Discover Connecticut Arts

May 18 - 20, 2007
Sponsored by Great Neck Adult Education




Join this 3 day, 2 night tour of the great performing arts theaters in Connecticut!  This trip includes accomodations, transportation, breakfasts, lunches and dinners, and admission to 3 performances and theater talks.  Don't miss the opportunity to discover the treasures of Connecticut!



Join the Adult Program for a cultural weekend in Connecticut, our lovely New England neighbor. This all-inclusive trip features performances at three prominent regional theaters: Long Wharf, Goodspeed Opera House, and Yale Repertory. Activities include museums, back-stage tours, talks, and much more. Shirley Romaine, Adult Program performing arts coordinator and leader of many successful theater trips, will oversee the trip.  
 
 






1.  Friday, May 18     New London
Depart in the morning by private coach from the Cumberland Adult Center. Travel to New London and the Thames River for a visit to Monte Cristo, the boyhood summer home of Eugene O’Neill, Nobel Prize winner and one of America’s great dramatists. Long Day’s Journey into Night was written here. Also, visit the Eugene O’Neill Theater and the National Theater Institute for a tour and talk. Founded in 1970, the Institute provides young artists with intensive, conservatory-based training. After lunch, travel to the shoreline town of Old Lyme for a tour of the charming and intimate Florence Griswold Museum, a National Historic Landmark with gardens, riverfront gallery, and renowned American art collection. A group of well-known artists came here to paint nearly a century ago. At Florence Griswold’s boarding house, they created an art colony that played a pivotal role in the rise of American Impressionism. The house is an architectural treasure. A new museum on the site presents the collection of important American Impressionist paintings. Continue to New Haven, the home of Yale University, for two nights at the Colony Hotel on campus. After a welcome dinner, enjoy a production at the Yale Repertory Theatre, founded 35 years ago by theater-scholar and director, Robert Brustein. The play has not yet been announced. (L/D)  
 
 



2.  Saturday, May 19     New Haven
After breakfast, begin the day with a walking tour of the Yale Campus and its Gothic architecture. Then, board our coach for a short drive to the Mark Twain House and Museum in Hartford. Here, Mark Twain and his family enjoyed what the author would later call the happiest and most productive years of his life. The new museum, opened in 2003, provides the rich treasury of Twain’s triumphs and tragedies, his contemporaries, and the Gilded Age. See rare manuscripts, photos, artifacts, and fine and decorative arts never before on display.  
 
 
After lunch, visit the Wadsworth Atheneum, America’s oldest, public, art museum, which continues to thrive, collect, and share the world’s greatest art. The best show in town, and in the region for that matter, is the permanent collection of more than 45,000 works of art. Many fine paintings, from the Old Masters to contemporary American art collected by Wadsworth, are highlights of any visit. The Museum is also famous for its collection of decorative arts and sculpture.  
 
 
Return to New Haven for dinner, followed by a performance at the Long Wharf Theater. Long Wharf is the creation of two Yale alumni who shared the dream of starting a resident, professional, theater company in New Haven. Today, Long Wharf is recognized as a leader in American theater, producing fresh and imaginative revivals of classics and modern plays and a variety of world and American premieres. More than 20 productions have transferred to Broadway or off-Broadway. Tonight, see Anton Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya, a classic story of a family estate brought to the brink of ruin by an ailing professor and his exquisitely beautiful wife. Uncle Vanya is a captivating exploration of the human condition and a wickedly comic romance immersed in unrequited love and extraordinary tenderness. (B/L/D)  
 
 



3.  Sunday, May 20     Goodspeed
After breakfast, visit the charming, historic Goodspeed Opera House. Since 1968, Goodspeed has achieved international acclaim and is at the forefront of shaping the future of musical theater. Sixteen Goodspeed productions have transferred to Broadway and have received more than a dozen Tony Awards. Mixing classics by the Gershwins, Cole Porter, and Jerome Kern with the very best of this country’s newest musicals, Goodspeed pioneered the practice of rethinking, restoring, and revitalizing America’s musical-theater heritage. Go behind the scenes on a Goodspeed Opera House tour, exploring backstage while learning about its vibrant history. After lunch, see a matinee performance of Singin’ in the Rain. Then, return by coach to Great Neck. (B/L)  





This engaging experience includes:

  • 2 Nights at the Colony Hotel
  • 2 Breakfasts
  • 3 Lunches
  • 2 Dinners
  • Transportation
  • 3 Performances and Theater Talks
PROGRAM PRICES  
Per person (double occupancy) from New York: $849  
Single Supplement: $140