By James Lomuscio
WestportNow Special Correspondent
Seeing the Westport Country Playhouse transformed from a small summer theater into a year-round center four times its original size, one has to ask Joanne Woodward: “Any pangs of nostalgia for the funky old, albeit drafty barn that showcased stars of stage and screen for the past 75 years?”
Joanne Woodward (with associate artistic director Anne Keefe): No nostalgia for old theater (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com
“No,” the theater’s artistic director says emphatically. “I do think back on it fondly, but not when rain was falling down on your head as you were performing, or when the air conditioners weren’t working in the summer.”
There’s something else that salves those given to sentiment for the old place. The new theater, despite its expansion from 10,000 to 40,000 square feet, has maintained much of the old charm with roughhewn beams and timber trusses, recycled wood and the original fixtures.
The walls near the front lobby are also going to be decked with posters of plays performed throughout the years to keep the playhouse historically rooted.
Even the new stage carries pieces of the old one, Alison Harris, the playhouse’s CEO, pointed out. Sections of wood two-and-a-half square feet are strategically placed at the entrances and exits backstage.
“Joanne wanted all of the actors and actresses to step onto the old stage when they came out,” Harris said.
In short, the new theater designed by Princeton-based Farewell Mills Gatsch Architects seems as much historic preservation as expansion. 
New Playhouse: as much historic preservation as expansion. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com
“I think what the designers have accomplished is simply brilliant,” said Woodward who is scheduled to cut the ribbon for the new theater Monday at 9 a.m. in the company of Lt. Gov. Kevin Sullivan.
In an office on the theater’s second floor, Woodward and Anne Keefe, associate artistic director, reminisced about how they and a few others came up with the idea for the playhouse’s expansion back in 1999.
“A group of us got together in cramped quarters and talked about it, and then the idea just grew,” Woodward said, adding that the task originally seemed insurmountable.
But fundraising performances and galas later, not to mention last season’s temporary move to the Ridgefield Playhouse, the goal was met.
The playhouse has already reached $28 million of its $30.6 million goal for its expansion and operational costs. The renovation itself cost $18.7 million, Harris said.
The new playhouse boasts an expansive lobby, one Harris says could alone accommodate the old house’s audience. The theater has 580 seats, including the balcony. For theatergoers who need to step out in between the acts, there is a wraparound porch for inclement weather.
There are also expansive dressing rooms, a green room, plus a huge room resembling a lumber yard where a tech crew was already designing sets. Downstairs there are offices for 20 employees.
One thing Woodward admitted she would miss is the old playhouse’s center aisle, now replaced by two side aisles.
“But I’ll get over it,” she said, noting that six years of fundraising, plus 13 months of construction will prove worth it when the curtain for a special performance on Friday, June 3.
That night Westonite Christopher Plummer inaugurate the new theater with a one-man play he has written, “A Word or Two Before I Go.”
“I love this season, because after all, I picked it,” quipped Woodward, adding that the 75th season will officially open with “Finnian’s Rainbow” on June 16.
Compared to other years, however, this will be a seemingly endless season, she said, now that the playhouse is year-round.
“I haven’t caught my breath yet,” Woodward said. “And I won’t get a chance to until after ‘David Copperfield’ runs in December. After that I’m retiring.”
