The theater’s leadership, including not only Padrón but also the director, Kit Ingui, and the board chairman, Nancy Alexander, all said they believe the institution is financially stable and would benefit from the flexibility of the next phase. They said the new arrangement should not only reduce costs but also increase reach for audiences who have not found their way to the waterfront neighborhood from which the theater takes its name due to geography, transportation or economics.
“It makes no sense that we are hanging by a thread or have to live on a little bit,” said Alexander. “We’ve been blessed with some longtime givers who have created a strong endowment for us, and we’re projecting budgets that will work.”
Long Wharf plans to stage at least two more shows at its current location — a new play called “Dream Hou$e” by Eliana Pipes, which the theater says is about “the cultural costs of progress in America” and “Queen.” , by Madhuri Shekar, on “brilliant women confronting inconvenient truths.” The theater is still in talks with the landlord about whether to continue producing in the building later this year, but by fall 2023, the management expects to present full productions at other locations in and around New Haven — possibly in rented theaters. , and possibly in spaces not traditionally used for theatre.
“We believe you can make theater anywhere,” says Ingui.
Long Wharf, which won the Tony Award for Regional Theater in 1978, survived the pandemic with significant support from the federal and state governments. The workforce is less than half the size it was – about 30, less than 65 before the pandemic; the annual budget, which was about $6.5 million before the pandemic, is now just over $5 million.
The theater’s leaders said they have not yet decided whether they will remain itinerant long-term, or whether this will be a short-term phase. But they all said the crises facing the theater were catalysts, not causes, for the move.
“We are going into this with enthusiasm,” said Alexander. She said the theater’s pandemic performances in city parks showed that new venues could attract new audiences, and that by relocating to New Haven, Long Wharf aims to become “a theater that has a much wider presence in our community, and we hope it is appreciated by our community.”
