# News from Brown
**Source**: https://www.brown.edu/news/2025-10-23/sondheim-amphitheater-simmons-quad
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October 23, 2025
2025-10-23
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# Brown hits a high note with new Stephen Sondheim Amphitheater, revamped Simmons Quad
Home to the newly dedicated amphitheater, Brown’s renovated Ruth J. Simmons Quadrangle improves accessibility for community members with physical disabilities and adds a gathering and performing space in the heart of campus.
**PROVIDENCE, R.I.** [Brown University] — Once a traditional campus green defined by stone staircases and open lawns, Brown University’s Ruth J. Simmons Quadrangle between Thayer Street and Sayles Hall has been transformed into a dynamic new focal point for student life.
The quad is now home to a terraced amphitheater, new seating areas and lush landscaping, providing a comfortable setting for instructors to teach outdoors on nice days and for students and organizations looking for a venue for performances, social activities or simply gathering between classes.
“This amphitheater is spectacular, and it feels like it’s been part of the campus forever,” Brown University President Christina H. Paxson said at a Thursday, Oct. 23, ceremony celebrating the project’s completion. “It’s really, really special, and it’s exactly the right thing in the right place at the right time.”
Led by Brown’s [Facilities and Campus Operations](https://facilities.brown.edu/) team in partnership with STOSS Landscape Urbanism and Consigli Construction, the project broke ground just five months ago, but completes a vision for the space more than 120 years in the making: The new design builds on landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted’s original 1901 plan for the quad, balancing historic preservation with modern infrastructure and evolving student needs.
### A legendary and inspiring namesake
The renovation was enabled by a generous gift from Marty and Perry Granoff, honorary degree recipients and parents of a Brown Class of 1993 graduate. Marty Granoff, a trustee emeritus of the Brown Corporation, and his wife, Perry, have long championed the arts at Brown. Among multiple projects and initiatives, their support helped to establish the [Granoff Center for the Creative Arts](https://arts.brown.edu/spaces/granoff-center), a cornerstone of artistic collaboration on campus.
In recognition of the Granoffs’ gift to support the Simmons Quad project, Brown named the amphitheater the Stephen Sondheim Amphitheater — the legendary late composer was a close family friend of the Granoffs, and Sondheim’s lifelong passion for music and performance reflects the spirit the Granoffs hope students will experience in the space.
“Stephen was playful, fun to be around and utterly brilliant — no one did it like him,” said Marty Granoff, whose friendship with Sondheim spanned more than five decades. “It’s our hope that this space will be a source of joy for students, serving as a spot for them to come together, take part in impromptu concerts and rediscover their love of performance.”
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Brown MFA student Erin Lockett performs "Don’t Laugh" at a ceremony celebrating the naming of the new Stephen Sondheim Amphitheater and completion of the Ruth Simmons Quad renovation. Each performance featured piano accompaniment by Professor of Music Dana Gooley. Photos by Peter Goldberg.
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Members of the Brown community and longtime friends and collaborators of Stephen Sondheim gathered Thursday, Oct. 23, to celebrate the dedication of the new Stephen Sondheim Amphitheater, part of a larger renovation of Ruth J. Simmons Quadrangle.
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"Being [Sondheim's] friend was a gift, and I think Brown’s been lucky to have had him as friend to the school," director and playwright James Lapine said at the ceremony.
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Brown alumna Jaime Rosenstein performs a rendition of "Anyone Can Whistle" by Stephen Sondheim.
True to that spirit, the ceremony included renditions of some of Sondheim’s most iconic songs — such as “Moments in the Woods” and “Anyone Can Whistle” — each performed by a Brown student or graduate, accompanied by Professor of Music Dana Gooley on the piano. Longtime friends and collaborators of Sondheim’s delivered remarks, including librettist James Lapine, who will design the 20 inscriptions of Sondheim titles that will soon grace the amphitheater’s stage.
Of the many physical spaces named in Sondheim’s honor, Brown’s newest amphitheater might be the most fitting, said Rick Pappas, Sondheim’s family attorney and parent of a Brown Class of 2008 graduate.
“Education played such an important role in his life,” Pappas said. “He thought teachers were the greatest profession on Earth and that the greatest gift is teaching and learning.”
Sondheim’s devotion to education was something Brown University Professor of Music [Dana Gooley](https://vivo.brown.edu/display/dgooley) experienced firsthand. In 2016, Gooley was asked by a group of students to serve as the faculty sponsor for a group independent study project they had created, dedicated to analyzing Sondheim’s work through rigorous academic, rather than performance-based, study.
Gooley wasn’t very familiar with Sondheim’s work prior to supervising the independent study, but “by the end, I was smitten,” he said. “I was deeply obsessed.”
So smitten, in fact, that Gooley went on to develop a course titled Stephen Sondheim and the American Musical. Students in some class sessions over the years received instruction and guidance from the most relevant guest lecturer they could have asked for — Stephen Sondheim himself.
> “ It’s our hope that this space will be a source of joy for students, serving as a spot for them to come together, take part in impromptu concerts and rediscover their love of performance.
> ”
Marty Granoff
Trustee emeritus of the Brown Corporation and close friend of the late Stephen Sondheim
The last time Sondheim guest lectured the class was about five weeks before his death in 2021. After that session, Gooley said he sent Sondheim an email, thanking him profusely for his time, visit and insights. It was a Saturday night, and Sondheim responded within 10 minutes.
“Getting the attention of young people is the most heartening thing that can happen to you,” he wrote.
Now, Sondheim will continue to capture the imaginations of generations of Brown students. The Stephen Sondheim Amphitheater, together with other significant upgrades to the quad, ensures that the community of creativity he championed will remain accessible to all.
### Improving accessibility on campus
Students sit in Brown's new Stephen Sondheim Amphitheater, a key feature of a renovation project that revamped Ruth Simmons Quad. Photo by Nick Dentamaro/Brown University
Broadening the versatility of a major green space in the heart of the University campus, one of the quad’s staircases was transformed into a sloped east-west pathway, addressing navigation challenges for community members with physical disabilities. In addition, an accessible entrance was added to Maxcy Hall, an 1895 building home to Brown’s Department of Sociology.
Already a popular spot for outdoor events, the revamped Simmons Quad provides tent-ready infrastructure to support behind-the-scenes efforts for staff hosting events across Brown’s campus greens and key facilities upgrades, including a new underground stormwater management system.
Together, the amphitheater and accessibility upgrades transform Simmons Quad into a space where art and belonging converge, designed to bring the Brown community together in every sense.
“This has already improved the lives of many people here,” Paxson said. “It will continue to elevate the arts at Brown, and it will bring the arts out into the open in a way that is quite glorious — you won’t be able to miss the activity that happens here.”
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[Campus Life](https://www.brown.edu/news/tag/campus-life)
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