Your next stop is Long Wharf Theatre, founded in 1965 as a pioneer of the not-for-profit regional theatre movement. Founded in 1965 by Jon Jory, Harlan Kleiman, Ruth Lord, Betty Kubler, and Newt Schenck, it opened that year when Arthur Miller’s The Crucible played for a two-week engagement. For decades this has been a place committed to creating new works and reexamining classic plays.
It has originated several prominent plays and mounted world premieres by Samuel D. Hunter, Craig Lucas, Steve Martin, Paula Vogel, Athol Fugard, and Anna Deavere Smith, among others. Internationally known actors have appeared here on one of the theatre’s two stages: Sam Waterston, Stacy Keach, Brian Dennehy, Al Pacino, Karen Allen, Colleen Dewhurst, Judith Ivey, Jane Alexander, Reg E. Cathey, Mary McDonnell, and Anna Deavere Smith are all part of its history. Today it is led by Artistic Director Jacob G. Padrón and Managing Director Kit Ingui, and in 2022 the company announced plans to leave its longtime venue to become an itinerant New Haven theater company.
Picture the itinerant future ahead: in 2022 the company announced plans to leave this venue and become a New Haven theater company without a permanent home.