Abbey of Regina Laudis: Theater

At the Abbey of Regina Laudis • 249 Flanders Road • Bethlehem, CT 06751 | Directions

STAY TUNED FOR NEWS OF THE ABBEY THEATER
theater entrance

Since the 1970s, enthusiastic audiences have enjoyed the musicals and plays performed at the Abbey's The Gary-The Olivia Theater. In 2018, the directors of the resident theater company relocated to the West Coast. Through the inspiration, generosity, and hard work of Sister Grace Edna Rowland, C.S.J., director of the Clare Rose Playhouse at St. Josephs' College in Patchogue, NY, we were able to host a production of the acclaimed musical GODSPELL in September, 2019.

Shortly after those sold-out performances, however, the Abbey was forced to close its doors to the public due to the threat of Covid. This, of course, included The Gary-The Olivia Theater, which has been dark since GODSPELL's last curtain call. The Abbey began receiving visitors again in 2022. In the summer of 2023, a small group of oblates and members of the community initiated discussions and work directed at the reopening of the theater.

We thank our many friends and benefactors for your loyalty, and beg your continued patience while we clean and prepare our theater facility, and rededicate and reorganize our theater community. We will update this page when we are ready to announce our next production.

HISTORY OF OUR THEATER
Mother Dolores

The Gary-The Olivia Theater is an open air theater that was built in 1982 and seats about 300 people. The theater is covered but opens at the back to the woods of the Abbey land, and the trees and birds are often a feature of the theatrical world that is created on stage. The link between drama and monastic life is an ancient one, but The Gary-The Olivia Theater in particular owes its existence to Reverend Mother Dolores Hart, the actress, who in 1963 gave up a successful Hollywood career to become a nun at the Abbey. Far from putting an end to her acting career, she discovered that monastic life transcended her acting vocation: Obviously a cloistered monastery is not the conventional place that one goes to realize one's potential as an actress. And yet, in my case, my vocation as an actress could only have reached its fullest expression, its fullest expansion because I was fortunate enough to have been called to a monastic way of life.

PREVIOUS PERFORMANCES
fiddler

In the 1970's, a company of actors called the Act Association formed around James and Dawn Douglas, friends of Mother Dolores, and fellow actors. Patricia Neal and James Douglas performed together in A.R. Gurney's play Love Letters, and over the years productions by the group have ranged from Shakespeare to Sartre, from opera to musical reviews. For over ten years directors Sally and Thomas Camm worked tirelessly to carry out the mission of their Clay & Wattles Theater Company:

...to organize and manage a theater that provides unique opportunities to integrate the arts, gives performers a professional and supportive environment in which to grow and develop their performing skills and provides audiences with rich, complex and compelling theatrical experiences of what it is to be human—and in so doing enrich the cultural landscape of Northwest, CT and the greater CT, NY and NJ region.

The Camms produced two major productions a year, a play and a musical, along with an annual concert/fundraiser for the theater. The productions were attended by over 3000 people and received rave reviews by major media outlets in Connecticut. Auditions were held for actors from the local community theater network, local colleges and universities, and from Actor’s Equity for roles in the various productions. For newcomers, young people from the area, the experience of acting at the Abbey theater opened up a new and rich dimension to their lives.

Among the productions performed in recent years: My Fair Lady, The Music Man, West Side Story, Guys and Dolls, Oklahoma, South Pacific, Fiorello, and Man of La Mancha. For the 10th anniversary of their theater company the Clay and Wattles reprized Fiddler on The Roof to rave reviews.

Gallery of Past Outstanding Performances at The Gary-The Olivia Theater