The Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center Blog

News

If you are looking for the latest news and press releases concerning the Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center, you’ve come to the right place. We publish the latest news on this page as it happens. Click on the following links or documents in PDF format for our latest press releases.

In the News – Stories

The Kate to Host “Midsummer Magic Gala”

The Kate to Host “Midsummer Magic Gala” (509.2 KiB, 16 hits)

For Immediate Release: June 15, 2010
Contact: Duby McDowell 860-247-9100
Robyn Gengras 860-335-3913

(OLD SAYBROOK, CT) June 15, 2010: The Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center is pleased to open its doors on July 17, 2010 at 4pm for its Midsummer Magic Gala: “Twilight in the Forest.” Join Prudence Sloane, Mistress of Ceremonies, who will welcome partygoers to leisurely cocktails under gorgeous, star-festooned tents on the Town Green.

Guests will have the option of attending an early or late performance (4:30 pm or 9:15 pm) by Time Lapse Dance in the Kate’s charming theater (approximately 1 hour). An original artistic presentation that brings together the elements of experimental modern dance, Time Lapse Dance opens up the imagination through circus arts, fabric and light spectacles. Founded in 2000 by artistic director Jody Sperling, Time Lapse Dance has made its way around the globe, captivating audiences with each step across the stage.

Guests will also have the opportunity to participate in The Gala’s silent auction offering an extensive assortment of items, including: vacation getaways to Nantucket, Savannah and Morocco; dinner on a yacht, boat cruises, and of course, tickets to great performing arts such as Met Opera (live), John Mayer, Tony Bennett and more. A sampling of the auction items can be found at www.thekate.org.

The award-winning caterer A Thyme to Cook will provide delectable cuisine throughout the evening. Complete the night by dancing under the stars to the live music of Mass Conn Fusion.

Sponsors of “Twilight in the Forest” include: Gengras Motors, Hoffman Audi of East Hartford and New London, Connecticut Light & Power, MJP Financial Services, Saybrook Point Inn, The Arthur and Elizabeth Godbout Family Foundation, and All Waste Inc..

For more information please visit www.thekate.org or call 860-388-3286.

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The U.S. Postal Service To Release Katharine Hepburn Commemorative Stamp

The U.S. Postal Service To Release Katharine Hepburn Commemorative Stamp (535.2 KiB, 15 hits)

For Immediate Release: May 10, 2010
Contact: Duby McDowell 860-247-9100
Robyn Gengras 860-335-3913

(Old Saybrook, CT) May 10, 2010: The “Legends of Hollywood” stamp series is honoring Katharine Hepburn, one of America’s most fascinating and enduring film stars, with the issuance of a commemorative stamp. Her stamp will go on sale May 12, which marks her 103rd birthday. The Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center will be hosting the formal unveiling on Wednesday May 12, 2010 at 11:00 a.m. John E. Potter, Postmaster General and Chief Executive Officer, United States Postal Service, will be the dedicating official at the First-Day-of-Issue Ceremony.

The stamp honors Hepburn’s illustrious career—and perhaps even more, her independent personality that, in the words of her niece Katharine Houghton, “provided hope and inspiration and courage for a whole new generation of women.” The stamp portrait is a publicity still from the film Woman of the Year (MGM, 1942). The photographer was Clarence S. Bull. The selvage image shows Hepburn as she appeared in the play West Side Waltz.

The stamp is “a wonderful way to recognize the incredible achievements of Hepburn,” said Executive Director of The Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center, Chuck Still. “We are thrilled to be hosting the issuing of such a tremendous honor.” Attendees at the ceremony include Sam Waterston, actor and spokesperson who starred with Hepburn in the TV adaptation of Tennessee Williams’ “The Glass Menagerie” (1973). Anthony Harvey, filmmaker and director of Hepburn in her third Academy Award winning role for “The Lion in Winter” (1968) will also be in attendance. Hepburn received 12 Academy Award nominations for Best Actress and won four Oscars.

Ms. Hepburn spent summers at her family beach house in the Fenwick section of Old Saybrook, Connecticut, and later in her life made it her permanent home. The Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center is the only arts facility in the country named for Ms. Hepburn. Her name graces the circa-1911 building which has National Historic Landmark status. The theatre is an intimate venue for comedy, cabaret, jazz, lectures, film, music and dance.

For more information please visit www.thekate.org or call 860-510-0473.

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The Hartford Courant
October 19, 2009
‘The Kate’ Arts Center Opens, Amid Glamour, Cocktails, Dance
By AMY ELLIS

WTNH anchor Ann Nyberg and daughter Sarah help unveil the Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center at an opening-night gala Saturday night in Old Saybrook. Nyberg is a board member. (Amy Ellis, The Hartford Courant, October 19, 2009)

More than 420 guests celebrated in style — fit for Hollywood royalty, of course — at an opening-night gala at the Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center (nicknamed The Kate) Saturday night in Old Saybrook.

“So many people worked so hard, so many volunteers,” said Ann Nyberg, WTNH, Channel 8, anchor and board member, who attended with her lovely daughter, Sarah. “I’m thrilled that The Kate has taken off, and I think Katharine Hepburn would be proud.”

The center’s unveiling included a cocktail hour, silent auction, a sit-down dinner and a performance by Momix, the Connecticut-based company of dancer-illusionists under the direction of founder Moses Pendlelton.

Guests also enjoyed the “Kate-Tini,” created by mixologist Alex Ott, in honor of the Hartford native and Oscar-winning actress.

“She loved the color red, and she loved champagne,” Alex Rennie, who works for Svedka Vodka, said of the night’s signature cocktail. (The cocktail includes, among other ingredients, champagne, vodka and crème de cassis.)

Partygoers included Lafayette Keeney, retired CEO of Sage-Allen; Old Saybrook residents Doug Prevost of Liberty Bank and his wife, Margie Prevost; Frieda Gorra, auction chairwoman; Superior Court judge Kevin Dubay and his wife, Duby McDowell, president of Duby McDowell Communications; The Kate’s executive director Chuck Still; and event co-chairwomen Jean Caron, Jeanne Potoff and Kathy Berluti.

The Kate started out as a theater in the early 1900s, and McDowell recalled when it was the Old Saybrook Town Hall, where she and Dubay applied for their marriage license 15 years ago.

“We have a photo of us standing in front of town hall,” said McDowell. “As someone who has spent all her summers in Old Saybrook, it is so much fun to now drive by the town hall and see what it has become and what it’s going to add to the community and to the state.”

The New York Times
October 4, 2009
ARTS CONNECTICUT
A Theater Years in the Making, Inspired by Hepburn
By ELIZABETH MAKER
OLD SAYBROOK

It’s not as if they were serving cocktails and caviar — just lemonade — as some 1,500 people came on Sept. 6 to view the new Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center. The opening drew visitors from New York, Massachusetts and all over Connecticut to the elegantly restored building, which dates to 1911, when it was home to the Old Saybrook Musical and Dramatic Club.

Ann Nyberg, an anchor on Channel 8 and the vice president of the center’s board of trustees, hustled in and delivered 30 gallons of lemonade she had just bought to replenish the 30 gallons that had been consumed in the first half-hour. “I’ll do anything for the Kate,” Ms. Nyberg said. “I’ll buy lemonade, I’ll sweep the floors, I’ll even do the toilets.”

The $5.7 million project involved renovating the 12,753-square-foot building, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, while preserving features like the original crown moldings and sky-blue coffered ceilings, the 12-foot-tall Palladian windows and the original ticket booth.

A new ticket sales area, a lobby and a second-floor outdoor balcony were added, along with 250 theater seats, some of which are movable to accommodate tables for cabaret dinners. The seats are red, chosen because it was the favorite color of Ms. Hepburn, who lived in the Fenwick section of Old Saybrook for most of her 96 years, until her death in 2003.

“We’ve been working on this project for seven years,” said Elaine Staplins, a trustee of the center, “and to see it become reality, it gives me goose pimples.”

A few things are yet to be done, Ms. Staplins said, like establishing a small museum in the theater dedicated to Ms. Hepburn and doing some landscaping, including planting 6,000 tulips and daffodils that will bloom next spring.

A wide variety of entertainment is planned for the “Kate,” including plays, concerts, movies, comedy acts, operas and readings by famous writers.

“We’re keeping ticket prices low, so we can be accessible to everybody,” Ms. Nyberg said, adding that prices will typically range from $10 to $60, with some performances free.

Next Saturday, a documentary will be shown about the making of the theater, called “The Kate: Old Saybrook’s Crown Jewel.” On Oct. 16, several restaurants will offer a “taste of Old Saybrook” to benefit the theater, serving their cuisine under a tent on the green, and a ’70s dance inside the theater will follow. And on Oct. 17, the center will hold a gala featuring the dance troupe Momix.

“What’s truly amazing is how generous people have been with their financial gifts, especially in this difficult economy,” said Edie Gengras, the leader of fund-raising for the project. “I’ve never seen anything like it, this outpouring of support.”

Frank Sciame, a New York developer who bought Ms. Hepburn’s mansion on the Long Island Sound for $6 million in 2004, was a major contributor to the board’s campaign to raise $1.7 million in private donations. (The rest was covered by state grants and a local bond issue, which Old Saybrook residents approved in a referendum.)

At a theater fund-raiser at the former Hepburn estate, Mr. Sciame gave guests a look at the sprawling rooms and explained how he had elevated the structure five feet to protect it from flooding. “We may own it now,” he said, “but it’s really always going to be known as the Katharine Hepburn estate, and that’s great with us.”

Ms. Hepburn, who won a record four Oscars for best actress, was a lot more private than other movie stars of her era. Among the few who knew her well was Spencer Tracy, with whom she had a long-term romance. Susie Tracy, his daughter, has been a supporter of the theater from the
start, advising trustees and donating money.

“Katharine Hepburn was a dear friend of mine,” Ms. Tracy said from her office in Los Angeles, “and I know she’d be thrilled to have her name on the marquee again.” For Chuck Still, the theater’s executive director, the thrill has just begun. Moving among the masses at the open house, he belted out a lyric from a song by the Allman Brothers Band: “I’ve been tied to the whipping post.” Later, he reclined in one of the theater chairs and said: “How do I feel? I feel exuberant. It’s like this lemonade is spiked with something.”

The Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center is at 300 Main Street, Old Saybrook; (860) 510-0473. A calendar of events can be found at katharinehepburntheater.org. Tickets can be purchased online or at (877) 503-1286.

Chuck Still, Executive Director of the Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center and Congressman Joe Courtney (2nd district of Connecticut). Mr. Still gave Mr. Courtney a tour of the theater this week and he was thrilled to see it!! (Photo courtesy of Bob Czepiel)

Chuck Still accepts a $15,000 donation from Peggy Viggiano, Occupational Nurse, and Nancy Bulkeley, Community Affairs Representative, of the Dominion Resources Millstone Power Station. Dominion’s Millstone Power Station donated $15,000 to the Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center for the naming of all the chandeliers in the theater. (Photo courtesy of Bob Czepiel)

‘Kate’s Place’ No finer tribute to Old Saybrook’s most famous resident

Sunday, February 1, 2009 6:40 AM EST
By Jean Cherni

Sen. Andrea Stillman (D-Waterford) 20th District and Chuck Still, the Executive Director of The Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center in Old Saybrook, Connecticut

Is there any reader unfamiliar with the name, Katharine Hepburn? An icon, even by Hollywood’s flamboyant standards, Miss Hepburn earned nine Oscar nominations, a record four Oscars, and the Screen Actors Guild Lifetime Achievement Award.

As accomplished on the stage as she was on the screen, Kate starred in theatrical productions as diverse as, “The Philadelphia Story” (later made into a movie, as well), “The Madwoman of Chaillot,” and “Coco,” based on the life of Coco Chanel.

Movies featuring the perfectly pitched pairing of Hepburn with Spencer Tracy like “Adams Rib” and “The Desk Set” are still favorites on late-night movie channels. And I still get teary-eyed anytime I re-watch her poignant performances in “Summertime” and “The Rainmaker.”

Katharine Hepburn brought, and continues to bring, so much pleasure as well as insight into the human character, it is altogether fitting that Connecticut, where she was born (Hartford, 1907), and the town of Old Saybrook in which she lived, now creates a theater and cultural arts center in her memory.

When visiting what is now the shell of the old Town Hall in Old Saybrook, but is the construction site and soon-to-be Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center and Theatre, I was indeed fortunate to have as my informative guides, Chuck Sills, the executive director, and the charming Robin Grengas, a press representative for the Center.

Sills, who still retains his soft Tennessee drawl, oversaw a $20 million renovation of the Riverside Theatre in Florida and is well versed at helping others look at empty spaces and envision a beautiful, finished building.

Grengas, who was formerly a producer on “60 Minutes” news program, is a personable and enthusiastic promoter of “Kate’s Place,” the affectionate nickname for the Cultural Arts Center and Theatre.

The building, itself, has a fascinating history. In 1906, Joseph Cone, an author and printer, convinced citizens of Old Saybrook to purchase land and build a permanent home for the Musical and Dramatic Club.

The striking Colonial Revival building that resulted, was used for the club for many years and hosted performances of such theater luminaries as Ethel Barrymore, Norma Terris, Irene Rich and Henry Hull. Eventually, the building was converted to town offices.

Now a century after Cone’s idea, his vision is reborn and a small, jewel-box theater and cultural center will honor Old Saybrook’s most famous resident. Dr. Thomas Hepburn arrived in Old Saybrook on Memorial Day of 1911, the same summer that the first highway bridge that connected Old Saybrook and Old Lyme, opened. According to Kate’s niece, Katharine Houghton, “When Kate was 5½ years old, her family purchased a cottage at Fenwick. From that very first summer to the very last day of her life, Fenwick was her “home,” a refuge, a paradise.”

Sills, who has managed theaters in Lowell and Stockbridge, Mass., explains that the 220-seat arts center will offer a range of artistic programs including films, dance, lectures and small plays.

Funding for the project has come from the state and the town, and a capital campaign has raised additional funds as well.

Bob Czepiel, a former Wall Street executive now filmmaker, and his wife, Anne, recently donated $100,000 to “The Kate.” The Czepiels say their gift is a challenge donation; they hope to encourage others to donate to an institution they believe will culturally change the lower Connecticut River Valley region.

However, $300,000 is still needed in order to meet the planned opening this summer. There are opportunities for those wishing to name or purchase a specific item, such as one of the velvet theater seats.

- Checks in all amounts are welcome and should be made payable to KHCAC-Town of Old Saybrook and mailed to Old Saybrook Town Hall, 302 Main St., Old Saybrook, 06475. For more information, go to www.katharinehepburntheater.org.

Contact Jean Cherni, founder of the retirement advisory service, Senior Living Solutions, at jeancherni {at} sbcglobal(.)net or 15 The Ponds at Hotchkiss Grove, Branford 06405.
URL: http://www.nhregister.com/articles/2009/02/01/life/doc498589ff34fcf202014471.prt

Construction Proceeding, Hepburn Center Plans For Opening Day

By ALAINE GRIFFIN

The Hartford Courant
December 7, 2008
OLD SAYBROOK —

As construction workers last week hoisted white columns onto the terrace above the future entrance to the Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center, Chuck Still, the center’s executive director, pointed to a nondescript opening in the building.

“The box office window is cut,” Still said.

From that window, Still envisions the sale of tickets to musicals, operas, comedy shows, symphonies — an endless list of performances he said he’s planning for the much-anticipated theater.

“Things have really picked up,” Still said of renovations at the historic 1911 theater that will memorialize Hepburn, a four-time Academy Award winning actress who lived in the town’s Fenwick borough until she died in 2003 at age 96. He said he hopes the building gets a certificate of occupancy by the end of February.

That’s good news to those waiting for the doors of the 250-seat theater to open. Hepburn fans from around the world have visited the theater’s website, katharinehepburntheater.org. Still said that since May, 16,766 of the website’s visitors were from 108 countries and territories.

Closer to home, artists, musicians, writers, actors and comedians from throughout New England and the New York area have contacted Still about performing at the theater.

For years, the Salt Marsh Opera company, which serves southeastern Connecticut and southern Rhode Island, has held its performances at the George Kent Performance Hall in Westerly, R.I., but has looked recently for a venue in Connecticut. So when the company heard about the Hepburn theater, Simon Holt, the artistic director, contacted Still. An opera is planned for October, Holt said last week.

“There are relatively few small concert venues like this,” Holt said. “It would be an ideal space for us.”

Still said he is also in discussions with area symphony orchestras, the Metropolitan Opera in New York and authors in New Hampshire about a possible lecture series.

“A lot of people are very excited about performing here,” Still said. “The hard part here is not knowing when exactly to put the schedule in place.”

There’s still a lot of work to do on the center, Still said. And fundraising for the $4.3 million project is not finished, he said.

In 2005, Old Saybrook residents approved spending $2.6 million to renovate the building — known as the Old Town Hall, where Ethel Barrymore once performed — into a theater, but two rounds of bids for the job came in higher than expected and the project was postponed. In March 2007, voters approved a $2.98 million bond. The rest of the money would come from grants and donations.

Since construction began later that year, crews have faced setbacks, including a delay in replacing a mason who abruptly left the job, changes in ground-floor plans and the discovery that the old building lacked important footings needed for the foundation.

Some residents began to question the project when a proposal to spend $215,000 from the budget surplus to fund unexpected structural costs, install sound and lighting infrastructure, and build support footings under the building was supposed to go to a vote at a town meeting last September.

An aggressive petition drive by a group of residents yielded twice the number of signatures needed to bring the proposal to a referendum. After a contentious town meeting where opponents and supporters of the center spoke, the spending proposal was later rejected.

“It kind of set us back because we knew we would have to raise more money,” Still said.

The criticism stirred supporters, including Russ Lallier, owner of All Waste Inc., a local trash and recycling company. He said he was surprised residents voted against spending the $215,000. So he wrote his own check to the center for $20,000.

“It seemed kind of silly not to spend the $200,000 considering how much money has already been put in the place,” Lallier said. Dominion Nuclear Connecticut Inc., which owns the Millstone Power Station in Waterford, also recently wrote a check for $15,000 for nine chandeliers, Still said.

To date, more than $1.3 million of the $1.7 million goal has been raised by the center’s board of directors. Still said he’s hoping that number will climb once people learn more about the theater. The center’s website now includes weekly updates on construction at the site, and Still said a dance planned for inside the theater before the seats are installed will give people an up-close look at its progress.

“We’d like to open this place up so people realize all that’s happening here,” Still said.