About
Welcome Letter from Chuck Still
Welcome to the Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center, or The Kate as we fondly know it. The Center is unique, in my experience, as it was born not of a singular artistic vision or a single philanthropist’s largesse, but instead of an entire town’s desire to reclaim some of their history and pay tribute to its most celebrated resident. Sure, there are lots of famous home museums that do this, but the Center is not some homage to the past. It is instead a living, breathing organism, touching lives, educating, entertaining and enlightening people all along Connecticut’s shore and up and down the river valley.
Or at least, we hope it will be all these things. As a young organization, we have yet to prove ourselves and really take this place in people’s lives. We are new born, fledgling, no longer a dream, but not yet a reality either.
Yet, if you are reading this, that reality has begun. You have found us and our relationship has commenced. Hopefully something found on these pages will entice you to visit us, to take this relationship beyond the digital handshake down the road of personal interaction to commitment. But that is up to you.
Yet, if you find yourself on that path, don’t be afraid. Though the Center is just now opening its doors, thousands of us have already worn the path you’re about to tread. Thousands of people made contributions; thousands more voted to spend hard-earned tax dollars and hundreds, if not thousands, of others worked tirelessly to make sure those contributions and tax dollars came to and were well-spent by the Center.
It is to these folks we dedicate this the inaugural season of the Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center. This is their dream, their vision, and you and I will reap the benefits of what they have wrought every time we cross the threshold, whether it’s to a concert, a lecture, a film, or a theatrical performance. Life is brighter around here these days and it is their tireless quest for something more that made it so.
And we must also, of course, dedicate this season to our namesake, the ever-luminous Katharine Hepburn. If we can catch just a sliver of her spirit, find just a bit of her fire, the Center will glow unrivalled along the shore. Her life flared so bright and glowed so long that it sets a strong standard, a high threshold, to which to aspire, but it is our name and thus our standard. We can not aspire to less.
And in the end, I hope you find in our calendar of events some of that fire for your own life. We’ve got a little bit of everything from opera to comedy from world premieres to timeless classics. You may not like it all, but I know you’re going to like some of it.
Our hand is out. Our door is open. The rest is up to you. Welcome to The Kate.
Chuck Still
Executive Director
KHCAC
300 Main Street
Old Saybrook, CT 06475
(860) 510-0473, ext. 202
chuck.still {at} katharinehepburntheater(.)org
About the Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center
The Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center is a non-profit performing arts organization located in an historic theatre/town hall on Main Street in Old Saybrook. Originally opened in 1911 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the Center has been renovated with public funds from the Town of Old Saybrook and donations raised by the Trustees of the Center. It includes a 250-seat theatre and a small museum (still under construction) honoring Katharine Hepburn, Old Saybrook’s most celebrated resident. As befits an organization born of such a public/private partnership, programming is eclectic, offering something for all ages and income levels on the Connecticut shore and in the lower river valley.
Be sure to visit the following pages for more information on the historic town hall and its rich history as a theatre, as well as for more information on this important project:
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