 
Lighting designer Jeff Whitsett, right, in a pre-production meeting with Patrick Lynch, center, set designer, and Melody Libonati, right, artistic director of Summer Theatre of New Canaan. In the foreground is a model for the upcoming production of Shakespeare”™s “Taming of the Shrew.”
“”¦ By the Lord, lads, I am glad you have the money. Hostess, clap ”¦”
”” Falstaff, “King Henry IV, Part I”
When Melody and Ed Libonati sat down last year to compose the Summer Theatre of New Canaan”™s 2009 schedule, accolades for the company”™s “The Music Man” still music in their ears, the reverberations on Wall Street had yet to dim the lights of the Fairfield County economy.
Against that backdrop, the Bard will be put to the test once more.
The Summer Theatre of New Canaan opens with the Shakespeare comedy “The Taming of the Shrew” June 16 at Waveny Park, and the cast and crew will not be the only ones interested in the size of the audience.
Restaurateurs and merchants are also counting on spillover business from the company”™s summer season, after a recession that has claimed retail casualties throughout the county ”“ not to mention performance venues, with the Connecticut Opera closing in February and Stamford”™s Rich Forum seeking bankruptcy protection from creditors last September.
That happens to be the venue where Summer Theatre of New Canaan staged “The Music Man” last summer. With Rich Forum now being readied as a studio for “The Jerry Springer Show” and other NBC Universal talk shows, the Summer Theatre of New Canaan plans to run an entire season under the tent in Waveny Park for the first time.
Ironically, that could provide a boost for New Canaan”™s village district ”“ if the company fills the house, so to speak. Heading into this season, the Summer Theatre of New Canaan has cut ticket prices between 10 percent and 15 percent, and is reaching out to New Canaan restaurants to offer menu discounts for patrons bearing a performance ticket stub.
“We are just now starting to cross-market,” Ed Libonati said. “The climate is much more conducive to doing that than before.”
The Westport Country Playhouse is also reaching out to businesses, according to the theater”™s new Managing Director Michael Ross, allowing the Locals for Locals merchant group to use the playhouse for meetings.
Through late-May, fewer than 4.2 million people had passed through Broadway turnstiles in 2009, according to the Broadway League, a 15 percent decline from the same stretch in 2008.
Michael Ross, Westport Country Playhouse
In a January poll of more than 200 Theatre Communications Group members nationally, nearly four in five managers indicated they were re-projecting their expenses for this year, particularly at larger theaters with at least $5 million in annual expenses; and six in 10 said they do not expect to break even this year.
Overwhelmingly, theater managers expected to take the biggest hit from corporate contributors, with 73 percent of respondents predicting a decline in corporate giving compared with an expected 56 percent decline in overall ticket sales.
“Around the World in 80 Days” just wrapped up a three-week run at Westport County Playhouse, and Ross said he is hopeful for the summer season based on ticket sales for the just-completed production. Next up is the comedic family drama “Children” which opens this week, and for which advance ticket sales have been solid according to Ross.
“Opening night ”“ we”™ll know,” Ross said. “I”™m pleasantly optimistic.”
The companies have vastly different profiles.
Launched in 1931, the Westport Country Playhouse is a fixture of regional theater, sharing the Connecticut limelight with the Yale Repertory Theater and Long Wharf Theater in New Haven, the Hartford Stage and Goodspeed Opera House on the Connecticut River in East Haddam.
The Libonatis established the Summer Theatre of New Canaan as a formal nonprofit in 2004, however, making every ticket sale crucial for the fledgling company that has yet to build up the resources of stalwarts like the Westport Country Playhouse.
The Summer of Theatre of New Canaan is also offering a multiple “pay what you can” performances of “The Taming of the Shrew” and “Camelot” this summer ”“ in part to expand its audience, but also intended as a “thank you” to the county and state that have supported the startup company”™s development.
Coupled with other arts institutions like the Silvermine Guild Arts Center and the Philip Johnson Glass House campus, the Summer Theatre of New Canaan could give the town a boost in its efforts to boost its share of the regional tourism dollar, in Libonati”™s eyes.
Libonati is looking forward to the 2009 season in the open air ”“ but like everyone else, is looking for the clouds to clear.
“I”™m not sure if what we want is a building ”“ but what we want is a home,” Libonati said. “New Canaan has the opportunity to be a cultural icon and we want to be part of that.”
