Meet Edie, the Newest Cast Member of Curse of the Starving Class

Posted on February 8, 2013 by admin

Edie the lamb with Schuyler Beeman and William Berloni

Long Wharf Theatre announces the final addition to the cast of Curse of the Starving Class – a three-week-old lamb named Edie.

The lamb, trained by famed theatrical animal trainer William Berloni, arrived at Long Wharf Theatre on Friday to start working into rehearsal. Curse of the Starving Class marks Berloni’s return to Long Wharf Theatre having trained a small dog for Paper Doll during the 2002-03 season.

He got into to this unique theatrical tidewater as a 20-year-old intern at Goodspeed Opera House. The theatre was about to mount the world premiere of the musical Annie and had not found a suitable hound for the show. Berloni, then an aspiring actor, was promised his Equity card if he could find and train a dog. With show biz fortitude, he found a dog that would go on to play Sandy in the production and a whole new career in the bargain. He has been training show animals since the 1970s, working on Broadway and at regional theatres throughout the country.

Berloni quite literally had an audition for the job of appearing in Curse of the Starving Class. Two lambs, born on a local farm and both under a month old, were up for the job of playing the family mascot, so to speak, in Sam Shepard’s classic about the rupturing of the American Dream. After spending a weekend with them both, he decided to give Edie the chance to be a star. “The basic thing we do is get them acclimated to people,” said Berloni, who, in addition to his work training, is the director of animal behavior of the Humane Society of New York.

Long Wharf Theatre’s unique thrust stage is the only challenge Berloni is likely to face in training the lamb. When working on a proscenium stage – think of a picture frame – Berloni found that a lamb can’t generally see past the footlights, so the presence of the audience doesn’t have an impact. With audience members on three sides at Long Wharf and lighting less of an obstruction, the lamb will be more aware of the presence of many human beings. “This baby will look around and see a lot of people and start talking to the audience,” he said.

The main component of getting a lamb ready for the stage is getting it comfortable with the flock of human beings that will surround it nightly. “Lambs are social, but not in a human way,” Berloni said. “They are flight animals. They live in herds for protection. They like having other creatures around them. If you are not one of their creatures it terrifies them – they think that because we are not sheep we must be wolves.”

This particular lamb won’t have that problem. From the moment Edie was born, she was bottle fed by Schuyler Beeman, who will be working with the lamb throughout the run of the play. The lamb is diapered, lives indoors with Beeman, and is hand fed four times a day. The care the lamb receives isn’t substantially different than the care a human baby would get. “I have a strong background in the humane treatment of animals. All precautions will be taken to make sure that she will not be harmed,” Berloni said.

For each performance, Beeman will bring the lamb to the theatre a half-hour before curtain – the same call time as the Equity actors. He will take her through the dressing room to familiarize her with the other performers onstage. Peter Albrink, the actor who handles the lamb during the performance, will hold her for a bit before the show to say hello, so to speak.

The lamb will spend her time during the show in a small pen on stage, filled with Beeman’s t-shirts, a smell she would find soothing and comforting. As soon as the play is over, she will be whisked back to Beeman’s home.

And when Edie’s turn on stage is done, she will retire to a local farm where she will live out the remainder of her days in comfort, only being shorn for wool when necessary.

For more information about Berloni’s work, visit www.theatricalanimals.com. For more information about Curse of the Starving Class, or to purchase tickets, call 203-787-4282 or visit www.longwharf.org.

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Long Wharf Theatre unveils renovation project

Posted on November 27, 2012 by admin

The new exterior of Long Wharf Theatre at night

Long Wharf Theatre unveiled the largest renovation in the theatre’s history, one that finally matched the patron experience with the excellence of the artistic product on the stages.

The reopening took place at a press conference Tuesday, November 27. A formal celebration will take place at the opening of The Killing of Sister George on Wednesday, December 5.

The primary objective of the renovation was to enhance patron comfort with new, roomier seating in the theatre, a bigger lobby, a new bar, and a facelift that embraces the unique industrial nature of the site, while updating it for the 21st century. In addition, new heating and air conditioning system were installed for the benefit of patrons and artists alike. A new lighting grid will allow designers more flexibility in terms of their artistic choices.

“This is an exceedingly important day in our history,” said Board Chair Charles C. Kingsley. “It is a day of celebration and thanksgiving, in a lot of ways. We were able to accomplish our objective of creating a space that would give patrons the comfort they deserve, matching the excellence of our facility to the excellence of our art.”

“It is the core of our mission to present theatre of the highest quality, and we understand that while the show needs to be superb, it is no longer enough. The Long Wharf experience starts with the first click on our website and ends as a couple drives out of the parking lot, perhaps after participating in a post-performance discussion. We need to satisfy our audience needs on all levels, and this renovation is a major investment in that direction,” said Managing Director Joshua Borenstein.

The renovation project cost $3.8 million, $1.25 of which was generously donated by The Tow Foundation. In gratitude for this gift, Long Wharf Theatre has christened the performance space The Claire Tow Stage in the C. Newton Schenck III Mainstage Theatre. “Claire spent much of her time dedicated to issues related to social justice, children’s needs, medical research and the arts. Claire is a warm and wise soul. She has been a key part of Long Wharf Theatre for many years,” said Gordon Edelstein, Artistic Director.

In addition, the theatre will acknowledge the contribution of Cynthia Kellogg Barrington by naming the new Green Room in her honor. Cynthia was a stage manager and costume designer who worked Off-Broadway, at Lincoln Center, with the Alvin Ailey Dance Company, and at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and lived in Branford. When she passed away, she contributed a portion of her estate to Long Wharf for sets, lights, and costumes, some of which was used to fund the new lighting grid.

The theatre has currently raised $3.5 million of the cost of the project thus far. The support for the institution has been wide-ranging. Over 130 individuals and institutions gave donations of varying levels, and close to 200 people gave to Long Wharf in order to have a seat dedicated in the renovated Mainstage. There are still opportunities for patrons to participate by dedicating a seat.

Through the end of the 2011-12 season, Long Wharf Theatre staff and board members were in the lobby during performances, talking about the renovations. What they heard from audiences was heartening. Time and again patrons stopped to talk about fond associations with the theatre, actors they loved, or fine performances they remember. Because of those positive memories, hundreds of people enthusiastically supported the campaign.

It was a reminder that Long Wharf Theatre was important to people, a thought that was encouraging to staff members as they worked through the challenging process of fundraising. “Each night people would stop and tell me stories about Long Wharf Theatre over the years. These were people who’ve had a long relationship with us. It is humbling to hear that we’ve made an impact, and we are inordinately grateful for their devotion and loyalty,” Borenstein said.

The renovations started June 8 and were completed days before the first performance of The Killing of Sister George on November 28. In the end, approximately 5,500 man hours were spent on the project.

The design, by New Haven architect Rick Wies of Gregg, Wies, and Gardner, decided to emphasize the Food Terminal’s industrial origins, rather than masking them.

The size of the lobby has been increased by almost a third, with large bright windows. The new façade of the theatre consists of an anodized aluminum store front glazing system paired with a white porcelain cement ground-face block. Eighty clear varnished wood panels make up the interior lobby walls. The floors are polished concrete. The new bar is made of backlit resin paneling. The steel signs honoring Claire Tow and founding Board Chair C. Newton Schenck III were designed by Long Wharf Theatre graphics director Claire Zoghb, and erected by Long Wharf Theatre’s production staff.

The total impact is a radical one – a design that honors Long Wharf Theatre’s unique origins, while acknowledging patrons’ needs. The renovation itself is a reflection of the ethos of excellence the theatre has stood for over its long history.

For more information about Long Wharf Theatre’s 2012-13 Season or on ways to support the renovation, visit www.longwharf.org or call 203-787-4282. For information about donating to the renovation campaign, contact Eileen Wiseman, Director of Development, at 203-772-8237.

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Mainstage Renovation Update: The birch trees have been planted

Posted on October 12, 2012 by admin

Landscape architects have just finished planting a row of three birch trees out in front of the Long Wharf Theatre’s Mainstage

“… when I pass peasant-forests that I have preserved from the axe, or hear the rustling of the young plantations set out with my own hands, I feel as if I had had some small share in improving the climate, and that if mankind is happy a thousand years from now I will have been a little bit responsible for their happiness. When I plant a little birch tree and then see it budding into young green and swaying in the wind, my heart swells with pride …” – Dr. Astrov, Uncle Vanya

It’s been five years since birch trees were part of the Long Wharf Theatre landscape – and those happened to be on stage in the 2007 production of Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya.

A backhoe dumped dirt into a concrete trench out in front of the theatre’s Mainstage. Later on, landscapers planted several small birch trees, bringing a welcome splash of green to the concrete and steel environment, just a small part of the $3.8 million renovation project currently taking place on the Mainstage.

Long Wharf Theatre’s trees were harvested from this small grove

Three five-year-old birch trees, each about 15 feet high, will take up permanent home outside the newly renovated Long Wharf Theatre. The trees, species name betula duraheat birch, each have three calipers extending from the root base – meaning, three tall branches extend upward from almost six inches off the ground.

“The green leaves will turn a distinguished yellow in the fall. The bark is textured and will be highlighted at night by accent lighting,” said Kyle Skar, a designer working with Gregg, Wies, and Gardner, project architects. “The intent is to lighten up the parking lot.”

In addition to the theatrical antecedent implied by the presence of the birches, there is a practical reason for their presence. Birch trees thrived in the wetlands that comprised this area of New Haven before Long Wharf Theatre’s founding – a wetlands teeming with hardy plant life. The birches are a visual reminder of that past.

 

 

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Meet Terry Teachout, playwright of Satchmo at the Waldorf

Posted on October 1, 2012 by admin

After prompting from an entertainment industry acquaintance, Teachout wrote the first draft of Satchmo at the Waldorf in a four day burst

Terry Teachout had written in a lot of different formats – arts criticism in the Wall Street Journal, biographies, even opera libretti – but it had simply never occurred to him to write a play.

Teachout joked, paraphrasing critic Kenneth Tynan, that a critic is someone who knows where to go, but doesn’t know how to drive the car. However, when an acquaintance in the entertainment industry approached Teachout and expressed interested in his biography of Louis Armstrong, “Pops”, Teachout thought there might be something there. “It didn’t seem like it was coming out of a parallel universe, but it did take me by surprise,” Teachout said. “I thought this could be interesting.”

In a four day burst, Teachout, a jazz musician himself, wrote a first draft of Satchmo at the Waldorf, which received a workshop at Rollins College in Florida with a fine Orlando actor named Dennis Neal. However, he believes it was his close work with Artistic Director Gordon Edelstein and actor John Douglas Thompson that caused play to take on shape and life.

Teachout takes a specific incident in Armstrong’s life, his complex relationship with his white, mob-connected manager Joe Glaser, and teases it out into a full evening. “This play is an opportunity to open the door to Louis Armstrong’s house and learn something about him,” Teachout said.

The play begins with Armstrong struggling after a 1971 performance at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, late in his life. Armstrong, speaking into his ubiquitous tape recorder, starts to talk about Glaser, a quasi-paternal figure. “The way Armstrong looked at that relationship at the end of his life was the heart of the play,” Teachout said.

What emerges from Teachout’s work is a complex portrait of a man – funny, profane, thoughtful, and alive, extremely alive. “The side you see from The Ed Sullivan Show is the truth, it’s just not all of him,” Teachout said.

Louis Armstrong, to his dying day, was a man who lived for the thrill of the audience. What comes out of a man’s horn, Teachout’s Armstrong says that’s what he is. “This is a very serious attempt to show the man as he really was,” Teachout said.

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Interview: Meet John Douglas Thompson, star of Satchmo at the Waldorf

Posted on September 19, 2012 by admin

John Douglas Thompson as Louis ArmstrongJust a couple of months ago, actor John Douglas Thompson didn’t know any more about Louis Armstrong than anyone else.

“I knew what most people know. ‘Hello, Dolly!’ and ‘What a Wonderful World.’ That’s about it,” Thompson said.

So when Thompson, 49, lauded by The New York Times as one of the nation’s greatest classical actors, was called upon to play the jazz icon in Long Wharf Theatre’s production of Satchmo at the Waldorf, he knew he had some work to do.

Thompson began to immerse himself in research. He visited locations in Chicago where Armstrong lived and performed, and stocked up on the jazz icon’s music. He read many of Armstrong’s biographies, including “Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong,” by Terry Teachout, the author of Satchmo at the Waldorf and a Wall Street Journal critic.

Thompson went to the Louis Armstrong Museum at Queens College and reviewed hours of Armstrong’s television appearances and written materials. Most importantly, Thompson listened to the many audio tapes Armstrong created, both of his public performances and of his private thoughts. In doing this work, Thompson’s goal was and continues to be capturing Armstrong’s essence. “The ‘go button’ for me to do this play was the exposure to Armstrong’s private life, which Terry has put so wonderfully on display in Satchmo at the Waldorf,” Thompson said.

Thompson learned firsthand the tension between a public and a private persona, and what sorts of civil rights issues Armstrong himself faced and fought against. “I learned from the audio tapes Armstrong’s private persona, the things that troubled him – race, discrimination, losing his black audience. The audio tapes gave me great insight into Louis Armstrong, they were a revelation. For me, as an actor, it is about excavating that stuff,” Thompson said.

The show, directed by Long Wharf Theatre’s artistic director Gordon Edelstein, had an out-of-town run at Shakespeare and Company in Lenox, Massachusetts. The creative team worked on the piece, refining the story, introducing new characters, and mining the complexity of the subject matter.

The resulting play finds Louis Armstrong (Lou-IS, not Lou-EE, a name bestowed on him by white audiences) spent after a performance at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in 1971, four months before he died. Talking into his ubiquitous tape recorder, Armstrong tells the story of his partnership with his white, Jewish, mob-connected manager Joe Glaser. “I thought, this could be interesting,” Teachout said. “The way Armstrong looked at that relationship at the end of his life was the heart of the play.”

John Douglas Thompson as in Satchmo at the Waldorf

The relationship, both filial and financial, is a complex one, and Armstrong’s waning days are spent struggling with exactly what Glaser meant to him. The twist in this particular retelling of Armstrong’s life is that Thompson plays both Satchmo and Glaser, as well as a chilly turn as jazz musician Miles Davis.

“Aided by director Gordon Edelstein and the consummately skilled Thompson as interpreter, Teachout — in his debut as dramatist rather than drama critic — has contributed a work of insight and power. It’s enticing to imagine Thompson bringing the real Armstrong — the one so few of us knew — to life again and again, over the coming decades,” wrote Sandy MacDonald of The Boston Globe.

The challenge for Thompson is channeling Armstrong’s essential nature. “No one can imitate him, so why even try?” he said. “Imitation is gimmicky, but essence can be profound.”

Not that long ago, Thompson might not have ever been on stage at all. He worked in marketing while living in New Haven and Hartford and it was only by chance that he was inspired to hit the stage at all. Thompson was supposed to meet up with a date to see August Wilson’s Joe Turner’s Come and Gone at Yale Repertory Theatre. The date stood him up, but Thompson went to see the show anyway. Leaving the theatre in a daze, Thompson realized that he wanted to be part of it, to see the world from an actor’s perspective.

Thompson’s career spanned Broadway and regional theatres across the country. He has performed the works of Shakespeare, O’Neill, and Ibsen, and now, Thompson inhabits the persona of a musical genius recounting a life well spent.

Satchmo at the Waldorf plays at Long Wharf Theatre’s Stage II, 222 Sargent Drive, from October 3 through November 4.

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Renovation Update #3: Inside Tour

Posted on August 6, 2012 by admin

While renovation plans move forward steadily, it will be several weeks before Petra Construction, the general contractors on the project, begin improvements in the lobby space. With pleated wood walls, a luminous red resin bar, polished concrete floors, and ample natural light, the newly redesigned lobby will refine the industrial aesthetic already present at the site, said architect Rick Wies.

The exterior design, while keeping with the overall ambience of the Food Terminal property, tries to cultivate the excitement of attending live performance. “It is a significant calling card. It is our front door,” Wies said. “It will be a good deal more polished. The addition to the lobby will have plenty of glass and lighting and features that are appropriate gestures for the entrance to a theatre and entertainment.”

Wies believes that the redesign of the exterior and the lobby will allow the focus to remain on the productions while allowing patrons to retain creature comforts.

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Renovation Update #2: The Sculpture Comes Down

Posted on July 19, 2012 by admin

Earlier this week, a ubiquitous Long Wharf Theatre sight, a silver steel kinetic sculpture designed by Tim Prentice, was taken down for refurbishment and relocation.

Earlier this week, a ubiquitous Long Wharf Theatre sight, a silver steel kinetic sculpture designed by Tim Prentice, was taken down for refurbishment and

The sculpture, known as a windframe, was located on the primary signpost next to the entrance to the Mainstage.

Architect Rick Wies believes that the artistic impact of the sculpture was lost in its current location. The windframe will be moved 80 feet closer to Stage II and have a special lighting system installed to illuminate it. “We believe it will now clearly read as an art installation,” Wies said. “We are experimenting with various lighting methods to optimize the impact.”

On Monday morning, work began to move the piece to its new home. Workers burned through the I-beams supporting the structure with oxyacetylene torches, the blue flame cutting through the steel quickly. A couple of sledgehammer taps to each of the legs, and the structure was free.

A boom truck, in essence a large crane, picked up the sculpture, turned it so that the artwork would face up when lying down, and gently lowered the frame to the ground. The sculpture will then be removed from its steel frame, refurbished, and then stored until its reinstallation later this summer.

It was important to Wies to retain and reinvigorate this important piece of art. “We think that the sculpture, combined with all of the new exterior lighting, will be a nice enhancement to the project,” he said.

The Albers Foundation commissioned the sculptor to create a piece for the theatre. Prentice chose one of his windframes, which can be found at locations all over the country. “The engineer in me wants to minimize friction and inertia to make the air visible. The architect studies matters of scale and proportion. The navigator and sailor want to know the strength and direction of the wind. The artist wants to understand its changing shape. Meanwhile, the child wants to play,” Prentice wrote.

Prentice is described as a kinetic sculptor whose focus is on movement, rather than objects. “I take it as an article of faith that the air around us moves in ways which are organic, whimsical, and unpredictable. I therefore assume that if I were to abdicate the design to the wind, the work would take on these same qualities,” Prentice wrote on his website.

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Renovation Update #1

Posted on June 29, 2012 by admin

You wouldn’t recognize Long Wharf Theatre’s Mainstage these days. The hum of activity around the theatre isn’t from audiences flooding the space for an evening at the theatre – it’s construction crews buzzing through their work.

Two weeks into the Mainstage’s $3.8 million renovation project, the process is moving apace, said architect Rick Wies, of the New Haven firm Gregg, Wies, and Gardner. The demolition work has radically changed the theatre. The box office and bathrooms are stripped. Scaffolding lines the interior of the theatre above the stage, being used to remove the ceiling and the mechanical systems located there. Most importantly for generations of patrons, the old seats are long gone.

Wies said that he and theatre administration decided to move away from a design aesthetic particular to the early days of the institution – the dignity of poverty. The idea in theatrical design when Long Wharf Theatre was first founded in 1965 was that spaces, including the lobby, should be inherently neutral, or even spare, in order to allow the production to be the focal point of the evening. “The previous iteration of the theatre could be described as neutral, minimalist, bottom line, functional, and economic,” Wies said. “It was full of Yankee ingenuity, making something out of nothing.”

To see more photos of the project, click here

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The “I Am” Project at Long Wharf Theatre

Posted on February 1, 2012 by admin

There is nary the person who hasn’t been asked as a child what they wanted to be when they grew up. The response is often fanciful – an astronaut, a movie star, or President. But within that response is the germ of an idea, a thought about what sort of potential life holds.

Long Wharf Theatre’s Director of Education Annie DiMartino wants to encourage those thoughts, asking children from kindergarten to 12th grade to express what their lives can hold for them. In conjunction with Long Wharf Theatre’s upcoming production of My Name is Asher Lev, by Aaron Posner, based on the novel by Chaim Potok, local students will have the opportunity to display in the Mainstage Lobby during the run of the show self-portraits depicting their personal, public, and dream selves. The show runs from May 2-27.

“I have always believed that it is very important to give students a platform in which their voice can be heard. We so often inspire conversation through critical analysis after seeing the show, but in this case we want to offer a great opportunity for students to express how they see themselves to a larger audience,” DiMartino said. “Displaying these works will also give our audiences who don’t always see or connect with our student group base, a chance to discover who they are and what they want out of life through artwork.”

The project draws a direct connection with the upcoming show. Asher Lev is a young man who has a true artistic calling. But he is also growing up in a deeply observant Hasidic Jewish family. When he attempts to embrace this artistic calling, he runs afoul of his family’s and community’s traditions, forcing him to make the difficult choice between faith and art. It is a story about growing up and learning to be true to one’s own identity.

“Our hope is that this project will inspire students to make a reciprocal investment in the story being told on our stage from a “connection to self” perspective,” DiMartino said.

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Exciting change to the 2011-12 season: My Name is Asher Lev

Posted on January 12, 2012 by admin

We’ve made  a change to the 2011-12 season – we are now going to present My Name is Asher Lev, by Aaron Posner and adapted from Chaim Potok’s 1972 novel.

The theatre had originally scheduled the world premiere of Sophie’s Choice for May 2 through May 27. Artistic Director Gordon Edelstein is extremely pleased to be able replace Sophie’s Choice with such a quality project. “I was looking for a play with gravitas, high literary content and seriousness of purpose. Happily, I found an adaptation of a much loved and much read novel by a distinguished writer. My Name is Asher Lev is a beautiful story about the coming of age of an artist whose God given gift is in conflict with his strict religious upbringing,” Edelstein said. “The play asks timeless questions about community, God, family and artistic talent.”

The play is about Asher Lev, a young man with a true artistic calling. He is torn between his deeply observant Hasidic Jewish community and the passionate need to paint. When the boy runs afoul of his family and tradition by attempting to embrace his gift, he is forced to make the difficult choice between faith and art.

The play is based on the classic novel by the author of The Chosen, My Name is Asher Lev, which was written in 1972.

The show has gotten wonderful reviews across the country and has been described by the Philadelphia City Paper as “A fascinating coming-of-age story seamlessly blended with a debate about the nature of art… This is a marvelous evening of theatre: intimate, sincere, magical.”

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