Westchester County’s oldest, longest running Professional Theater.

 

The Schoolhouse Theater, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, is a "venerable" (The New York Times) cultural center devoted to professional theater at the highest possible standard.  We are committed to bringing new, innovative and ground breaking programs and plays to the community.  It is a place where new work is explored, and a place where things begin.  ​

 

Lee Pope is the legend behind The Schoolhouse Theater. Pope, the theater's founder, transformed an old elementary school building (1925) into a freshly minted visual arts center in Croton Falls in 1983, turning classrooms into galleries and studio spaces showing the paintings and sculpture of many Westchester's most acclaimed artists. At that time, the cafeteria/gym was simply a white-walled room with twelve borrowed lights and no risers. In 1986, Jack Palance's daughter Brooke and actor/producer Michael Wilding (son of Elizabeth Taylor) founded Acorn Productions, and later performed Bedroom Farce at The Schoolhouse. Just like that, the curtain went up on Westchester's oldest non-profit professional theater thirty-eight years ago!

 

The Schoolhouse has been honored by visits from a number of theater luminaries including playwrights John Barton, Jules Feiffer, Athol Fugard, George Furth, Tina Howe, Joyce Carol Oates, Dorothy Lyman, Michael Weller, and Paul Zindel, directors Austin Pendleton, Fred Kareman, Moni Yakim, Richard Maltby, Jr., Secret Scott, Tom Palumbo, and stars like Alan Arkin, Robert Klein, Blythe Danner, Lewis Black, Tina Fabrique, Karen Ziemba, Victor Slezak, Karen Valentine, Jim Dale, Reed Birney, Elaine Bromka, Polly Draper, Houston Person, and Tammy Grimes, amongst many others.

 

Legendary New York Times critic Alvin Klein, (president of The Drama Desk), summed it up best: "It's one of my favorite theaters.  A jewel. 99 seats. There's nothing like it.  Where else are you going to see Albee, Saroyan or Williams? Abundance by Beth Henley? They're gutsy!"

 

We have been home to twenty-seven world premieres, an English language premiere, and have transferred seven productions Off-Broadway: Ingmar Bergman's Nora, Arthur Miller's The Crucible, S.N. Behrman's Biography, Elaine Del Valle's Brownsville Bred (which was later adapted into an award-winning feature film), L.O.V.E.R by Lois Robbins, B.H. Barry’s Enlightenment of Mr. Mole, and Stevie Holland and Gary William Friedman’s Love, Linda.

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In 2018, The Schoolhouse Theater's Founder, Leandra “Lee” Pope received Arts Westchester's coveted 2018 Lifetime Arts Community Award.​