate teaching professor, interim Dance Program director and Drexel Pilates training program director. “As an institution that is rooted in community, we proudly partner with local choreographers who are developing meaningful work from a range of perspectives. We are also thrilled to integrate national and international choreographers into the mix as a means of inviting our students to embody global citizenship.”
The Mandell at 50 programming will conclude June 7 with the Drexel University Concert Band (DUCB)’s spring concert, “Perspectives: What We Hold Most Dear,” and a reception will precede the event. The Drexel Music Program’s performances also feature guest artists, which is common. For example, on June 9, the Philadelphia Orchestra’s concertmaster David Kim and associate principal viola Kirsten Johnson will be joining the Drexel University Symphony Orchestra’s spring concert, “Symphonies Rock III: Romantic Tide.”
“Our DUCB season has been built around this idea that music can be a way to see or experience what is outside of our everyday and that it can provide perspective. Our final program this year is full of musical affirmations of identity — central to this program is Katahj Copley's new work for wind ensemble, ‘Dope,’ which was created after Copley realized he had been compartmentalizing his musical inspirations,” said Patrick Bailey, music director and conductor of DUCB.
Students performing the Drexel Theater Program’s “The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical” in the Mandell Theater in November 2023. Photo credit: Pedro Vasquez.
Mandell Today
“The Mandell Theatre is a jewel among West Philadelphia’s theaters,” said Anselmo. “It’s a great performance venue and a cultural destination.”
The expansive 424-seat theater is the primary space for performances and practices for the Department of Performing Arts, which means it’s constantly being used. The three programs rotate using the space to rehearse and perform on stage for weeks — a “huge gift of time,” said Dance Ensemble and FreshDance Ensemble Director Rebecca Malcolm-Naib, who noted that most rental theaters usually give one to two days of tech and rehearsals.
The space is open for its audience — the steepness and angle of the seats and the proscenium arch create the effect of feeling close to the stage, which is also great for capturing performances on video. Additionally, Mandell Theater can be customized for individual productions, with opportunities for changing lighting, sound design and other amenities.
“Mandell is a very welcoming and comfortable space to bring our audiences into,” said Luke Abruzzo, associate teaching professor and Drexel Music Program director. “It’s incredibly vital. We couldn’t do what we do if we didn’t have it to rely on.”
It also functions as a real-world classroom, providing experiential learning opportunities related to the performing arts, stage production and technical operations, as well as building soft skills.
The Jazz Orchestra performing in the Mandell Theater during a concert in the winter of 2024. Photo courtesy the Department of Performing Arts.
“At this beautiful, fully equipped theater, Drexel Dance and FreshDance Ensembles can use this fabulous performance venue for choreographers to see their work produced in a professional setting and dancers to perform on an expansive proscenium stage for captive audiences. Students work side-by-side with professionals, learning how to produce and run the shows from the administrative and technical sides,” said Malcolm-Naib.
The space, which is run by Managing Director Caroline Leipf and Technical Director Chris Totora, also is used for other Drexel-held events (Drexel’s Anthems for the Anthropocene songwriting competition culminated this year with an award celebration at the Mandell Theater on April 19) as well as presentations by outside organizations (like The Philadelphia Dance Academy’s “The Nutcracker” and Chocolate Ballerina Company’s “A Nutcracker Dipped in Chocolate” held in December). Guest speakers and experts have also come to Mandell for discussions, workshops, performances and other collaborations with Drexel partners.
“The Mandell Theater is one of Drexel’s great assets. Both of our Department of Performing Arts venues — Mandell and URBN Annex Black Box Theaters — are places where curriculum, community and student life come together. They are also places where we welcome all of Philly into Drexel,” said Leipf.
Mandell Over the Years
The arts have always had a home at Drexel, which was founded as the Drexel Institute of Arts, Science and Industry in 1891. In its first year, Drexel, which was solely based in today’s Main Building, offered its auditorium to the Philadelphia Chorus as a rehearsal space; bringing community has been engrained since the very beginning.
For the next nine decades, Drexel events, performances and organizations related to dance, theatre and music were mostly held through student organizations, extracurricular activities and informal classes and programs. Students practiced and performed in Main Building and other spaces on campus before the creation of the Mandell Theater in 1973. It was still primarily used by the Drexel Players, a student theater organization founded in 1963 and whose faculty adviser, Adelle Rubin, had been hired in 1967 both to advise the student group and teach theatre and speech classes. Rubin had also advocated for and was heavily involved in the creation and continuation of what was known as the Mandell Theater Complex in the Educational Activities Center (today’s MacAlister Hall).
The theater was named for Drexel University Board of Trustees member Samuel P. Mandell, who had joined in 1972 and retired a year later as vice president of Food Fair Stores Inc. He and his wife, Ida, were involved in philanthropy. Upon the theater’s dedication, the Mandells received lifetime passes to all theater productions.
Since then, so many artistic performers and performances have graced Mandell Theater. A partial list of 20th century theater productions has been documented by Drexel University Archives. There are now multiple dance ensembles, and students have both performed a variety of dance styles and partnered with external dancers for workshops and shows over the decades (for example, dancing monks of Assam, India, who performed an ancient ritual of dance at Mandell in addition to master classes and workshops). And now there are five choral groups, two large bands, a jazz orchestra, a symphony orchestra and a variety of smaller instrumental groups for students to join. Drexel students involved in those music, dance and theater offerings now perform at least once a term in Mandel
Since its beginning, Mandell has also hosted non-performing arts events and non-Drexel events: in its first year, the space hosted the Drexel Talent Show as well as the Orchestra Society of Philadelphia, for example. Mandell has also housed a variety of notable visiting speakers, including Nobel Laureates like nuclear physicist Hans Bethe; fashion designers like Emilio Pucci; activists like Yolanda King, the eldest daughter of Martin Luther King Jr.; government officials; academics; authors and so much more. Apple founder Steve Jobs attended a red-carpet movie premiere at Mandell for “Going National,” a 1983 documentary about Drexel’s historic requirement for all students to have access to a microcomputer, which were supplied through a legendary partnership with Apple.
University-wide events like Convocation have been held in Mandell Theater, which has also been used for commencement ceremonies. And Mandell has also been used for community performances as well as events for external programs, like a National Endowment for the Arts 2016 Big Read program event recognizing writer Zora Neale Hurston.
“A theater should always be a communal space, and I also mean this in the highest artistic sense. It’s where we come together as a community, but it also is a community center,” said Anselmo, the theater director.
Photo proofs of Samuel and Ida Mandell and then-Drexel President William Hagerty, among other guests at the Nov. 10, 1973, opening of the Mandell Theater. Photo courtesy Drexel University Archives.
The Future of Mandell
Portraits of Samuel and Ida Mandell presented during the theater’s opening still hang to this day — but their grandson could be making his own mark in the space very soon. Plans are being developed for Jonathan Mandell, Samuel and Ida’s grandson and a local fine art artist whose tile and mosaic work is on display at the National Constitution Center and Citizens Bank Park, to create an art installation in the Mandell Lobby over the summer.
The Department of Performing Arts’ programming, Mandell Presents, is funded, in part, by the Samuel P. Mandell Foundation, which has been managed by the Mandell family since Samuel died in 1978 and Ida in 1982. As part of the gift creating Mandell Presents in 2021, all tickets for performances in the theater have been fully subsidized for the first five years so that everyone, and especially non-traditional performing arts patrons, can attend performances and related activities for free. The Mandell Theater’s capital improvements and maintenance have also been generously supported by the Mandell Foundation. Most recently, a theatrical lighting upgrade converted the entire theater to an LED system, which was both a technical and sustainable improvement.
And those performances? Well, plans are already being made for the next year of performances in the Mandell Theater — one step towards, hopefully, the space’s 100th anniversary, too.