Culture & Community | A Broken Umbrella Theatre Company | Arts & Culture | Whalley/Edgewood/Beaver Hills
Alderman (in cap): “We intend to be a space for this community, telling stories about this community.” Lucy Gellman Photos.
The curtain opens on New Haven. At center stage, a volunteer-led theater company has bought a building, built out a list of artistic collaborators and secured a new, cheese-kissed culinary partner for its dream restaurant and cabaret. Now, it’s asking for more state support to make its second act a reality.
That news came to Beaver Hills on a recent Thursday afternoon, as members of A Broken Umbrella Theatre Company welcomed state legislators to their in-progress arts hub, rehearsal space, and restaurant-cabaret at 280 Blake St. Since buying the building last year, the organization has cleaned out the space and gained zoning approval for a two-story cultural incubator. They have also secured a beloved restaurant partner in Jason Sobocinski, of Caseus, Black Hog and Haven Hot Chicken fame (more on that below).
This month, it is asking city and state officials for endorsement letters for the state’s Community Investment Fund (CIF), for which it is applying for roughly $2 million. Currently, it is supported by a $500,000 “Good To Great” grant from CT Humanities for which the company has raised $120,000 in matching funds. On a recent walkthrough, State Reps. Toni Walker and Pat Dillon and State Sen. Gary Winfield attended.
State Sen. Gary Winfield: “We don’t think deeply enough about the impact that the arts have on our communities."
“There is not currently a rentable space that artists can use [in this community] and that’s not ok,” said ABUT Board President Ian Alderman, one of the group’s founding members, as he walked through the space with Ruben Ortiz and Lou Mangini. “We intend to be a space for this community, telling stories about this community.”
The vision for the building, which members have reimagined with the help of resident historian Colin Caplan, has already started to take shape between the exposed brick walls, dusty floors and high ceilings. From a side entrance, attendees will ultimately enter a lobby and box office, complete with ADA-accessible bathrooms and a small kitchen tucked behind it.
On one side, there will be a dinner service and small stage with what Alderman called “quick bites” and a view out onto Blake Street; on the other, a cabaret and rehearsal space with sprung floors and flexible seating that can be reconfigured for different performances. For the food end of business, ABUT is working with Sobocinski on a menu partly inspired by New Haven’s Caseus restaurant, which stood on Whitney Avenue and Trumbull Streets until 2019.
Artistic partners on the space—a list that seems to be growing by the week—include Collective Consciousness Theatre (CCT), Southern Connecticut State University (SCSU), and a now-itinerant Long Wharf Theatre, as well as individual artists who need a place to rehearse and perform. Company member Lou Mangini suggested those might range from a poet or spoken word artist to a quartet from the New Haven Symphony Orchestra with a more intimate venue in mind.
“There are a lot of great little spaces in New Haven,” Alderman said—but nothing quite like what the company has imagined.
The Umbrella also plans to build out an entire second story that does not yet exist. On the forthcoming second floor, a site plan has allocated space for a green room, dressing rooms, bathrooms, storage and office space, and a washer-dryer.
Outside, a small driveway will become an outdoor patio with tables and chairs. While it is still months away from breaking ground, Alderman has brought in old kitchen equipment, rolling pan racks, a disembodied sink and illustrations from Westville artist Amanda Walker to give it a sense of transformation. Most of those come from his other life, in which he runs a scrapyard in New Haven.
“We are shovel ready,” Alderman said as Walker, Dillon and Winfield listened intently on Thursday’s walkthrough. The only thing that could stand in the company’s way is funding. Alderman estimated that the total cost of rehabbing the building, opening it up, and subsidizing rent for artists will be around $4.5 to $5.5 million.
“This building has been empty for a long time!” said Walker, who often passes it on her walks through the neighborhood. Before ABUT board members purchased the building in 2023, it was a dry cleaner and mechanic shop. When it opens, it will be the first indoor theater in the neighborhood.
When she wondered aloud about parking, Alderman had it covered. Because there is limited parking in the attached lot, he explained, ABUT has already worked with L. W. Beecher Museum Magnet School of Arts and Sciences and Cohen’s Key Shop next door to secure additional lot access.
She seemed to chew on the last bit of information for a moment, digesting it. “I like the idea of these collaborations,” she said. “That’s the beauty of New Haven. I especially like the partnership with the school … We would have all that we would need to enliven the fight to preserve our neighborhoods.”
Alderman nodded, animated as he moved from the would-be lobby into the cabaret theater. “The idea is that we’re making something that New Haven needs,” he said. As he gathered legislators and company members around him, the future cabaret came to life, thanks in part to old drapes that the Yale Repertory Theatre donated, and a lighting grid that Long Wharf Theatre let go of when it moved into itinerancy.
“What do you expect the cost to be to run this annually?” Walker asked as the group took seats at a table set with blueprints and water bottles, sheaves of afternoon sunlight slicing through the street-facing windows. She lauded the company’s vision for accessibility, which includes subsidizing rent for artists and organizations that want to collaborate with the space, a part of the vision that is meant to dovetail with the city’s Cultural Equity Plan.
Alderman estimated that the Umbrella, once it’s up and running, will require $350,000 to $400,000 in overhead annually. That money will cover not just what artists would otherwise pay to rent the space, but also three part-time employees to run operations. Currently, company members are all volunteers; that’s been true since ABUT was founded in 2009. He added that he has verbal support from the city: both Mayor Justin Elicker and Cultural Affairs Director Adriane Jefferson have toured the space.
“You have the arts community signing on,” Winfield said, in part a nod to the overwhelming community support ABUT received when it went before the Board of Zoning Appeals. “You have the three of us signing on … And you can demonstrate that you can actually execute all this.”
Lou Mangini and Ian Alderman with Dillon.
And with sufficient funding, Alderman said, they can and will. Currently, A Broken Umbrella hopes to break ground in September 2025, with fundraisers for the space next April and again next summer. During Westville Artwalk 2025—normally held around Mother’s Day Weekend—the company plans to hold an open house with input sessions for the community.
“This will be a way for the community to come in, voice what they want,” he said. “We’re about 25 percent of the way there—there’s real community support.”
During that time, they will also continue work on A Slice, a new musical inspired by the history of New Haven pizza. Alderman said that the company is hoping to raise $75,000 to mount that show, which will have a read-through in February and run at the International Festival of Arts & Ideas next summer. As she listened, Dillon noted how many stories ABUT could tell in the new space—including the history of the Blake Brothers, after whom Blake Street is named.
In the meantime, ABUT has also convened an advisory committee including Inner-City News Editor Babz Rawls-Ivy, Kulturally LIT Founder IfeMichelle Gardin, City Historian Michael Morand and his partner, the historian and curator Frank Mitchell, Cultural Affairs Director Adrian Jefferson, Arts Council of Greater New Haven Executive Director Hope Chávez, Westville Village Renaissance Alliance Director Lizzy Donius, Beecher School Principal Kathy Russell Beck, and CCT Founder Dexter Singleton, who also lives in the neighborhood.
“Well, I look forward to working with you guys,” Walker said. She later added that she sees the Umbrella as an exciting opportunity for new collaborations in Beaver Hills, including and especially with young people. “It’s a beautiful space and I think bringing the community together through neighborhoods” is always a fundamentally positive thing.
“We don’t think deeply enough about the impact that the arts have on our communities,” Winfield added, noting that he grew up playing violin in the Bronx Borough-Wide Orchestra, and went to a high school for art and design. Years later, he’s excited to see a theater focused on accessibility pop up in his city.
“It’s a great building,” Dillon chimed in, adding that she’s reassured by seeing the amount of community support the project has already received. “It seems like they’ve really thought this through.”
“I Want This To Be A Great Night Out”
Sylvia and Jason Sobocinski in Caseus, circa 2019. Lucy Gellman File Photo.
While the restaurant is still very much in the works, Sobocinski is already thinking about what the layout and the menu will look like (he and Alderman, who both grew up in New Haven, go way back). He said he has a Caseus-inspired menu in mind, particularly because he’s heard from people who miss the restaurant.
“It just got me excited,” he said in a phone call Thursday afternoon. “You come in, you have something delicious, you go into the theater, maybe you come back for dessert [after the show]. I want this to be a great night out.”
ABUT’s mission—to tell stories that are specific to New Haven—also dovetails with his own. Since he was in college, Sobocinski has been interested in the intersection of culinary history, culinary arts, hospitality and storytelling. He’s also a champion of the company’s work, from his full-throated support for the crew and its work to a steady supply of donated Black Hog Beer at performances from A Broken Umbrella’s improv and comedy troupe, The Regicides.
So the idea of a place that brought all of those loves together was an easy yes. As he’s begun dreaming up the menu, he and Alderman have also thrown around names including “The Patent House,” a nod to just how many patents have come out of New Haven. Every few days, Alderman sends him a photo or two of a new piece of equipment or furniture that has come through the scrapyard that he runs.
It has already made him think about what the personality of the restaurant will be. Currently, the site plan has budgeted room for a small stage in the dining area, meaning that a small band, vocalist or open mic performer could use the space during a dinner service.
“Theater is about telling stories,” he said. “I really enjoy talking about where food is from and weaving a narrative. If you know more about what you're eating, you can taste it better. I want to be able to bring that same theme to the restaurant.”