Long Wharf Theatre
Encyclopedia
Long Wharf Theatre is a nonprofit institution in New Haven, Connecticut
, a pioneer in the not-for-profit regional theatre movement, the originator of several prominent plays, and a venue where many internationally known actors have appeared.
Founded in 1965, the theatre has received numerous awards over the years, including a Tony Award for Best Regional Theatre and Pulitzer Prizes for several of its original plays. The theatre, currently led by Artistic Director Gordon Edelstein
and Interim Managing Director Joshua Borenstein (former General Manager), is committed to the creation of new works and the reexamination of classic plays.
As of 2009, the theatre had recently staged world premieres by Craig Lucas
, Paula Vogel
, Athol Fugard
and Anna Deavere Smith
, among others. In addition, some of the nation’s leading actors, including Sam Waterston
, Brian Dennehy
, Judith Ivey
and Anna Deavere Smith
, have performed on the theatre’s stages.
's The Crucible
opened for a two-week engagement. Named after the Long Wharf in New Haven Harbor, the theatre was built in a vacant warehouse in a food terminal. The main stage seats were borrowed from a defunct movie house. The budget for the first year was $294,000, when more than 30,000 tickets were sold.
Arvin Brown and Edgar Rosenblum led the theater for the next three decades. Doug Hughes later succeeded Brown as artistic director for four seasons. Gordon Edelstein, previously the artistic director of ACT Theatre
in Seattle for five years, became Long Wharf's artistic director on July 1, 2002. (From 1990 to 1997, he worked under Brown as Long Wharf's associate artistic director, except from 1991 to 1995, when budgetary constraints squeezed out the position and he remained as an associate director helping to develop new plays and directed several main stage shows.) Joan Channick became the managing director in September 2006 and left the job in February 2009 to take a newly created position as associate dean at the Yale School of Drama. Channick had overseen the theater’s financial, administrative and technical operations. Ray Cullom succeeded her as managing director.
More than 30 Long Wharf productions have been transferred to Broadway or Off-Broadway, including Durango, Wit
, (winner of a Pulitzer Prize
), The Shadow Box (Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award/Best Play winner), Hughie
, American Buffalo
, Requiem for a Heavyweight
, Quartermaine's Terms
(Obie Award
winner for best play), The Gin Game
(Pulitzer Prize winner), The Changing Room
, The Contractor and Streamers
.
As of 2009, the theatre sold more than 100,000 tickets in a typical year, with an annual season of six plays on two stages, as well as programs for children new play workshops and various special events. Long Wharf continued to premiere new plays, including A Civil War Christmas by Paula Vogel
and Coming Home by Athol Fugard
.
Long Wharf Theatre has received awards from the New York Drama Critics Circle, Obie Awards, the Margo Jefferson Award for Production of New Works, a special citation from the Outer Critics Circle and, in 1978, the Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre.
New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven is the second-largest city in Connecticut and the sixth-largest in New England. According to the 2010 Census, New Haven's population increased by 5.0% between 2000 and 2010, a rate higher than that of the State of Connecticut, and higher than that of the state's five largest cities, and...
, a pioneer in the not-for-profit regional theatre movement, the originator of several prominent plays, and a venue where many internationally known actors have appeared.
Founded in 1965, the theatre has received numerous awards over the years, including a Tony Award for Best Regional Theatre and Pulitzer Prizes for several of its original plays. The theatre, currently led by Artistic Director Gordon Edelstein
Gordon Edelstein
Gordon Edelstein is in his eighth season as Long Wharf Theatre’s Artistic Director. In addition to his work on the world premiere of Athol Fugard’s Have You Seen Us?, Mr. Edelstein will also direct and adapt Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House later in Long Wharf Theatre’s 2009-10 season. In addition, Mr...
and Interim Managing Director Joshua Borenstein (former General Manager), is committed to the creation of new works and the reexamination of classic plays.
As of 2009, the theatre had recently staged world premieres by Craig Lucas
Craig Lucas
Craig Lucas is an American playwright, screenwriter, theatre director, musical actor, and film director.-Biography:...
, Paula Vogel
Paula Vogel
Paula Vogel is an American playwright and university professor. She received the 1998 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for her play, How I Learned to Drive.-Early years:...
, Athol Fugard
Athol Fugard
Athol Fugard is a South African playwright, novelist, actor, and director who writes in English, best known for his political plays opposing the South African system of apartheid and for the 2005 Academy-Award winning film of his novel Tsotsi, directed by Gavin Hood...
and Anna Deavere Smith
Anna Deavere Smith
Anna Deavere Smith is an American actress, playwright, and professor. She is currently the artist in residence at the Center for American Progress.-Early life:...
, among others. In addition, some of the nation’s leading actors, including Sam Waterston
Sam Waterston
Samuel Atkinson "Sam" Waterston is an American actor and occasional producer and director. Among other roles, he is noted for his Academy Award-nominated portrayal of Sydney Schanberg in 1984's The Killing Fields, and his Golden Globe- and Screen Actors Guild Award-winning portrayal of Jack McCoy...
, Brian Dennehy
Brian Dennehy
Brian Mannion Dennehy is an American actor of film, stage and screen.-Early years:Dennehy was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, the son of Hannah and Edward Dennehy, who was a wire service editor for the Associated Press; he has two brothers, Michael and Edward. Dennehy is of Irish ancestry and was...
, Judith Ivey
Judith Ivey
Judith Lee Ivey is an American actress and director.-Personal life:Ivey was born in El Paso, Texas, the daughter of Dorothy Lee , a teacher, and Nathan Aldean Ivey, a college instructor and dean. She spent 1965-1968 in Dowagiac, Michigan, where she attended Union High School through tenth grade...
and Anna Deavere Smith
Anna Deavere Smith
Anna Deavere Smith is an American actress, playwright, and professor. She is currently the artist in residence at the Center for American Progress.-Early life:...
, have performed on the theatre’s stages.
History
Long Wharf Theatre was founded by Jon Jory and Harlan Kleiman in 1965 when Arthur MillerArthur Miller
Arthur Asher Miller was an American playwright and essayist. He was a prominent figure in American theatre, writing dramas that include plays such as All My Sons , Death of a Salesman , The Crucible , and A View from the Bridge .Miller was often in the public eye,...
's The Crucible
The Crucible
The Crucible is a 1952 play by the American playwright Arthur Miller. It is a dramatization of the Salem witch trials that took place in the Province of Massachusetts Bay during 1692 and 1693. Miller wrote the play as an allegory of McCarthyism, when the US government blacklisted accused communists...
opened for a two-week engagement. Named after the Long Wharf in New Haven Harbor, the theatre was built in a vacant warehouse in a food terminal. The main stage seats were borrowed from a defunct movie house. The budget for the first year was $294,000, when more than 30,000 tickets were sold.
Arvin Brown and Edgar Rosenblum led the theater for the next three decades. Doug Hughes later succeeded Brown as artistic director for four seasons. Gordon Edelstein, previously the artistic director of ACT Theatre
ACT Theatre
ACT Theatre is a regional, non-profit theatre organization in Seattle, Washington, USA. Gregory A. Falls founded ACT in 1965 and served as its first Artistic director; at the time ACT was founded he was also head of the Drama Department at the University of Washington...
in Seattle for five years, became Long Wharf's artistic director on July 1, 2002. (From 1990 to 1997, he worked under Brown as Long Wharf's associate artistic director, except from 1991 to 1995, when budgetary constraints squeezed out the position and he remained as an associate director helping to develop new plays and directed several main stage shows.) Joan Channick became the managing director in September 2006 and left the job in February 2009 to take a newly created position as associate dean at the Yale School of Drama. Channick had overseen the theater’s financial, administrative and technical operations. Ray Cullom succeeded her as managing director.
More than 30 Long Wharf productions have been transferred to Broadway or Off-Broadway, including Durango, Wit
Wit (play)
Wit is a play written by American playwright Margaret Edson. Edson used her work experience in a hospital as part of the inspiration for her play. Wit received its world premiere at South Coast Repertory, Costa Mesa, California, in 1995...
, (winner of a Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
), The Shadow Box (Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award/Best Play winner), Hughie
Hughie
Hughie is a short two-character play by Eugene O’Neill set in the lobby of a small hotel on a West Side street in midtown New York during the summer of 1928. The play is essentially a long monologue delivered by a small time hustler named Erie Smith to the hotel’s new night clerk Charlie Hughes,...
, American Buffalo
American Buffalo
American Buffalo may refer to:*American Buffalo , a play by David Mamet*American Buffalo , a 1996 film of Mamet's play directed by Michael Corrente*American Buffalo , a United States coin...
, Requiem for a Heavyweight
Requiem for a Heavyweight
Requiem for a Heavyweight was a teleplay written by Rod Serling and produced for the live television show Playhouse 90 on 11 October 1956. Six years later, it was adapted as a 1962 feature film starring Anthony Quinn, Jackie Gleason and Mickey Rooney....
, Quartermaine's Terms
Quartermaine's Terms
Quartermaine's Terms is a play by Simon Gray which won The Cheltenham Prize in 1982.-Plot:The play takes place over a period of two years in the 1960s in the staffroom at a Cambridge school for teaching English to foreigners...
(Obie Award
Obie Award
The Obie Awards or Off-Broadway Theater Awards are annual awards given by The Village Voice newspaper to theatre artists and groups in New York City...
winner for best play), The Gin Game
The Gin Game
The Gin Game is a two-person, two-act play by D.L. Coburn that premiered at American Theater Arts in Hollywood in September 1976, directed by Kip Niven. It was Coburn's first play, and the theater's first production.-Plot:...
(Pulitzer Prize winner), The Changing Room
The Changing Room
The Changing Room is a 1971 play by David Storey, set in a men's changing room before, during and after a rugby game. It premiered at the Royal Court Theatre on 9 November 1971, directed by Lindsay Anderson...
, The Contractor and Streamers
Streamers
Streamers is a play by David Rabe. After premiering at the Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut in 1975, the production transferred to Broadway, opening on April 21, 1976 at Lincoln Center's Mitzi E. Newhouse Theatre, where it ran for 478 performances...
.
As of 2009, the theatre sold more than 100,000 tickets in a typical year, with an annual season of six plays on two stages, as well as programs for children new play workshops and various special events. Long Wharf continued to premiere new plays, including A Civil War Christmas by Paula Vogel
Paula Vogel
Paula Vogel is an American playwright and university professor. She received the 1998 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for her play, How I Learned to Drive.-Early years:...
and Coming Home by Athol Fugard
Athol Fugard
Athol Fugard is a South African playwright, novelist, actor, and director who writes in English, best known for his political plays opposing the South African system of apartheid and for the 2005 Academy-Award winning film of his novel Tsotsi, directed by Gavin Hood...
.
Long Wharf Theatre has received awards from the New York Drama Critics Circle, Obie Awards, the Margo Jefferson Award for Production of New Works, a special citation from the Outer Critics Circle and, in 1978, the Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre.