An old theater gets a new life in Lakeville

LAKEVILLE –A theater built more than two decades ago by acclaimed actor Rip Torn, but used only once, is finally getting its long-awaited second act.

Salisbury’s Planning and Zoning Commission approved plans in June to reopen the renovated barn at 16 Farnum Road as a 99-seat, summer theater, clearing the way for a season of programming in 2027 under the name “Rip’s Barn.”

The theater’s first and only audience gathered in 2004 for a performance of a play adapted from letters between Beat poet Jack Kerouac and one of his lovers.

Amy Wright, a celebrated actor and the theater’s current owner, said “here comes the second performance” after 22 years.

Wright, whose decorated career on stage and screen includes major roles in the Broadway plays “Noises Off” and “Fifth of July,” was married to Torn for 30 years before his death in 2019.

Best known for films including The Man Who Fell to Earth and the Men in Black series, Torn remained devoted to the stage throughout his career, appearing in numerous Off-Broadway productions and 10 Broadway plays. Wright said the barn reflected that lifelong passion for live theater.

The barn project, Wright said, was modeled after Torn’s affinity for Shakespeare. It was designed with London’s The Globe Theater in mind, complete with high catwalks, floor and mezzanine audience levels and even oversized barn doors at the back of the stage to allow horses to enter during Shakespearean productions.

Andrus Nichols, an award-winning actor who will be the director of the theater, said the venue will focus on classic and contemporary plays. “We want to do Chekhov. We want to do Strindberg,” she said, noting the programming will generally feature modern classics alongside newer, sometimes lesser known productions – but that the space lends itself to experimentation.

“You can program some weirder stuff” in a smaller theater, Nichols said, noting the “intimate, but also so tall” configuration of the auditorium. Even the horse doors may get some use, she said. “Anything is on the table.”

Celebrated actors Amy Wright and Andrus Nichols are reviving the late Rip Torn's theater in Lakeville. Alec Linden

The theater’s second life became a reality after a fortuitous coffee meetup between Nichols and Wright last year led to the two becoming partners in bringing Rip’s Barn back to its long awaited heyday.

“You had a chocolate chip cookie,” recalled Wright to Nichols, both standing in an upstairs landing outside what will become a studio and workspace for actors and playwrights. Nichols replied, laughing, “And you said, ‘You want my theater!’”

Nichols said Torn’s vision more than 20 years ago made the project feasible.

“We’re not retrofitting a barn to make it a theater,” she said. “It was built really intentionally as a theater.”

Nichols’ resume includes leading roles at the Bedlam Theater, including productions of Kate Hamill’s “Sense and Sensibility” and George Bernard Shaw’s “Saint Joan.” She also has an extensive career in teaching and directing educational theater programs, including at the Sharon Playhouse.

She described her role in reviving Rip’s Barn as her “third rodeo,” having co-founded the Coop and the Bedlam Theater, both in New York. Her motivation with Rip’s Barn, she said, is to give the local professional acting community a place to work and showcase their art close to home.

“In my experience, the most fruitful and magical processes come out of rooms where everyone is excited about the thing we’re making together,” she said, adding that the programming will be collaborative to foster that sense of excitement.

Nichols said the magic also happens when you put professional and non-professional actors in the same room. She reflected on a 2023 production of “Our Town” that she directed at the Sharon Playhouse, which included both professional and amateur actors, and remembered it as “incredibly rewarding.” She plans to create these opportunities regularly in the new theater, with a community production every season or two.

“It’s really about who is in the room,” Wright said. “This whole venture we’re on is going to evolve with who walks through the door.”