Early in the nineteen eighties, Keir Dullea and his wife, the late Susie Fuller, left Los Angeles to return to the East Coast where Keir had grown up. They settled in Westport, a town Keir knew from his childhood visits to his uncle...

okay, okay, take a few minutes to look at the pictures, then we'll continue the story ;^)

In L.A., Keir and Susie had been active in a theatre workshop, founded by displaced New York stage actors, called Theatre East. It was a safe place, a theatrical gymnasium, where they could hone their craft, stretch creative muscles, experiment, develop new plays, work with and get feedback from fellow actors, writers and directors away from the harsh glare of the public spotlight. There was no such place to be found back East. It was the one feature of West Coast living that Keir and Susie missed the most. So they decided to enlist the theatre professionals living in Fairfield County and create an East Coast version... as close to home as possible.

On Monday, February 14th, Valentine's Day, 1983, the first meeting of the Theatre Artists Workshop of Westport, Inc. was held at On Stage (now the Pymander Bookshop) 361 Post Road West, Westport.

For the next several months we were gypsies, rehearsing in living rooms and holding our Monday night meetings in such varied locales as Lucille Lortel's White Barn

and the Saugatuck Congregational Church.

After a long summer hiatus we moved into the unoccupied Greens Farms Elementary School in November, 1983.

...All the while, in dozens of long and often intense meetings, the Founding Board was drawing up the By-Laws and Guidelines which, with appropriate modifications, still govern the way we function today. The most important paragraph of the By-Laws is the second:

ARTICLE II. PURPOSES
"The purposes of the Corporation shall be: to advance and promote excellence in the theatrical profession through private workshop performance and peer evaluation; to provide structured opportunity for individual experimentation in the theatre arts, including acting, directing and writing; to stimulate the development of unique theatrical material that may warrant future production; and in general to act as a creative influence in the community."

By and large we have lived up to that lofty mission statement remarkably well. Workshop performance and constructive critique have improved our skills. Members have gotten jobs for which they would never have been cast before they started stretching themselves in the Workshop. Plays have been developed that have gone on to Broadway, Off-Broadway, Regional and even International production. Our readings of classic plays and stories are experiencing ever increasing demand at local libraries and cultural institutions. Over five weeks in September and October of 2001 we read James Joyce's "Dubliners" stories with Yale Associate Dean Mark Schenker for the Westport Arts Center.

Speaking of the Westport Arts Center, that's what the Greens Farms School became those many years ago. It was home to us and dozens of painters, sculptors, writers and photographers until November, 1997, when the town reclaimed the building and turned it back into a school.

After months of searching, we found a new home in the Old Well #108 Masonic Lodge at 5 Gregory Blvd., East Norwalk.

It's a nicely portioned, intimate space with a floor-level stage and raised seating for eighty people that really enhances the workshop experience. The north wall is entirely taken up by our extensive and ever-expanding theatre library. These facilities are available 24/7 to all our members for rehearsals, meetings, classes, private performances, etc., on a first-come-first-served basis.

Over the years our membership has fluctuated between 100 and 150 full members and apprentices. Some of these past and present members have names that you might recognize, such as Joyce Aaron, Anne Baxter, Theodore Bikel, Phoebe Brand, Morton DaCosta, Sandy Dennis, Mia Dillon, Keir Dullea, Christopher Durang, Kevin Gray, Shirley Knight, Ring Lardner, Jr., James Noble, Jane Powell, Lee Richardson, Laura San Giacomo, and Brett Somers. At any given moment a healthy percentage of us are working on stage, screen or television, on documentaries, industrials, commercials, cabaret acts and one-person shows. Many of the self-initiated projects begun in the Workshop would never have happened or even been thought of if the Workshop hadn't been there to provide the space and the peer support to help the new work through its first tentative steps.

TAW is a dues-paying organization, and membership in the Workshop is open to professional actors, writers and directors. Admission is by audition, script submission or by a substantial body of recognized professional work. If you'd like to know more about how to join our group, click on this ADMISSIONS link.