“A Broken Umbrella productions are born out of a freewheeling collaborative brainstorming process involving on-site inspiration from unexpected performance spaces, deep research into New Haven history, and flights of fancy.”

“Adhering to the company’s founding mission and principles, the troupe seeks to enhance community appreciation, education, and awareness through live performance and theater.…A Broken Umbrella Theatre thrives on researching and renovating site-specific spaces to illuminate the legend and lore of New Haven’s historic past.”

“A. C. Gilbert’s life and legacy is the subject of the latest production by A Broken Umbrella theater company, which has a made a name for itself by delving into New Haven’s past to produce original site-specific theater around town.”

“The local theater company called A Broken Umbrella will stage an original play the next three weekends about A.C. Gilbert on the very site in Fair Haven where thousands of city folks worked to produce the toys and small appliances at the Gilbert factory — now called Erector Square.
…The play takes place in 1954, as a mismatched crew of workers struggles to invent the next great toy kit for the company that was famous for its Erector Set. Gilbert, a Yale alum and Olympic athlete, imagined that iconic toy while on the train to New York to work in a magic shop. The play’s brainstorming leads to realizations and an illuminating collision between invention and illusion based on real-life research about Gilbert.”

“The New Haven Free Public Library wraps up its 125th anniversary year with “The Library Project,” an original commissioned work by the award-winning theater company, a work the ensemble has been tweaking for a year now. It takes full advantage of both A Broken Umbrella’s talents as masters of site-specific theater and the library’s history and expansive Cass Gilbert-designed building.””