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May 29, 2019

SHU to reopen downtown Fairfield theater

Photo illustration | Sacred Heart University The Community Theater in downtown Fairfield will soon have a new name and a new purpose.

It’s Sacred Heart’s world. We just live in it.

The Fairfield school continued its real-estate binge this week by announcing that it would reopen the long-shuttered Community Theater in downtown Fairfield.

The university has signed a 10-year lease with Kleban Properties to create an arts and education site at the corner of Post and Unquowa Roads. When it reopens some time next year, the facility will be known as the Sacred Heart University Community Theater.

The announcement comes less than three years after the school acquired the 66-acre former world headquarters of the General Electric Corp., a property now partially occupied by SHU and known as West Campus.

The refurbished 99-year-old theater will host high-profile lectures, author talks, films, concerts and other performances. It will showcase the work of SHU students participating in dance, orchestra, band, choir, theater arts, film and other cultural pursuits. Students will also be involved in the management of the facility, gaining experience in operating an arts venue.

Preliminary plans call for a full-scale renovation of the former movie theater, which opened in 1920 and closed in 2011. When work is completed in 2020, the theater will hold about 400 seats.

“Once the renovations are complete, we will install the state-of-the-art equipment and accoutrements that have come to define Sacred Heart’s new and renovated spaces,” said Mike Kinney, senior vice president for finance at Sacred Heart. The school declined to say how much the project was expected to cost.

However, the endeavor will require cooperation between the university and the town.

“Kleban Properties will be looking to the town of Fairfield for assistance in various forms to ensure that this exciting opportunity becomes reality,” said Ken Kleban, the company’s president.

The venue is also expected to infuse downtown Fairfield with new activity and energy. “I am thrilled that the Community Theater, which has long been an iconic landmark in our town filled with special memories for so many of us, will finally be reopened,” said Fairfield First Selectman Mike Tetreau in a statement.

Said SHU President John J. Petillo: “We plan to turn this into a contemporary venue for the University and the community while maintaining much of the classical features that have been part of downtown Fairfield for 100 years. That we can breathe new life into this building after years of dormancy is truly exciting.”

Contact Michael C. Bingham at mbingham@newhavenbiz.com

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