Summer Theatre of New Canaan’s ‘Beauty and the Beast’ Opens July 15 [Q&A]

The Summer Theatre of New Canaan’s 2023 season—marking the nonprofit organization’s 20th anniversary—is set to kick off next month with “Beauty and the Beast.” Shows will run July 15 to 30, at 7 p.m. Fridays through Sundays, with additional 2 p.m. matinees on Saturdays and Sundays.

On Monday, we talked to Ed Libonati, Summer Theatre’s executive producer, about the upcoming season and other offerings from the organization. 

Here’s a transcription of our interview:

New Canaanite: Ed, you guys have been here for so long that this may sound a little silly, but we do have new readers who are new to town. So briefly, before we get into what’s coming this season, could you give us some background on Summer Theatre? 

Ed Libonati: Sure. Well, Summer Theatre is now celebrating our 20th anniversary. We started in 2004. Some of the town leaders and professionals in education, politics, business and cultural arts got together and said, ‘Does this town want a professional theatre company in the summer when we could be free to put on shows? Because everybody was pretty much at that time working pretty steady. And we got together, we said, ‘Well, let’s try it our first year.’ So we put together a Board of Directors, a 501c(3) and did the show ‘Cinderella.’ The Rodgers and Hammerstein. And we put it on at Saxe Middle School. We basically sold out the entire run. We had literally thousands of people come, from children, five- and six-year-olds coming in with their princess dresses, seniors coming and adults and family and date nights. It was quite a remarkable response to the production. We brought in professional actors, but we also brought a lot of people in from the community that were professionals, or had been professionals at one time. That was our first show. We then went on and produced a few more in Saxe and at the high school. And then the high school and Saxe had to be renovated. So we never got back to the high school until 15 years later, about now. Prior to that, when we left the high school, we went and started doing Shakespeare at the same time. We were doing Shakespeare in Waveny Park in the restored garden. All well attended, very successful. Financially, it basically covered itself. We never made any money, but we didn’t lose too much either. So that’s considered a major success in a nonprofit theatre company. Then we expanded to Irwin Park where we did a few years there. Did ‘Romeo and Juliet,’ ‘Twelfth Night’ and a few other shows, and we then realized, we could not be at the high school any longer, or indoors. So we ended up using the tent that we’d gotten from the community. We raised it from the New Canaan Community Foundation, which was very supportive, and some donor advised funds were guided to it, and we created a custom, large tent that we could put our shows in. We put a 50-foot-by-40-foot stage in it, along with 250 people. So that seemed to work. We moved our musical into the tent, as well. And we’ve been there for 15 years. And then, just this year now, after leaving Waveny, we’re at the high school. So that’s kind of it in a nutshell.

‘Beauty and the Beast’ is such an iconic classic of theater. I take it that it’s no coincidence that you are taking on that show in this 20th anniversary year. Tell me about the production and tell me about your decision take on ‘Beauty in the Beast.’ 

‘Beauty and the Beast’ is iconic. ‘Tale as old as time,’ is basically what you hear mentioned the most. It was first a Disney movie, and then it became a Disney musical, and then a couple more iterations of it have become musicals. But when they put this on Broadway, it ran for 13 years, I believe. And it was the most successful show Disney had ever done. It actually was one of the first shows they’d ever done on Broadway. It proved to be such an outstanding success, and this show has toured all over the world now nonstop for the last 20 years. So it’s a very well known and exciting show. It’s a massive show. It’s a spectacular show. It’s an incredible show. It’s a show we could not do in our tent. And we decided to move into the high school this year and possibly for future years—we’ll see how well it goes this year. But we hope to be there for years to come until we eventually build a performing arts center. But that’s another story. This show was truly a family show that everyone can enjoy, all generations. A multi-generational show and we chose that because we felt at this time everybody needs a fun, exciting opportunity to go to a show, see a fabulous show that is known by others. It’s appreciated all these years and it requires a massive effort to put it on. So we were able to circle our wagons and raise the funds and put on this mega musical, essentially.

It’s interesting that you say you couldn’t do the show in the tent. So, just to be clear for our readers, you had a production for many years that was outdoors in different parts of Waveny, and you had trailers set up around it, and the shows were spectacular. I’ve been to many of them. Yet for you, it’s not the same as having a traditional theater. A permanent theatre. So for people who have gone to Summer Theatre shows in the past, what can they expect in terms of the production value coming into New Canaan High School this year?

That’s a great question. Working, presenting a professional show in an outdoor environment, in a tent, can be magical and spectacular on a beautiful summer afternoon or a summer night. You can’t beat it. That’s just a joy. That’s what summer theater is all about. However, on a humid or a weather-threatening day or rainy day, it can be a little more challenging to enjoy the show as much. And we found over the last few years, the summers have been getting a little tougher. moving indoors is much less challenging as far as putting on a professional performance, or any performance for that matter. When you’re outdoors with a tent, what’s happening is you’re taking 150 professionals camping. We carry everything in and we carry everything out. Indoors, in a theater, most of your resources are already there and you’re supplementing them. So in the high school, to do this show, ‘Beauty the Beast,’ we have to adapt it. We have to adapt the sound system, we have to adapt the lighting. We’re putting in an entire new floor on the stage so we can utilize our set. The set has a castle that’s 20 feet high by 35 feet long, and it drives up and down the stage and rotates 360 degrees. We could never do something like that on a stage in a tent. So it opens us up to do a lot more. We’ll be flying actors. There’s all sorts of special effects and magic. The high school staff and senior administration have been very, very accommodating of a community organization like us, because when we come in, we kind of take over a place. We’re not in there for one day, two days. We’re in there for a month. So it’s quite a significant investment of time for us and use of the school’s resources. So I’m so excited that we have a very positive relationship with the New Canaan school system. 

Finally, Ed, in addition to your main show of ‘Beauty and the Beast,’ are there any other programs that you’d like to talk about that you’re offering?

The Summer Theatre does shows, but it also has very robust educational programs. We do our DramaRamas program, which is offered free to children with special needs, where they put on a show, and we’ll have one-on-one mentoring with the children, with the professional actors or our college interns. That’s been recognized by the Connecticut Critics Circle for its excellence. We do a junior company, which is middle school students, and they’re going to be doing ‘Beauty and the Beast’ junior, just as DramaRamas will be doing. And they’ll be doing one performance at the high school on July 28. They’ll rehearse for three weeks. And they’ll get to meet all the professional actors who are doing their roles. They’ll get to watch the show, et cetera, see how it’s done. But also they’ll get to rehearse with all of our professional actors who teach them, coach them, choreograph, direct. And then they’ll put on their performance for their family, friends, and for the community. And this is a junior version, which is an hour-long version. So this is very young, family-friendly and we’re recommending it to families with young children who might not be able to sit through a two-hour musical. This is perfect for them. We also have our college internship program, 26 college interns that we pay. It’s acting, theatre management, design costumes, technologies, directing and education. For the public, it’s really the junior company and the DramaRamas show, which is on July 16 at 11 a.m. It’s really one of the more joyous programs that we have, working with these children, eight to 18 who have various special needs. And it’s proven to be a very exciting program. We have a lot of returning students that come back and we try and encourage new students every year. Also, in the fall and the spring, we are bringing back our Theatre For Young Audience, touring to elementary schools across Connecticut. We’re very excited about that.