Lortel, Lucille

Lucille Lortel (1900-1999) began her theatrical career as a performer, eventually turned producer, founded the White Barn Theatre in Westport, Connecticut, acquired the Theatre dy Lys in Greenwich Village, and became a seminal force in the Off-Broadway movement.

Born Lucille Wadler in New York City on December 16, 1900, Lucille Lortel studied acting at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York and with Arnold Korff in Europe. She had her first notable role in the Theatre Guild's production of Shaw's CAESAR AND CLEOPATRA with Helen Hayes in 1925. Among her motion pictures was the early talking film THE MAN WHO LAUGHED LAST (1929) opposite Sessue Hayakawa. Shortly after marrying wealthy industrialist Louis Schweitzer in 1931, Lortel retired from acting. In 1947, on the grounds of her Westport home, she established the White Barn Theatre, a summer theater which continues to operate. In 1955 Schweitzer purchased the Theatre de Lys for his wife, whose production of THE THREEPENNY OPERA ran there for almost seven years. In 1956 Lortel initiated the American National Theatre and Academy (ANTA) Matinee Series, which presented plays at her theater for twenty years. Lortel produced more than 500 shows on Broadway, Off-Broadway, at the Library of Congress, at her White Barn Theatre, and elsewhere. The Theatre de Lys was renamed the Lucille Lortel Theatre in 1981. Lucille Lortel died on April 4, 1999, at the age of 98.

Producer, theater owner, actress and benefactor, Lucille Lortel, was born Lucille Wadler in New York City on December 16, 1900. A graduate of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, she had her first notable role in the Theatre Guild's production of George Bernard Shaw's Caesar and Cleopatra, starring Helen Hayes in 1925. Shortly after marrying the wealthy industrialist Louis Schweitzer in 1931, she retired from performing.

In 1947, on the grounds of her home in Westport, Connecticut, she began the White Barn Theatre, a summer theater which continues to the present day. Here she introduced experimental, less-commercial works, including the American premieres of plays by writers such as Sean O'Casey, Edward Albee, Jean Genet, Eugene Ionesco, Samuel Beckett, Yukio Mishima, and Paul Zindel.

Her first Off-Broadway production was A Sleep of Prisoners by Christopher Fry at the St. James' Episcopal Church in New York City in 1951. In 1955, Miss Lortel's husband purchased the Theatre de Lys in Greenwich Village for her, where her revival of The Threepenny Opera by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht ran for almost 7 years. It was also at her Theatre de Lys, which was renamed the Lucille Lortel Theatre in 1981, that she initiated the ANTA (American National Theatre and Academy) Matinee Series in 1956. For 20 seasons, she presented works selected on the basis of innovation and originality. In 1998, Miss Lortel created the Playwrights' Sidewalk, a walk of fame for playwrights, outside the Lucille Lortel Theatre.

In a career spanning more than 50 years, Lucille Lortel produced more than 500 shows on Broadway, Off-Broadway, at the Library of Congress, at her White Barn Theatre and at other venues. Among the highlights of her productions are the Off-Broadway premiere of Athol Fugard's The Blood Knot, Sean O'Casey's Cock-a-Doodle Dandy, I Knock at the Door and Pictures in the Hallway, Jean Genet's The Balcony, Lee Blessing's A Walk in the Woods, Mbongeni Ngema's Woza Albert! and Sarafina!, Win Wells' Gertrude Stein and a Companion, Jane Anderson's The Baby Dance, and Larry Kramer's The Destiny of Me . A Walk in the Woods by Lee Blessing was her last Broadway production. Because of her belief in the play, Miss Lortel also produced it at the Library of Congress, co-produced it in London and took it to Moscow in 1989.

She received numerous awards, including 5 Tony nominations, an Emmy award, honorary doctorates from the University of Bridgeport, Fairfield University, and the CUNY (City University of New York) Graduate School, where the Lucille Lortel Distinguished Professorial Chair in Theatre was the first theatrical chair named for a woman. In 1986, the League of Off-Broadway Theatres and Producers established the annual Lucille Lortel Awards for Outstanding Achievement Off-Broadway.

Her donations to many institutions and organizations included the Lucille Lortel Fund for New Drama at Yale University; the first play to be sponsored by this fund was August Wilson's Fences, which later won the Pulitzer Prize. Miss Lortel also endowed a playwriting fellowship in her name at Brown University. The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts' TOFT (Theatre on Film and Tape) room is also named for her.

Lucille Lortel died at the age of 98 after a brief illness on April 4, 1999. For additional biographical material, see Lucille Lortel: A Bio-Bibliography by Sam McCready (Greenwood Press, 1993).