Long Wharf Theatre is a nonprofit institution in

New Haven, Connecticut New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134 ...

, 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 is committed to the creation of new works and the reexamination of classic plays. It is currently led by Artistic Director Jacob G. Padrón and Managing Director Kit Ingui. The theatre has staged world premieres by Samuel D. Hunter,

Craig Lucas Craig Lucas (born April 30, 1951) is an American playwright, screenwriter, theatre director, musical actor, and film director. Biography Born on April 30, 1951, he was found abandoned in a car in Atlanta, Georgia. Lucas was adopted when he was ...

Steve Martin Stephen Glenn Martin (born August 14, 1945) is an American actor, comedian, writer, producer, and musician. He has won five Grammy Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, and was awarded an Honorary Academy Award in 2013. Additionally, he was nominate ...

, Paula Vogel, Athol Fugard, and

Anna Deavere Smith Anna Deavere Smith is an American actress, playwright, and professor. She is known for her roles as National Security Advisor Dr. Nancy McNally in '' The West Wing'' (2000–06), hospital administrator Gloria Akalitus in the Showtime series ''N ...

, among others. In addition, some of the nation’s leading actors, including

Sam Waterston Samuel Atkinson Waterston (born November 15, 1940) is an American actor. Waterston is known for his work in theater, television and, film. He has received a Primetime Emmy Award, Golden Globe Award, and Screen Actors Guild Award, and has receive ...

Stacy Keach Walter Stacy Keach Jr. (born June 2, 1941) is an American actor and narrator. He has played mainly dramatic roles throughout his career, often in law enforcement or as a private detective. His most prominent role was as Mickey Spillane's fiction ...

, Brian Dennehy, Al Pacino,

Karen Allen Karen Jane Allen (born October 5, 1951) is an American film and stage actress. After making her film debut in ''Animal House'' (1978), she portrayed Marion Ravenwood opposite Harrison Ford in '' Raiders of the Lost Ark'' (1981), a role she la ...

, Colleen Dewhurst,

Judith Ivey Judith Lee Ivey (born September 4, 1951) is an American actress and theatre director. She has twice won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play: for ''Steaming'' (1981) and '' Hurlyburly'' (1984). She has also appeared in several film ...

Jane Alexander Jane Alexander (née Quigley; born October 28, 1939) is an American actress and author. She is the recipient of two Primetime Emmy Awards, a Tony Award, and nominations for four Academy Awards, and three Golden Globe Awards. From 1993 to 19 ...

, Reg E. Cathey,

Mary McDonnell Mary Eileen McDonnell (born April 28, 1952) is an American film, stage, and television actress. She received Academy Award nominations for her roles as Stands With A Fist in '' Dances with Wolves'' and May-Alice Culhane in ''Passion Fish''. Mc ...

, and

, have performed on one of the theatre’s two stages.

History

Long Wharf Theatre was founded by Jon Jory, Harlan Kleiman, Ruth Lord, Betty Kubler, and Newt Schenck in 1965 when

Arthur Miller Arthur Asher Miller (October 17, 1915 – February 10, 2005) was an American playwright, essayist and screenwriter in the 20th-century American theater. Among his most popular plays are ''All My Sons'' (1947), '' Death of a Salesman'' (1 ...

's ''

The Crucible ''The Crucible'' is a 1953 play by American playwright Arthur Miller. It is a dramatized and partially fictionalized story of the Salem witch trials that took place in the Massachusetts Bay Colony during 1692–93. Miller wrote the play as ...

'' 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.Web page title
"Long Wharf Theatre: A History"
at Long Wharf Theatre website, retrieved November 21, 2009

Arvin Brown Arvin Brown (born May 24, 1940) is an American theatre and television director. He was the Artistic Director of the Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut for 30 years. Life and career Born in Los Angeles, California, Brown made his Broa ...

and Edgar Rosenblum led the theater for the next three decades. Doug Hughes later succeeded Brown as artistic director for four seasons.

Gordon Edelstein Gordon Edelstein is an American theatre director. He was Artistic Director of the Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut from 2002 until January 2018, when he was fired following allegations of sexual misconduct. Biography He received a Bach ...

, previously the artistic director of ACT Theatre in Seattle for five years, became Long Wharf's artistic director on July 1, 2002; he had been Long Wharf's associate artistic director intermittently before.

was fired by Long Wharf's board in January 2018 because of accusations of sexual misconduct. After a search process Jacob G. Padrón became the new artistic director in November 2018. Joan Channick was managing director from 2006 to 2009. Ray Cullom succeeded her as managing director for two seasons, and restored fiscal stability after several years of severe shortfalls. Joshua Borenstein took over in 2011 and Kit Ingui replaced him in 2019. 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 American Buffalo may refer to: *American Buffalo (play), ''American Buffalo'' (play), a play by David Mamet *American Buffalo (film), ''American Buffalo'' (film), a 1996 film of Mamet's play directed by Michael Corrente *American Buffalo (coin), a ...

'', '' Requiem for a Heavyweight'', ''

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. It deals wi ...

'' ( Obie Award winner for best play), ''

The Gin Game ''The Gin Game'' is a two-person, two-act play by Donald 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. The play won the 197 ...

'' (Pulitzer Prize winner), '' The Changing Room'', ''The Contractor'', ''I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change, Satchmo at the Waldorf'', and '' Streamers''.

Current operations

The theatre has generally produced a season of six plays on two stages, as well as programs for new play workshops, community engagement events, and in-school and at-theatre programming for middle and high school students. In 2022 Long Wharf declared plans to move out of its theater and become an itinerant theater company performing in different venues around New Haven.

Awards

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.

References

External links

Long Wharf Theatre official website
*
Long Wharf Theatre set designs, 1976-1990
held by the Billy Rose Theatre Division,

New York Public Library for the Performing Arts The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center, at 40 Lincoln Center Plaza, is located in Manhattan, New York City, at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts on the Upper West Side, between the Metro ...

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