The Lucille Lortel and Waldo Mayo White Barn Foundation

650 W. 42nd St. ! Suite 1913 New York, NY 10036! Phone: (561) 632 0284 or (212) 901 5239 ! E-Mail: Info@WhiteBarnTheatre.org Web: www.WhiteBarnTheatre.org

CC: Andy Sandberg, Irma Sandrey, Sandy Starr, Gigi Van Deckter (members of the Board) Kelli O’Hara, Estelle Parsons, Kevin Spacey, Terrence McNally, Tovah Feldshuh & Jane Bergere (Supporters)

February 15, 2016 Dear Friend of Theatre, An iconic piece of American theatre history is in imminent danger of being lost forever. We seek your help to save it. The White Barn Theatre and surrounding fifteen acres of pristine open space, once served artists who sought nature's creative inspiration. Located on the Westport/Norwalk border in Connecticut, it is the site of a 50- year theatrical legacy that fostered many great talents. American legends including Marilyn Monroe, Tennessee Williams, Edward Albee, Al Pacino and Kevin Spacey, either graced its stage, had their work premiered or attended special theatre nights to see what was worthy of worldwide attention all before they became famous. In 1947, the daring and visionary producer, later dubbed “The Queen of Off-Broadway”, Lucille Lortel, turned an old 1850’s barn into a modern day experimental theater for up and coming actors, directors, and playwrights. Never before had America seen a regional theater receive so much fame and respect because Miss Lortel made it a fostering ground for the great talents that would then go on to extraordinary Broadway and International successes. Lucille Lortel produced more than 400 productions at the White Barn. This is why we feel a need to save its history and continue her work. With your support, we will restore, revive and continue the 50-year legacy that Miss Lortel created at the White Barn Theatre. First and foremost, we will renovate the White Barn Theatre and re-instate the historic museum. Now, more than ever, we know how the creative arts help to resolve many of society’s challenges. Please help by investing in the revival of the White Barn Theatre and you will inspire future generations as well as support those that currently work in the theatre business.

The most pressing task we face right now is to raise an initial $2 million towards the purchase of the property before the scheduled demolition of the White Barn Theatre on March 22nd 2016. Throughout our nation’s history, endangered public treasures, both cultural and natural, have been saved from destruction only because of the far-sighted generosity of civic-minded individuals such as yourself. We appeal to you in this crisis and will provide all support necessary to assist and facilitate your participation in this worthy effort. This letter is an exclusive invitation to specific individuals and with your help we believe the necessary funds can be raised. As a founding contributor, your name will live on among a few generous individuals who helped save this theatrical icon. On behalf of the foundation, we thank you for your time and attention to this critical matter.

With gratitude,

Waldo S. Mayo

Waldo S. Mayo

President, Great nephew of Lucille Lortel

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The Lucille Lortel and Waldo Mayo White Barn Foundation, Inc., is a nonprofit organization incorporated under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Contributions are tax deductible to the extent allowed by law. EIN Tax # 81-0739341 Board Members: Waldo Mayo -President and Founder (Great-nephew of Lucille Lortel) Gigi Van Deckter- (Board Member and Director/Producer who worked with Ms. Lortel) Andy Sandberg- Artistic advisor (Tony winning producer revival for Broadway’s Hair) Sandra Starr - (Board Secretary Member and former personal assistant and secretary to Ms. Lortel) Irma Sandrey - (Board Member and Senior Teacher & Advisor at The Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute) Our Goals: 5.2 Million Dollars will allow us to purchase the entire 15 acre estate including the original 1930’s White Barn Theatre and the 1940’s 5 bedroom house that Miss Lortel once lived in with her husband, Lou Schweitzer, a notable philanthropist and major contributor to our judicial system. 2.0 Million Dollars will allow us to purchase an option agreement to buy the property from the developer over a 3-4 year period allowing us due time to raise the additional 3.2 million dollars. 500,000 Dollars will allow us to completely renovate the barn and re-install the historic museum. How you can help: To Donate by Check: Please send to: The Lucille Lortel and Waldo Mayo White Barn Foundation at 650 W. 42nd St. Suite 1913 New York, NY 10036 To Donate by Wire Transfer: Please Wire Funds to: The Lucille Lortel and Waldo Mayo White Barn Foundation, Inc. Bank Address: JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. Clinton 471 W. 42nd St. New York, NY 10036 Contact Chase Rep. Patrick Varano at (212) 239-4236 with any questions. Account #: 788003098 Routing #: 021000021 To Donate Online: Please visit: www.whitebarntheatre.org

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Gift Amounts:

$1,000 – $10,000 Donations will be used for restoring the historic Lucille Lortel Museum in the White Barn Theatre. Donors will receive an acknowledgment letter and a White Barn Theatre Donation Certificate. 25,000 - $50,000 Donations will be used towards the purchase of the White Barn Theatre Property valued at approximately 2.6 million dollars and includes roughly 7 acres of land. Donors will receive an acknowledgment letter, a White Barn Theatre Donation Certificate, and a Silver plaque of their family names on one of the original 148 metropolitan opera seats. Your family name will be aside the name that the seat was originally reserved for by Miss Lotrel’s request (i.e. Al Pacino) $100,000- 500,000 Donations will be used toward the entire purchase of the 15-acre estate which include the White Barn Theatre, The Lucille Lortel Museum, and the original 5 Bedroom Lortel Residence. Donors will receive an acknowledgment letter, a White Barn Theatre Donation Certificate, a Silver plaque of their family names on the outside door of the White Barn Theatre, and a special VIP invitation to the exclusive grand re-opening of the barn, which will be a star-studded event. $1,000,000.00 Donations will be used toward the entire purchase of the 15-acre estate which include the White Barn Theatre, The Lucille Lortel Museum, and the original 5 Bedroom Lortel Residence. Donors will receive an acknowledgment letter, a White Barn Theatre Donation Certificate, a gold plaque of their family name on the outside doors of the original Lortel Museum as well as a Silver Plaque on the inside of the lobby of The White Barn Theatre. Donors will also receive up to 2 board seats and a preference to name the center after their family’s name.

N.Y. / REGION

Fighting to Preserve the White Barn Theater By LISA W. FODERARO

JAN. 24, 2016

http://nyti.ms/1VjemWY

From left, Andy Sandberg, Waldo Mayo, Gigi Van Deckter and Irma Sandrey in front of a caricature

of Lucille Lortel at Sardi’s in Manhattan. Credit Karsten Moran for The New York Times

NORWALK, CONN. — Lucille Lortel, an actress and theater producer who was known as the queen of Off Broadway, staged hundreds of plays during her lifetime at her theater on Christopher Street in the West Village.

But Ms. Lortel, who was born in 1900 to Jewish immigrants of Polish descent on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, had another dramatic locale much farther from Broadway: a tiny theater in an old horse barn on her sprawling estate here, where she premiered works by Eugene Ionesco, Athol Fugard and Edward Albee.

Fighting to Preserve the White Barn Theater By LISA W. FODERARO, JAN. 24, 2016

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Though dark for years, the White Barn Theater, as it was known, is now at the center of a fierce campaign by Ms. Lortel’s grandnephew and local preservationists. They are fighting to save the theater building from demolition and to conserve the acres of woods and streams around it — one of the few unspoiled parcels along the increasingly suburban border of Norwalk and Westport.

Ms. Lortel’s grandnephew, Waldo Mayo, a 25-year-old actor, remembers performing onstage as a young child at the White Barn Theater. He revisited the property more than a year ago and was surprised to see that the theater was still there. The last production was in 2002, three years after Ms. Lortel’s death at 98.

Ms. Lortel, an actress and Off Broadway producer, opened the White Barn Theater on her estate

in 1947. Credit Suzanne DeChillo

“I came back to the barn and realized that it’s still standing,” Mr. Mayo said. “I feel it’s my mission to continue her legacy.”

But the White Barn would not stand much longer, Mr. Mayo soon realized. A developer planned to build 15 houses on the property. Save Cranbury Association, a neighborhood group, had for years worked with other preservationists to prevent such an outcome. As far back as 2003, they had challenged — unsuccessfully — the right of the Lucille Lortel Foundation, which was given the property after Ms. Lortel’s death, to sell it.

Mr. Mayo started his own group, the Lucille Lortel and Waldo Mayo White Barn Foundation. He reached out to the developer, James A. Fieber, the manager of 78

Fighting to Preserve the White Barn Theater By LISA W. FODERARO, JAN. 24, 2016

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Cranbury L.L.C., which owns the 15-acre Lortel property. In a meeting last fall at the National Arts Club in Manhattan, Mr. Mayo told Mr. Fieber that he wanted to buy the land and revive the theater.

“I was very close to my aunt Lucille,” Mr. Mayo said. “She put me on the stage at the White Barn when I was 6, and it changed my life forever.”

From the White Barn Theater’s opening in 1947 until her death in 1999, Ms. Lortel staged new and experimental works during the summer months. Among the many plays she premiered were Ionesco’s “The Chairs,” Mr. Albee’s “Fam and Yam,” Samuel Beckett’s “Embers,” Adrienne Kennedy’s “The Owl Answers” and Terrence McNally’s “Next.”

Mr. Fieber’s company, which bought the land from the Lortel Foundation in 2006 for $4.8 million, was set to demolish the theater and a long-vacant house, the former weekend getaway of Ms. Lortel and her husband, Louis Schweitzer, a wealthy paper industrialist. In October, Mr. Fieber secured permits from the city of Norwalk to build houses on the site.

But Mr. Fieber was nonetheless interested in what Mr. Mayo had to say.

“He’s a nice kid with a dream, which I was taken with,” Mr. Fieber said of Mr. Mayo. “I was hoping I would be able to realize that dream. I offered to make a personal contribution. But dreams in this world generally cost money to fulfill them.”

While Mr. Mayo has gathered expressions of support from theater luminaries such as Kevin Spacey and Kelli O’Hara, his fund-raising is still in its infancy.

Over a few weeks during the holidays, Mr. Mayo managed to come up with $100,000 from various supporters; he called the money a good-faith deposit, allowing negotiations with Mr. Fieber to move forward. The total purchase price, he said, is somewhere north of $5 million.

Still, Mr. Mayo, whose plan for the theater has the backing of the Save Cranbury Association, expressed confidence that he could eventually raise the money, if given enough time. Mr. Fieber, however, said there was never an agreement.

“They’re really nice people,” Mr. Fieber said of Mr. Mayo and his supporters, “and they seem intent on acquiring the property. But the gap is that they don’t have any funds. And it’s late in the game, given the fact that we are in the process of mobilizing to construct the residential project.”

The housing plan, Mr. Fieber said, is sensitive to the environment, leaving most of the land untouched. About 10 of the 15 acres are protected by conservation easements that put them off limits to future development. The new homes would be clustered on five acres. Mr. Fieber said the amount of open space under the plan is “highly unusual.”

Fighting to Preserve the White Barn Theater By LISA W. FODERARO, JAN. 24, 2016

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Local residents intent on blocking the housing development were so buoyed by Mr. Mayo’s late entry into the fray, however, that they are now getting behind his vision. JoAnne Jackson, president of the Save Cranbury Association, joined Mr. Mayo recently at a meeting with Harry Rilling, the mayor of Norwalk, and State Senator Bob Duff, a fellow Democrat who represents the area.

Two residents have appealed the permits recently granted by the city to the Fieber development, while another has won a temporary demolition delay.

The White Barn Theater, on the former estate of Lucille Lortel in Norwalk, Conn. A developer

plans to build 15 houses on the property, which was sold in 2006.CreditChristopher Capozziello for The New York Times

On a recent Sunday, as a light snow descended on the property’s pond and trees, a sign read: “Intent to Demolish.” Through the trees, the White Barn Theater was just visible. Asbestos removal was underway, and large chunks of the theater’s white shingle siding were missing.

Ms. Jackson grew up across the street from the White Barn property and still lives there. Her father, who was a contractor, built the stone wall that encircled the Lortel estate. In those years, she said, Ms. Lortel was better known by children in the neighborhood as Mrs. Schweitzer.

Fighting to Preserve the White Barn Theater By LISA W. FODERARO, JAN. 24, 2016

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“It was always this iconic, gorgeous property, with Lucille Lortel’s theater — not just another building lot,” Ms. Jackson said, adding that conservationists from Norwalk and Westport were worried about the impact of 15 houses on the site’s wetlands and wildlife.

Mr. Fieber said much of the property was in disrepair, with three of the structures badly deteriorated. “The White Barn doesn’t meet current safety codes and has mold, mildew and rot,” he said.

In addition to the endorsement from Save Cranbury, Mr. Mayo’s plan to restore and reopen the theater has the backing of the Norwalk Historical Society and the Norwalk Preservation Trust.

“It’s a good alternative that everyone can rally around,” Ms. Jackson said. “It’s an absolute win-win — for the environment, the community, the theater and the developer.”

But she urged Mr. Fieber to give proponents of the theater plan more time. “It’s not every day you get to save an iconic piece of American theater history that is literally in your backyard,” Ms. Jackson said. “Waldo has some really great connections. But you don’t raise $5 million in five minutes.”

A version of this article appears in print on January 25, 2016, on page A16 of the New York edition with the headline: Fighting to Preserve a Historic Theater.

http://nyti.ms/1VjemWY

T he White Barn Theatre, founded in 1947 at the corner of Cranbury Road and Newtown Turnpike on the Connecticut Norwalk/Westport border, made theater history for over 50 years. Lucille Lortel, an actress, producer, and artistic director, crowned The Queen of Off-Broadway by

Richard L. Coe, drama critic of the Washington Post, started the White Barn where she staged hundreds of plays along with her other off-Broadway venue, The Lucille Lortel Theatre (originally named The Theatre De Lys), in New York City’s Greenwich Village.

Born in 1900 to Jewish immigrants on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, Lucille Lortel (left) studied acting at The American Academy of Dramatic Arts, making her Broadway debut with Helen Hayes. She made her way to Hollywood to star in one of the first talking pictures with Sessue Hayakawa. After marrying paper industrialist and philanthropist Louis Schweitzer, she looked for a way to express herself that, at that time, was acceptable to her husband. With the counsel of actor Danny Kaye, she started the White Barn Theatre out of the horse barn on her husband’s estate.

by GIGI VAN DECKTER

The White Barn was created to premiere experimental productions for local and NYC professional theatre audiences. Each summer, Lortel invited audiences to “come up to the barn” to see the best and the brightest in compelling and often controversial new works. This peaceful location gave performing artists the space and time to breathe and create in a natural setting filled with woods and streams. The theater, known for controversial productions, gave many celebrated actors their start, including Peter Falk and Geoffrey Holder. Playwrights such as Terence McNally, Athol Fugard, Edward Albee, Eugene Ionesco, George C. Wolfe, Samuel Beckett, Lanford Wilson, Cy Coleman and Sean O’Casey and countless others premiered works at the White Barn with many moving on to

Broadway, Off-Broadway, London, or regional theatre productions. Acting legends Eva La Gallienne and Marilyn Monroe and playwright Arthur Miller were regular guests for plays by Athol Fugard, Bertolt Brecht, and Tennessee Williams. Lucille had an eye for talent and she brought them all together with much generosity. Lucille Lortel passed away in 1999 and in her last will and testament, she clearly expressed her wishes that the White Barn Theatre continue. In 2006, the estate sold the historic theatre and the 18-acre property for $4.6 million to 78 Cranbury L.L.C.,. James A. Fieber, the owner/developer and manager of the property, has had years of battles with concerned neighbors represented by local ecological, historical and land trust groups who have until recently, effectively prevented construction on the

Above: Acting legend Marilyn Monroe signing the guest book at the White Barn Theatre.

The White Barn, known for its experimental

productions, gave many celebrated actors their start in show business.

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property, that is also home to a pond, woodlands, and extensive acres of wetlands. . In November, 2015, the Norwalk Zoning Commission voted to give Mr. Fieber permission to demolish what is a Connecticut and National Theatre Treasure, and build 15 homes on this pristine natural preserve. It will be lost forever if the $5.2 million the developer is asking for cannot be raised to buy the property. Waldo Mayo, 25, Lucille Lortel’s great-nephew, and an actor now living in New York City, spent summers and holidays up at the White Barn with his aunt. When he realized the property was not developed and laying fallow, he committed to acquiring it to bring back the production of new plays there, recreating the museum that Lucille organized for educational purposes, and making the site a destination in the town for visitors and theatre lovers. Hearing that I was a close friend to his great aunt for more than thirty years, Waldo asked me to join the Board of The Lucille Lortel and Waldo Mayo White Barn Foundation, Inc., a newly organized 501c3 nonprofit organization he founded to buy the property and start the theatre again. Showgirls, a musical that I co-authored with Earl Wilson, Jr., and

Opera singer Placido Domingo and actress Sophia Loren with Lucille Lortel

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Actress Luise Rainer (left) and producer Rod Serling at the White Barn Theatre

Playwright Langston Hughes (left) with Lucille Lortel (second from right) and other guests

produced with Ms. Lortel and David Susskind, made its debut at The White Barn. Ms. Lortel took a shine to me and we became good friends. Together, Waldo and I have been meeting with and contacting well-known actors that once performed at the White Barn Theatre, including Kevin Spacey, Kelli O’Hara, Tovah Feldshuh, and Estelle Parsons, as well as producers such as Jane Bergere, Eric Falkenstein. Many other directors and writers have pledged their

support and interest in the project as it gains momentum. Local community leaders have been amazing and have given their time to keep the developer from moving ahead with his project to

build homes on this pristine site and destroy the theatre entirely. This is a true David and Goliath story; commerce versus art! We pray that developer Jim Fieber can see his way clear to not destroy what was so lovingly created by one wise woman for the highest purpose - to further the appreciation of the arts through the theatre. The White Barn Theatre is full of

historical artifacts including 148 red leather seats from the New York City’s Metropolitan Opera house on 39th Street. There is an art deco bar, antique lighting fixtures, and murals on the wall

An urgent call is out to raise funds to keep the White Barn from being demolished and the property from being redeveloped.

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by artist, Jessica Winer, created in the early 1980s. Mr. Fieber is threatening to tear them all out. All of this must be preserved, and time is of the essence. The call is out now. We must gather support and raise the funds to purchase this property BY MARCH 22nd. We want to save it from being destroyed and to bring life back to the theatre, back at The White Barn. We have a short amount of time to raise the funds to stop this treasure from being lost forever, like so many pieces of our cultural history. To support the initiative to save The White Barn Theatre, click here to visit the Lucille Lortel and Waldo Mayo White Bar Foundation, Inc., a nonprofit organization, www.whitebarntheatre.org.

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Based in New York City, Gigi Van Deckter has worked as a producer, director, and writer in New York City, Los Angeles, and London’s West End in Emmy award-winning network, cable, and public television programs and documentaries. She also invests in real estate for international clients at Halstead. She is a proud board member of the White Barn Foundation. She can be reached at gvandeckter@me.com.

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