Early History of Musicals at Richter
History of the Theater, Musicals at Richter in the beginning
Good evening. I am Gregory Wencek, co-founder of Musicals at Richter. I want to welcome all of you to the gala. But before we begin a few reminders. The use of flash photography is hazardous to the actors and disturbing to others in the audience. Should nature call you may answer down the path behind the willow tree where you will find the Toile't-Mobile'. With words like those, just prior to darkness, we welcomed our patrons to the lawn. I have been asked to remember how Musicals got to be at Richter, that is to bore you with a brief history lesson. Musicals at Richter has been presenting theater in Danbury for a quarter of a century. It is the longest running theater in Danbury in recent memory, and the longest running outdoor theater in Connecticut. It now spans generations.
Richter Park is a natural performance space. The majesty of the stately willows, now all but gone, flanked the stage, forming a natural proscenium arch, and dropping thousands of leaves on the sets. The view inspired the artist, Janice Papayanni, to design the willow logo. An audience was captivated by the space, in spite of the misquotes. Since 1972 the Richter Association for the Arts had presented Gilbert and Sullivan, off and on, from a portable stage in the outdoor space in front of the cabana's foundation.
For the 6 years prior to Musicals at Richter there was Shakespeare in the Park. Preparation for the 1985 season, Twelfth Night, following the Scottish tragedy in 1984, was underway. The Artistic Director, Wendall MacNeal, asked me, as his Technical director, to join him on a fact finding trip to a new space at the westside campus of Western Connecticut State University. We drove up the dirt road and walked part of a mile into the woods past a pond into a small meadow. This, he said pointing to a small electrical wire sticking out of the ground, was to become the home of a new theater. We would build a replica of the Globe Theater in England and the people would come. He had ended the collaboration with the Richter Association for the Arts and in the next few months we would open in our new home. The Scottish tragedy, produced the year before was the last professionally produced Shakespeare production in a Danbury park.
What has become Musicals at Richter got started when Max Sinowitz, then ...Arts President, approached Bradford Blake with the proposition that he could fill the void created by the Shakespeare theater moving to Ives. Mr. Blake asked me if I would be interested in that project. And in spite of my commitment to be the technical director for the Country Players of Brookfield and being Technical Director for the Shakespeare Festival, I said yes. The productions would hardly overlap and this was an opportunity to start our own theater. There were so many of us who wanted this to succeed: Brad and I, Jacki Hanson Garver, Marion Wencek, Olga Paproski, Max and Sylva Sinowitz and so many more.
The obvious choice to attract a large audience, was a musical. The first proposal by Mr. Blake to Richter was presented on May 7, 1985 to produce The Sound of Music opening August 8 running Thursdays through Sundays closing Monday September 2. The budget was $20,420. We were rejected.
A second proposal for Little Mary Sunshine and Once Upon A Mattress to run from July through August was formally accepted on July 1, 1985. With a $3,000 loan, personally guaranteed by Brad and myself, we had begun. A small band of friends was joined by a region full of talent. Both shows were cast and a production team assembled. Expenses above the Richter Arts loan were paid by personal loans and generous local businesses. Our compensation was knowing it would be a job well done and a share in the profits. For the first two years Musicals at Richter was a professional theater which paid participants through profit sharing.
The summer of 1985 offered theater goers the musicals: Baby at Brookfield's playhouse, The Music Man and A Little Night Music at the Candelwood Playhouse and Grease in New Milford's Connecticut Stage at Harrybrook Park. Tickets to Musicals at Richter started at $8.50 with Students, Seniors and groups over 10 at $6.50. We followed the Shakespeare tradition of lawn, blanket seating, with the audience bringing a picnic dinner to the park at 6:30. Brookfield, Connecticut Stage and Candelwood offered full orchestras to accompany their shows, at Richter we carried an upright piano from the house out to the stage.
In case of the "R" word we ran the piano off the lawn. There was a choreography for rain, cast and crew were assigned to specific tasks: gather and carry costumes, props, the piano. Everyone was responsible for something and it had to get inside as fast as possible. Lightning storms posed the biggest threat. More than once the lawn was struck by lightning, owing to the filed in pool in the middle of the lawn and the more than 1 mile of copper cable stretched around the audience.
By contract there were to be no rehearsals at Richer Park until tech week. Sets and lights were also brought in and assembled on the week of the first performance. The production company was responsible for the general maintenance of the building and grounds for the summer. Actors and crew would come right after work, set up the costumes, props and carry the piano outside then get themselves ready for the performance. After the final curtain it was time to put away all of the props and costumes then vacuum and wash the floors, upstairs and down as well as take garbage off the lawn. Following a night cap on the 17th tee and munchies at the Brickyard it was off to dreamland before doing it all again the next day. At the end of the season all traces of the productions were to be removed from the park. We were to leave the lawn as if no one had been there all summer. (We planted grass seed the week after we moved out.)
Opening night saw 38 paid patrons on the lawn joined by many other friends, family and well wishers. Total paid audience that summer for 17 performances was 902. And during one of the two rain out nights the cast was able to get to Brookfield to see their production of Baby. There was a small profit to share and that success quieted the objections of some members of the Richter Arts board who said the American musical was not an art form and had no place at the Art Center as well as thought their money was going to be lost. The production company was able to produce a second season before becoming Musicals At Richter, Incorporated and the rest is history.
In 1988 I married the chorus girl and we remain 'happily ever after'. My plans to expand to an amphitheater performance space never gained traction with the Musicals board of directors. I left the production company in 1995 so I could spend more time with my growing family. It is wonderful to know that the foundation we laid has been standing for 25 years. That is no accident and it is not unexpected. Over the last 35 years Danbury has hosted almost a half dozen theaters, professional and community. But there is a special strength that has driven Musicals at Richter and will continue to drive it for many more years to come. I am proud to have been a small part in bringing theater to an audience. And I am more proud of those who have continued the journey.
Thank you for your time this evening. And now sit back and relax to enjoy the rest of the gala. We are: Musicals at Richter, and We've got the Stars.
