Woody Ford
Should the latest iteration of the Stony Creek Theater as the home of the Legacy Theatre ever revive a Broadway musical, the ever-popular Kismet would seem a good choice.
“It has been uncanny how many charmed moments this project has seen,” said Keely Baisden Knudsen, a Guilford resident who co-founded the repertory company that purchased the 100-year old structure in March. “My board members no longer scratch their heads in wonder; it happens so often, we just shrug and say, ‘it’s charmed!’” Click here to read the story.
The storied Stony Creek Theater, built 100 years ago at 128 – 132 Thimble Island Rd., has functioned as a silent movie house, the home of a repertory company titled the Parish Players, a summer stock house, a World War II parachute factory, a girdle factory and then an enchanting puppet house featuring rare Sicilian puppets until it closed in 2008 because of safety violations. The late Jim Weil staged productions of the famed Sicilian puppets at the Puppet House for decades.
Over the years, personages as renowned as Orson Welles have been among the theatrical glitterati to appear there.
Now that the property is owned by the Legacy, the company plans to renovate the building into a 120-seat theater with a core of actors and also a strong educational component. The latter, according to the company’s website, would encompass training ranging from playwriting to acting techniques to speech for the theater.
“This project is so alluring,” an exuberant Knudsen said, “from the theater’s rich history to the exciting vision of a professional pre-Broadway venue and conservatory, to its scrumptious location in the heart of Stony Creek. Everyone I meet has some connection to the space, a memory of a performance or personal involvement with the space.
“To revitalize the venue for audiences to convene and laugh and enjoy rich cathartic moments in this historic theater is a thrilling exercise,” she continued. “It feels like a long journey getting there, but the planning stages and ensuring the proper team is in place are so important that the time and energy to this moment is definitely worth the investment. We are full steam ahead! It’s terribly exciting.”
Toward that end, the Legacy, which was founded two years ago, has continued assembling the staff for the company and theater and also broadening its shoreline presence.
Most recently, the Legacy Theatre took part in a reading of Thornton Wilder’s Our Town at the Blackstone Memorial Library on Nov. 16. Knudsen termed the event “a lovely afternoon of a reading by a talented group of actors, reading one of the most touching plays ever written. It was a very touching experience, and I was pleased Legacy was asked to be involved.”
Sam Stricker
On Nov. 1, Legacy announced the appointment of Branford native Greg Nobile (pictured) as interim managing director. In 2010, the young entrepreneur had sought, unsuccessfully, to revitalize the Stony Creek Theatre as a performance venue.
Today a graduate of the Commercial Theater Institute in New York and president of Leo Minor Productions, Nobile is well known in Branford as the founder of the Lemonade Gang, a group whose performances have raised monies for medical research.
“I am beyond thrilled to have an opportunity to join this talented team,” said Nobile, speaking from New York.
On Sunday, Nov. 17, A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, with Nobile as a producer, opened at the Walter Kerr Theater on Broadway to unabashedly rave reviews. “The new undisputed king of musical comedy!” TimeOut New York called the production.
“How very daring — a witty musical about a serial killer that Stephen Sondheim didn’t write,” Variety wrote. “A true tour de force that is hardly likely to be bettered on Broadway this season!” wrote Charles Isherwood in the New York Times.
“That is my dream and hope — to produce quality arts programming along the shoreline,” said Nobile, shifting his attention from the Broadway stage to the activities alive and well in Stony Creek.
Another addition this month to the growing Legacy and, so, Stony Creek Theater staff is Kate Fletcher. The former administrator at Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven, among her strong arts administrative credentials, has joined the company as director of development and administration.
Knudsen herself serves as artistic director. A member of the Actors’ Equity Association, she holds her master’s degree in drama from The Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama with her undergraduate training at New York University’s highly touted Tisch School of the Arts.
She has performed internationally. In addition, she has taught at schools that include Yale University and served as director of education for the Elm Shakespeare Company in New Haven.
And while this gathering of credentialed individuals seems a coup, the cost of restoring the properties that will house them and their endeavors carries a rough estimate of $1.4 million, according to Knudsen.
That sum was defrayed somewhat by a grant for $12,500 the Legacy received this fall from the 1772 Foundation of the Connecticut Trust for Historic Preservation to cover half the cost of replacing the roof of the structure at 128 Thimble Rd. — an undertaking that is scheduled for next spring. The frame and brick structure there is scheduled to become the theater. Also, a fundraising gala in April netted the group $100,000, Knudsen said.
Woody Ford
Then, the Hamden firm of theatrical designers, Alliance Theatrical Consulting Contractors or Alliance TCC entered the scene.
Alliance TCC, which designs and constructs performance venues, has agreed to design the interior and oversee the contracting at 132 Thimble Island Rd. at no cost. In the yellow structure, the Legacy expects to house its offices.
“We often do pro bono work of some degree,” said Bob Errato, managing member of Alliance TCC. “We find we put in a lot of our time in the planning stages and often don’t charge for it. Not necessarily the best plan for income but so far we find that works to everyone’s interest in the end.
“Our pro bono work on this project covers all of the yellow house and a good portion of the preliminary floor planning for the theater space. In all our projects, our designer works with a theme around some history or common thread of its past.
“The concept we have in development [for the Stony Creek Theater] will take in all of the history and past performers and performances,” Errato continued. “It will be unique. I can guarantee that.”
In June, Alliance TCC designed a subterranean arts-and-performance venue entitled SubCulture in New York’s downtown NoHo (North of Houston Street) neighborhood.
There, Errato said, Alliance TCC designed most of the plan drawings in addition to managing construction with all interior finishes designed by the firm and the fabrications completed at the company’s studio here in Connecticut.
The firm also designed the interior’s lights and sound, including all acoustical treatment, Errato said.
“With the exception of the floor finish and the seating, which we also spec’d and installed,” he said, “[on] everything a patron could see, we did a total turnkey.”
“The space is very urban and very New York — very different from the Puppet House,” said Nobile, who, now living on the edge of New York’s gentrifying Hell’s Kitchen, has visited SubCulture. He termed the venue a testament to the firm’s design abilities.
“We’re lucky to have them,” Nobile said of the members of the firm.
On Jan. 25, according to the company’s website, Legacy plans to join with Alliance TCC to present an event to benefit the theater termed “Legacy Takes Manhattan!” in New York.
That day, the Legacy’s Knudsen and Williams will provide a vocal performance at the NoHo site, and Alliance TCC will give participants an idea of just what it takes to create a performance venue.
While Knudsen conceded that no other firm has offered to provide pro bono design or construction, Knudsen remarked that anyone else who would like to offer their services should “Let us know if you’re interested!”
With Permission
With the holiday season in full tilt, Knudsen (pictured) added that the company is also seeking four “angel donors” — persons who would come forward with the sum of $350,000 each to reach the dollar amount that would fully cover the Stony Creek Theater’s building costs. Naming rights for components of the revived Stony Creek Theater, she noted, remain.
And should that elusive foursome emerge, the Shakespearean title All’s Well That Ends Well would apply roundly to what for the Stony Creek Theater has proved an exceedingly good year.
Further information on the “Legacy Takes Manhattan!” event will become available on the company’s website at legacytheatrect.org.
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