Westport Country Playhouse Hosts Exhibit Featuring Westport Arts Award Winners, Now thru 10/27

To celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the Westport Arts Awards, Westport Country Playhouse is currently presenting a lobby exhibit featuring past Award winners who have been associated with the historic theater, now through October 27.

The exhibit includes photos, posters, programs, set models, videos, and memorabilia of Award recipients. Additional items are displayed throughout the lobby and mezzanine designated with a Westport Arts Awards' 20th Anniversary logo.

Westport Arts Award winners who have been connected in a myriad of ways to Westport Country Playhouse are Mason Adams, Howard Aibel, Millette Alexander, Maureen Anderman, Dorothy Bryce, Miggs Burroughs, Imogene Coca, Frank Converse, Hume Cronyn, Sandy Dennis, Peter DeVries, Stevan Dohanos, Donal Donnelly, Keir Dullea, Don Elliott, Dorothy Gish, Lillian Gish, Susan Granger, June Havoc, Fred Hellerman, Anne Keefe, Lawrence Langner, Armina Marshal Langner, Eva Le Gallienne, Lucille Lortel, Susan Malloy, Elliot Martin, James B. McKenzie, James Naughton, Paul Newman, Christopher Plummer, Max Shulman, Haila Stoddard, David Wayne, Westport Library, Max Wilk, David Wiltse, and JoAnne Woodward. In addition, Westport Country Playhouse itself was an Award recipient.

The exhibit coincides with the run of the madcap American comedy, "Room Service," about a producer and his ragtag bunch of cohorts who try to raise money for a Broadway show as they scramble to evade their hotel bill, written by John Murray and Allen Boretz, directed by Mark Lamos, October 8 - 27.

For more information or tickets, call the box office at (203) 227-4177, or toll-free at 1-888-927-7529, or visit Westport Country Playhouse, 25 Powers Court, off Route 1, Westport. Tickets are available online 24/7 at www.westportplayhouse.org, or by using the new Playhouse App or mobile website.

Westport Country Playhouse is a nationally recognized, not-for-profit, professional theater under the artistic direction of Mark Lamos and management leadership of Michael Ross. The Playhouse creates five live theater experiences, produced at the highest level, from April through October. Its vital mix of works---dramatic, comedic, occasionally exploratory and unusual---expands the audience's sense of what theater can be. The depth and scope of its productions display the foremost theatrical literature from the past---recent as well as distant---in addition to musicals and premieres of new plays. During the summer, The Playhouse is home to the Woodward Internship Program, renowned for the training of aspiring theater professionals. Winter at The Playhouse, from November through March, offers events outside of the main season---Family Festivities presentations and Script in Hand play readings. In addition, businesses and organizations are encouraged to rent the handsome facility for their meetings, receptions and fundraisers.

As an historic venue, Westport Country Playhouse has had many different lives leading up to the present. Originally built in 1835 as a tannery manufacturing hatters' leathers, it became a steam-powered cider mill in 1880, later to be abandoned in the 1920s. Splendidly transformed into a theater in 1931, it initially served as a try-out house for Broadway transfers, evolving into an established stop on the New England straw hat circuit of summer stock theaters through the end of the 20th century. Following a multi-million dollar renovation completed in 2005, The Playhouse became a state-of-the-art producing theater, preserving its original charm and character.

Today, the not-for-profit Westport Country Playhouse serves as a cultural resource for patrons, artists and students and is a treasure for the State of Connecticut. There are no boundaries to the creative thinking for future seasons or the kinds of audiences and excitement for theater that Westport Country Playhouse can build.

Westport Country Playhouse's upcoming 2014 season: Noël Coward's "A Song at Twilight," an exquisite battle of wits, exploring the nature of passion, the cruelty of love, and the price of hidden secrets, directed by Mark Lamos, April 29 - May 17, 2014, a co-production with Hartford Stage; the season's second production will be either a comedy or a world premiere musical event, to be announced at a later date, directed by Mark Lamos, playing June 10 - 28, 2014;"Nora," Ingmar Bergman's adaptation of Henrik Ibsen's "A Doll's House," a story of love, blackmail, and the little lies people tell, translated into the English language by Frederick J. Marker and Lisa-Lone Marker, directed by David Kennedy, Playhouse associate artistic director, July 15 - August 2, 2014; "Things We Do for Love," Alan Ayckbourn's wickedly funny play that questions just how sane anyone really is when it comes to love, August 19 - September 6, 2014; and "Intimate Apparel" by Pulitzer Prize winner Lynn Nottage, an intricate tapestry of the joys, sorrows, tragedy, and triumph of a gifted but lonely African-American seamstress in early 20th century Manhattan who's negotiating the choice between a love that is accepted and one that is true, October 7 - 25, 2014.

For more information or tickets, call the box office at (203) 227-4177, or toll-free at 1-888-927-7529, or visit Westport Country Playhouse, 25 Powers Court, off Route 1, Westport. Tickets are available online 24/7 at www.westportplayhouse.org. Stay connected to The Playhouse on Facebook (Westport Country Playhouse), follow on Twitter (@WCPlayhouse), view Playhouse videos on YouTube (WestportPlayhouse) or get an insider's peek on The Playhouse Blog (www.theplayhouseblog.org).

Pictured: Westport Arts Award winners James Naughton, Keir Dullea, and Anne Keefe view Westport Country Playhouse's lobby exhibit featuring Award recipients connected to The Playhouse. Photo by Dave Matlow.

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