White Barn Theatre

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 (74,000 m²) estate at the corner of Cranbury Road and Newtown Avenue. The estate straddled both Norwalk and Westport, with about 15.5 acres (63,000 m²) in Norwalk and 2.5 acres (10,000 m²) 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]

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

• George Wolf and Lawrence Bearson's Ivory Tower with Eva Marie Saint (1947);
• Seán O'Casey's Red Roses for Me (1948);
• Hugo Weisgall's The Stronger (1952);
• Eugène Ionesco's The Chairs (1957);
• Archibald MacLeish's This Music Crept by Me Upon the Waters (1959);
• Edward Albee's Fam and Yam (1960);
• Samuel Beckett's Embers (1960);
• Murray Schisgal's The Typists (1961);
• Adrienne Kennedy's The Owl Answers (1965);
• Norman Rosten's Come Slowly Eden (1966);
• Paul Zindel's The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds (1966);
• Terrence McNally's Next (1967);
• Nathan Teitel's The Initiation with Armand Assante and Lori March (1969);
• Paul Hunter's How Do You Live with Love (1975);
• Barbara Wersba's The Dream Watcher starring Eva Le Gallienne (1975);
• June Havoc's Nuts for the Underman (1977);
• David Allen's Cheapside, starring Cherry Jones, which Lortel later co-produced at the Half Moon Theatre in London;
• Douglas Scott's Mountain (1988);
• Margaret Sanger's Unfinished Business, starring Eileen Heckart (1989)

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"
• Langston Hughes' Shakespeare in Harlem"^[4]
• Dos Pesso's USA" ^[4]
• Katherine Anne Porter's Pale Horse, Pale Rider"^[4]
• Tennessee Williams' The Purification^[5]

Writing in The New York Times in connection with a gala event at the theater, Alvin Klein, said 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]

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.^[6]

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 Magazine.^[7]

In 2008, the property was purchased by the Connecticut Friends School in nearby Wilton. The school plans to build an expanded school building campus on the property.^[8]

In 2015, Jim Fieber of Special Properties II submitted a plan to build a 21-home conservation development on the property, as the Connecticut Friends School could not raise the money for their project. Fieber subsequently amended the plan to a 15-home conservation development. The Norwalk Zoning Commission is considering the proposal.^[9] Norwalk historians are attempting to save artwork they believe was done by the late Geoffrey Holder, as the proposal includes demolishing the theater.^[10]

References

External links

• Lucille Lortel Foundation

Coordinates: 41°09′04″N 73°23′28″W / 41.151°N 73.391°W / 41.151; -73.391 (White Barn Theatre)