RANDYE KAYE: You are invited. Invited to engage with 60 years of Long Wharf Theatre history, and you can do it all at the New Haven Museum.
The exhibit is presented in three parts: the theatre's past, its future, and a peek behind the curtain. I recently explored the galleries with two tour guides, Jessica Durdock Moreno, the Chief of Staff, and Artistic Team
Member and Jason Bischoff-Wurstle, Director of Photo Archives at the New Haven Museum.
JASON: It's thrilling to be able to work on this project and move this along, because a pioneer in regional theater, nationally and internationally for that matter.
RANDYE: We walk along the upper level of the museum's two-story rotunda, and it transports us into the past. The soft lavender walls are peppered with black and white photos chronicling 60 years' worth of Long Wharf productions.
JESSICA: These are our Pulitzer Prize-winning playwrights. We've got Michael Christopher, who wrote the Shadow Box, Margaret Edson, who wrote Wit, and D. L. Coburn, who wrote The Gin Game. And so we're super proud that three Pulitzer Prize-winning playwrights had their productions developed at Long Wharf Theatre.
We've got Mia Farrow. We've got Coleman Domingo. We've got Jessica Tandy and Hume Cronin, Kathleen Chalfant. We've got Al Pacino and Ann Deavere Smith, Martha Plimpton, Brian Dennehy, my gosh, the list of the list of sparkly stars goes on and on.
RANDYE: Our next stop is the rehearsal room. It's filled with scripts. Visitors can peruse models of set designs to explore and costumes worn by actors on stage. The exhibit celebrates the craftspeople who are vital to bringing a play to life.
JESSICA: Stage managers, the lighting designers, the set designers, the costume designers. In fact, in the rehearsal room, you can go and try on actual costume pieces that were in our productions, and we invite everyone to come try them on, take a look in the mirror, take a photo. Imagine what it is to step into that skin of that character.
JASON: Now, that's already been blowing people's minds. I walk into the gallery, and they're like, “Oh, this is so wonderful. I get to try this on”. I'm like, “Oh, yes it’s the real deal. Immediately, their eyes sparkle. They're like, “wow”.
RANDYE: I couldn't resist. I tried on a stunning, bright yellow brocade coat that was worn in a recent production.
“Tell me how you feel right now? It's itchy. I'm not gonna lie, it is. I feel weighed down with luxury. You know, there's something about No, it's fake fur, but you can imagine that it's real. I feel like I have to stand straight, and I feel, I feel elegant, but also weighty. It's beautiful.”
RANDYE: The final installation features more recent productions. It offers visitors an opportunity to add their creative ideas to the exhibit.
JESSICA: We have reconstructed a piece of the actual set of El Coqui Espectacular and the Bottle of Doom, which was the production we did at Southern Connecticut State University this past winter. And that set, it's a young man's bedroom filled with comic books and comic posters and his own drawings. So our exhibition designer Jordan Cowen, while she was reconstructing the set, in talking with audience members, students, community members who came to see the show, they would look at all the comic books in the character's bedroom and say, Oh, you've got Superman, but you don't have this one. Or, Oh, I like that superhero, but this is the one that you need to have on the wall. So she actually, in her design, added the community's dreams of what they wanted on the character's wall. So that wall is now, I guess, a community installation, and you can also sit at the desk and draw your own comic and add it to the set.
RANDYE: Three years ago, the Long Wharf Theatre said goodbye to its venue on Sargent Drive and embraced the entire city of New Haven as its stage.
JESSICA: I will spotlight this photograph. It's a large black and white blow up print of our production of A View from the Bridge, which we produced in 2024 at the Canal Dock, Boat House, and in the photo, you can see that we have the shades in the windows of the boathouse open, inviting the outside space in as part of the set design. So this photo is a matinee production. You've got natural sunlight streaming in. You've got views of the Long Island Sound and the New Haven harbor. This production in particular represented what is possible with the new producing model that we are diving into at Long Wharf Theatre.
RANDYE: Jessica says the theater is experimenting with new ways to be sustainable while making their productions radically accessible to everyone.
JESSICA: So every single student in New Haven, K through 12, can come see any show for free. So I just want to say that again, yes. Say that again, yeah, any student K through 12 can come and see a Long Wharf theater production for free. We also offer loads of discounts for college students, and we've been experimenting with a pay what you can or pay what you will model. So, for instance, during some of our preview weeks, we would open up tickets to what is comfortable for you to contribute.
RANDYE: My thanks to Jessica Durdock Moreno and Joseph Bischoff Wurtzel for guiding me through the galleries.
The exhibit Invitation to Engage: 60 Years of Long Wharf Theatre & Beyond runs through February 2026.
Check out what the Long Wharf Theatre has in store for its 61st season right here.
