White Barn Theatre

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The White Barn Theatre was a small theater founded by actress, producer and theater impresario Lucille Lortel on the property of her estate in Norwalk, Connecticut that premiered numerous plays from major playwrights and plays that went on to successful Broadway and Off-Broadway runs.

Lortel founded The theater in 1947 on her 18.4-acre estate at the corner of Cranbury Road and Newtown Avenue. The estate straddled both Norwalk and Westport, with about 15.5 acres in Norwalk and 2.5 acres in Westport,[1] and the theater was sometimes called an institution in Westport, which has more ties to the theater than Norwalk. Lortel donated much of her memorabilia to the Westport Public Library.

With the theater, created from an old horse barn on the estate, Lortel aimed to present unusual and experimental plays, promote new playwrights, composers, actors, directors and designers, and help established artists develop new directions in ways they might not have been able to do in commercial theater.[2]

Plays that started at the 148-seat[3] theater (some of which went on to commercial success elsewhere):[2]

Transfers to Off-Broadway from the White Barn Theatre include:[2]

  • Fatima Dike's Glasshouse,
  • Casey Kurtti's Catholic School Girls,
  • Diane Kagan's Marvelous Grey
  • Hugh Whitemore's The Best of Friends

Transfers to Broadway:[2]

  • Cy Coleman and A.E. Hotchner's Welcome to the Club, which premiered at the White Barn under the title Let 'Em Rot
  • Lanford Wilson's Redwood Curtain, which was subsequently presented on television as a "Hallmark Hall of Fame Presentation"

Writing in The New York Times in connection with a gala event at the theater, Alvin Klein, wrote that the gala August 25, 1996 museum exhibition opening, allied stage performances and reception was "the night of the year [...] memories are made of this!"[2]

At another gala event a year later (August 31, 1997) in celebration of a half century of the theater and Lortel's career as a producer, Klien wrote in the Times, "[O]ver the years, Ms. Lortel — now in her 90's — has often been quoted as saying she won't take on another White Barn season. After Sunday's celebration she could be overheard inviting two well-known performers to 'put something together and come up to The Barn next summer.'"[2]

The Dublin Players of Ireland performed for several seasons at the White Barn with Milo O'Shea.

On September 26, 1992 the White Barn Theatre Museum was set up by expanding and renovating a former small storage area attached to the theater.[2]

[edit] The property after Lortel's death

Lortel bequeathed the property to her theater foundation, which later proposed putting a housing development and possibly a school on the site, something opposed by members of the Save Cranbury Association.[4]

In 2005, the state granted $450,000 to the Norwalk Land Conservation Trust Inc. to help preserve the parcel, which contains a pond, open fields, extensive wetlands and woodland. Stony Brook, a Class A stream, runs directly through the property and feeds a nearby aquifer.[1]

The property was sold in 2006 for $4.8 million to 78 Cranberry Road LLC according to Westport Now[5].

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ a b [1]News release, "Governor Rell Presents $6.8 Million for Open Space Grants in 24 Communities", dated November 17, 2005, from Connecticut Gov. M. Jodi Rell's Web site, accessed April 17, 20067
  2. ^ a b c d e f g http://www.lortel.org/LLF_biography/ accessed February 13, 2008
  3. ^ [2]"The Arboretum" newsletter of the Religious Society of Friends in Wilton, "fifth month", 2006, accessed April 17, 2007
  4. ^ [3]Home page, "Save Cranbury Association" Web site, accessed April 17, 2007
  5. ^ http://www.westportnow.com/index.php?/v2/comments/white_barn_sold_for_48_million/ accessed February 13, 2008

[edit] External links