BY DIRK PERREFORT
Hearst Connecticut Media
Officials with the Ridgefield Theater Barn are about to embark upon a major renovation and expansion program as the organization transforms into a professionally operated theater.
While the organization has been operated by all volunteers for decades, Wayne Leiss, the longtime president of the organization’s board of directors, announced recently that he’s been appointed as the theater’s executive director ”“ its first paid position.
“We’ve grown so much in recent years that we had to make a decision,” Leiss said. “We had to either scale back our productions, which nobody wanted to do, or move forward where we get someone who can manage the place full time. We need to take the burden from some of the volunteers who are so very dedicated to the theater and have given so much of themselves.”
Leiss noted that the theater, which runs all its own productions, has performances at least 30 weekends a year.
“That’s a lot for an all-volunteer organization,” he said. “It’s gotten to the point where we are stepping all over each other trying to get things done.”
Leiss said he received the plans from an architect this week for an addition that will provide as much as 30 percent more space for the theater.
“Right now, we have no workshop, so sets have to be built on the stage,” he said. “That’s means we can’t start working on the next production until we take down the previous one.”
The addition will include a workshop space, he said, as well as a second performance room on the barn’s second floor. It will also include additional classroom space and a costume room for performers.
“By building sets in our own workshop, we can turn the performances around a lot faster and offer more productions,” he said. “We’re also hoping to increase our programming for children.”
Leiss was honored for his work over the past decade during the Cultural Alliance of Western Connecticut’s annual Business Supports the Arts breakfast at the Matrix Corporate Center.
“For the arts to grow and flourish in the region requires the kind of passion and dedication that Leiss embodies,” said Lisa Scails, the executive director of the alliance. “When you have someone at a the helm like Leiss, it really makes all the difference.”
Volunteers with the theater barn noted that during the most recent renovations in 2007, Leiss raised nearly half of the $400,000 that was needed for the improvements.
According to a statement released recently by Paulette Layton, the theater’s publicity director, “One of the most generous benefactors confessed that, if not for Wayne’s enthusiastic energy, their contribution would likely have been only 10 percent of what they ended up donating.”
Hearst Connecticut Media includes four daily newspapers: Connecticut Post, Greenwich Time, The Advocate (Stamford) and The News Times (Danbury). See newstimes.com for more from this reporter.
