LONG WHARF THEATRE USES 2008 GALA AS OCCASION TO CREATE ART

NEW HAVEN - Over the past several years Long Wharf Theatre's annual Gala has developed another goal beyond its status as the theatre's largest fundraising event of the year - it is another opportunity to create interesting art.

Theatre designers transform seemingly mundane spaces - rehearsal halls and scene shops - into tangible manifestations of the magic Long Wharf Theatre presents on its stages.

For the month of May, Long Wharf Theatre is taking that concept to various spots around the city. Long Wharf Theatre posed a challenge to local artists to explore the theme of Opening Doors - the title of the 2008 Gala - which will be held on Thursday, June 5. Several noted artists used doors culled from the renovations of Managing Director Joan Channick's home to create fascinating works of art.

The doors will be auctioned off at the Gala, giving donors the opportunity to own a unique piece of art while supporting the mission of Long Wharf Theatre.

The doors will first be available for auction online at www.longwharf.org and then on the night of the Gala.

"Each time I cross the threshold and enter the theatre a new and astounding world of the realized imagination opens up," said Jerry Meyer, former chair of the Board of Trustees and an artist. "What a miracle and blessing it is for all of us that Long Wharf has produced so much great work. I realized recently that we're not here to support the arts. It's the other way around.

Eight artists created doors for the Gala. In addition to Meyer, the artists will include Keith Hyatte, Long Wharf Theatre's charge scenic artist who has painted over 230 sets at Long Wharf; acclaimed architects Cesar Pelli, Peter Newman and Ben Ledbetter; the creative forces of the Eli Whitney Museum's workshop under the leadership of Bill Brown; and theatre designers Vladimir Shpitalnik and Michael Yeargan.

The door designs are as unique and varied as the reasons why people love the theatre. For example, William Brown is working on his door to resemble a children's puppet theatre. "We like the metaphor . . . that theatre is a door. It seemed appropriate to reverse the idea and make the door into a theatre. We like the idea that some child will own this theatre. Some child will begin a life in theatre," Brown said.

When completed, the doors will be on display at a variety of locations throughout downtown New Haven including the Omni New Haven Hotel at Yale; shop windows on Broadway; Citibank on Church Street; Merwin's Art Shop on Chapel Street; the Whitney Grove building at 2 Whitney Avenue and the Long Wharf Theatre lobby.

The doors will be on display for the month of May to be enjoyed by New Haven residents and visitors.

The doors will be available for auction online during May and will become a part of the silent auction at the 2008 Gala. Click here for more information about the Gala auction.

Opening Doors kicks off at 5:30 p.m. with a cocktail hour and a silent auction, followed by a performance by Broadway stars Emily Skinner and Lauren Kennedy at 7 p.m. The evening concludes with dinner and a silent auction.

Tickets for Long Wharf Theatre's 2008 Gala, Opening Doors, range from $300-$1000 and are available for purchase by phone at 203-787-4282, and in person at the Long Wharf Theatre Box Office at 222 Sargent Drive.

For more information about the event, purchasing tickets and the silent auction, contact Christina Montanari at 203-772-8233 or christina.montanari@longwharf.org.

ARTIST STATEMENTS AND BIOGRAPHIES

Artist: Peter Newman and John Killar

Title: "You are Here"

"Building on the tradition of recycling doors for use as tables and a tradition of tables as objects of art, we have transformed one utilitarian object into another. The map of New Haven Harbor intends to locate Long Wharf Theatre within the context of the major transportation hubs of the city. The roads, the water, the rails, and the theatre are all means of transportation located at the threshold of the city. The star on the dressing room door and the makeup table remind us that the theatrical experience is a human and temporary experience; with the ability to be wiped away at the end of each performance. In contrast, each performance holds the possibility of delivering permanent change."

BIO:
Peter Newman received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Boston College in 1983. Prior to architectural school, Mr. Newman established a set design practice, Set Right Design and Construction in Boston, specializing in television commercials, music videos and industrial films. He received a Masters of Architecture from Yale University in 1990. He served as Project Architect at Yale University until 1993; he then joined Herbert S. Newman and Partners where he currently is a Partner. Peter is an Associate Fellow of Jonathan Edwards College at Yale University and outgoing Chairman of Tower One Tower East Elderly Housing in New Haven, CT. Currently he is a member of the board of directors of the Arts Council of Greater New Haven. He was honored to be the recipient of the 2006 ACE Mentor Award from the State of Connecticut.

Artist: William Brown, Hunter Nesbitt Spence and Mike Dunn

"We think of theatre as a door to imagination. Some doors offer only passage to the familiar. The stage is a door that opens to invention and the unfamiliar. We must choose to invest in a door with that possibility. Puppets teach us that we can choose to tell stories."

BIOS:
William Brown is the director of the Eli Whitney Museum who was educated in classics and social work and by puppets he built when he was 9 and by thousands of puppets constructed in the Museum's workshops.

Hunter Nesbitt Spence, an artful storyteller in colors, textures, and props has been a lecturer in technical design and production at the Yale School of Drama for over 30 years. Hunter also masterfully guides artisans and museum apprentices in special projects at the Eli Whitney Museum.

Mike Dunn is a cabinet maker who also builds boats and furniture. His mastery of the craft allows him comfort whether doing refined cabinetry for Lear Jet cabins or Victorian puppet theatres.

Artist: Vladimir Shpitalnik

"You can find theatre in anything. From this old wooden door with its history revealed through layers of paint theatrical life can emerge. A door is a good metaphor for the theatre: through its frame, with the help of the imagination, the beauty of the performance comes through. There are always two sides to the theatre: a richly illustrated front, and the 'reverse' the roughness and raw materials of backstage. The doors of the theatre beckon you to go in, to go through, to open the corridors of your mind and heart."

BIO:
Vladimir Shpitalnik is a set and costume designer, painter, and illustrator whose work has been seen across the United States, Europe, and in Asia. His credits include set and costume designs for productions at American Place Theatre and SoHo Rep, Joffrey Ballet, Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center, Clarence Brown Theatre, Stage One Theatre, New Harmony Theatre, Seacoast Rep, Voice and Vision Theatre, and the Yale Cabaret, among others.

His international credits include the Moscow Art Theatre Studio, Kazan Theatre for Youth, Yermolova Theatre, Gorky Cinema Studio.

Shpitalnik has created environmental and interior designs for the International Festival of Arts and Ideas, Oakdale Theatre, Meadows Music Theatre, Madison Art Cinemas, and Theatre Communications Group. He has illustrated three children's books for Random House/Knopf, and, most recently, Sasha and Babushka, published by Soundprints.

He is on the faculty at Southern Connecticut State University and Paier College of Art. Shpitalnik graduated from the Yale School of Drama and the Moscow Art Theatre School and was awarded a National Endowment for the Arts / Theatre Communications Group Designer Fellowship.

Professional memberships include United Scenic Artists, Society of Illustrators, Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, and the Connecticut Watercolor Society.

Artist: Cesar Pelli

"I think of this door as an entrance to happy places, a gate to Spring and beautiful skies."

BIO:
Cesar Pelli was born in Argentina where he earned his Diploma in Architecture from the University of Tucuman. After obtaining his Masters Degree in the United States, he worked in the offices of Eero Saarinen. In 1977, Mr. Pelli became Dean of the Yale University School of Architecture and founded Cesar Pelli & Associates. In 1995, the AIA awarded Mr. Pelli the Gold Medal in recognition of a lifetime of distinguished achievement in architecture.

Artist: Jerry Meyer

"My door is called Reminiscing In Tempo. This door itself is a natural record of times past with its layered paint and 100 year collection of dust that I found inside the door knob. A door of course is a metaphor, an opening, a reveal. We say, 'if all that dust and paint could talk,' but for me it is what the door could show visually, under the paint, through the wood and hidden in the dust."

BIO:
Jerry Meyer's series of MEMORY BOXES were exhibited in a solo show at Denise Bibro Fine Arts, Chelsea, in September, 2007 and at Red Dot/Miami in December 2007, and RED DOT/New York in March 2008. It's been said that his sculptures deal with "the art of nostalgia." His next solo show at Denise Bibro will be in the spring of 2009.

Artist: Keith Hyatte

"A door is a barrier, decorated and embellished to impress and reveal the identity of the person within. Doors welcome, warn, or defend. I love color and texture, and I love gold, too. My door is a celebration of my tenure at Long Wharf Theatre. I consider it like jewelry."

BIO:
After graduating from Purdue in 1975, I moved to New Haven with my best friend Jean Routt. We wanted to work at Long Wharf Theatre. Fellow college graduate Tim Emswiller worked in the box office and opened a door for us. I have performed on and off the LWT stages and have painted over 230 productions here. My spouse John Allen and I live in Branford with Nacho and Sally.

Artist: Ben Ledbetter

"The knotted patterns people make in living together are the primordial stuff of both theatre and architecture, and as such the two arts remain forever confused in my longing to make things. OPENING DOORS has presented another opportunity for me to try to name that longing."

BIO:
"I am an architect in New Haven. I grew up and began my practice in Mississippi, but after a few years abandoned my aspirations to become the William Faulkner of southern architecture and left for graduate school in the cold dark north, where, but for a brief time in New Orleans, I have happily remained, both teaching and building. I am a member of the Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore, and I have been hit by lightning."

Artist: Michael Yeargan

Michael Yeargan designed Long Wharf Theatre's productions of Uncle Vanya, The Cocktail Hour and The Front Page. His Broadway and Off-Broadway credits include designs for The Ritz; Bad Habits; Hay Fever; Ah, Wilderness!; Seascape; The Umbrellas of Cherbourg; Happy Days; Dinah Was; Juvenalia; Athol Fugard's A Lesson From Aloes (World Premiere); A Light in the Piazza (Tony Award and Drama Desk Award) and Awake and Sing! for which Mr. Yeargan was nominated for the Tony Award and again won the Drama Desk Award.

His opera credits are equally extensive; he has designed the world premieres of A Streetcar Named Desire and Dead Man Walking for San Francisco Opera, The Great Gatsby for the Metropolitan Opera, Cold Sassy Tree for Houston Grand Opera, and Central Park for Glimmerglass and New York City Opera among many others.

Michael has designed extensively for America's regional theaters, including the Guthrie Theater, Goodman Theatre, American Repertory Theatre, Long Wharf Theatre, Hartford Stage, Washington's Arena Stage, Dallas Theater Center, Indiana Repertory Theatre, Old Globe in San Diego, La Jolla Playhouse, Center Stage, McCarter Theatre, and the Yale Repertory Theatre where he is resident designer.

Mr. Yeargan is a Professor of Stage Design at the Yale School of Drama, where he has taught for over 30 years.

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LONG WHARF THEATRE, founded in 1965, is recognized as a leader in American theater, producing fresh and imaginative revivals of classics and modern plays, rediscoveries of neglected works and a variety of world and American premieres.

More than 30 Long Wharf productions have transferred virtually intact to Broadway or off-Broadway, including the 2005 production of BFE by Julia Cho, and the Pulitzer Prize-winning plays Wit by Margaret Edson, The Shadow Box by Michael Cristofer, and The Gin Game by D.L. Coburn.

Long Wharf has received New York Drama Critics Awards, Obie Awards, the Margo Jefferson Award for Production of New Works, a Special Citation from the Outer Critics Circle, and the Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre.

~ End of Release ~

Steven Scarpa
Public Relations Manager
Long Wharf Theatre
222 Sargent Drive
New Haven, CT  06511
Direct: 203-772-8255
Fax: 203-776-2287
Email: steven.scarpa@longwharf.org

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