Lucille Lortel - White Barn Theatre

White Barn Theatre

in 1947, "after spending over 15 years looking for a way to express herself in the Theatre that was acceptable to her husband" (and at the urging of actor Danny Kaye), Lucille Lortel founded the White Barn Theatre in an old horse barn on she and her husband's estate in Westport, CT. According to Ms Lortel's wishes the Theatre's mission was aimed at presenting works of an unusual and experimental nature, existing as a sanctuary from commercial pressures, a place where writers could take a chance with their plays and where actors could stretch their talents. Under Ms Lortel's guidance The White Barn premiered plays (many of which enjoyed successful transfers to commercial theatres) such as: George C. Wolfe and Lawrence Bearson's Ivory Tower with Eva Marie Saint (1947); Sean O'Casey's Red Roses for Me (1948); Eugene 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); 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 Ms. Lortel later co-produced at the Half Moon Theatre in London); and Margaret Sanger's Unfinished Business, starring Eileen Heckart (1989). Ireland's famed Dublin Players also performed for several seasons at the White Barn with Milo O'Shea.

Among the successful transfers to Off-Broadway from the White Barn Theatre are: Fatima Dike's Glasshouse, Casey Kurtti's Catholic School Girls, Diane Kagan's Marvelous Grey and Hugh Whitemore's The Best of Friends. Transfers from the White Barn to Broadway include Cy Coleman and A.E. Hotchner's Welcome to the Club (which premiered at the White Barn under the title Let 'Em Rot) and Lanford Wilson's Redwood Curtain, which was subsequently presented on television as a Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation.

On September 26, 1992, a small storage area off of the Theatre was expanded and renovated to become the White Barn Theatre Museum which exhibited the 45 years of history at the Theatre.

The final production took place at the White Barn in 2002.

In 2006, after a failed attempt to save it, the property on which the historic White Barn Theatre stood was sold to a real estate developer. Fortunately the legacy of this institution has been preserved by a Lucille Lortel Foundation grant to the Westport Country Playhouse, which as of 2005 houses the Lucille Lortel White Barn Center.