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09/02/2020 08:30 AMWhen non-profit Legacy Theatre CT and its supporters recently celebrated “topping off” the renovated structure of the historic Stony Creek theater building on Aug. 21, they were also applauding the work of Chester-based architect Leonard Wyeth, a man of many talents. His is the designing mind that developed the innovative restoration of the theater building with an eye toward sustainability and accessibility. He’s also the founder and creative force behind Guilford’s renowned Acoustic Music fine guitar shop, the father of AcousticMusic.Org, and now promoter of a newly launched weekly YouTube series featuring local musicians.
Leonard’s passion for stringed instruments also plays into his fascinating museum at AcousticMusic.Org, where he shares exhibits of exceptional instruments and their place in music history. Leonard’s launch of the YouTube series was inspired after the pandemic brought down the curtain on his free offering of a small performance space for local musicians, which he dubbed Thursday Night Music and held at his shop at 1250 Boston Post Road in Guilford.
On another note, COVID-19 also figures into Leonard’s work as president of Connecticut Passive House, a group of professionals who promote adapting ultra-low energy buildings. Such buildings also mitigate the transmission of airborne viruses, by meeting stringent air quality standards.
Wyeth Architects at Work
Through his Chester-based Wyeth Architects, LLC, Leonard has been immersed for quite some time in his work on Legacy Theatre CT’s restoration and design of the theater at 128 Thimble Island Road.
“There’s a point during construction where the architects get all excited,” he says. “It’s way before the public can make heads or tails of what’s going on.”
In many ways, the restoration intends to deliver a state-of-the-art neighborhood theater arts center while upholding its historic legacy. After all, this the building where Orson Welles mounted his production of a William Gillette play, Too Much Johnson in summer 1938. Beginning in 1963, the theater began its last, best-known arts run as the Stony Creek Puppet House, home to famed Sicilian marionettes puppeteered by Stony Creek Puppet House founders Jimmy Weil and Salvatore Macri and later, puppeteer Joel Davis. The building fell into decline in the 1990s and was shuttered in 2009 before Legacy Theatre CT came to its rescue.
Leonard’s design of the theater’s interior and the accessibility it will provide advances the space with modern touches while still preserving the sensibility of the historic site. For a sneak peak of the architect’s vision, take a virtual tour at www.legacytheatrect.org.
“You will be shocked when you go in there,” he promises.
Leonard’s homage to the building is also tied to his own experiences in that theater at a time when it was beginning to fall into disrepair. Back in the 1980s, he was helping to run sound for musicians performing at the venue.
“It was amazing, but the building was beginning to fall apart. It was in tough shape. I would go back for small concerts over time, and the building was slowly melting down,” he says.
Sustainable Design
“We’ve been very passionate about extreme low energy and long-term sustainability,” says Leonard of his team at Wyeth Architects.
The team recently turned its collective creative power and award-winning work toward helping new and existing structures across the state meet the challenges of COVID-19. Passive House strategies mitigate the transmission of airborne viruses by meeting ultra-high air quality standards.
The buildings are also incredible energy savers, as recognized by the industry itself. This month, Wyeth Architects’ Stonington passive house was awarded the 2020 Sustainable Architecture Award from AIA Connecticut. The brand-new, thoughtfully constructed 2,700 square foot house is all electric, using some photovoltaic panels to introduce power.
“For many months in a row, we’ve received from the owner a little [photo] of their electric bill, which is $9.11,” Leonard says.
Leonard is also president of the collaborative Connecticut Passive House, which brings together local architects and builders to adapt ultra-low energy buildings. Today, with climate change and global warming reaching a boiling point, passive design can be a game-changer, Leonard notes.
“Roughly, it comes down to this: Buildings use more than 40 percent of the world’s energy. If there’s going to be a turnaround, if there’s any way to slow this down, it can’t be down without a major change to the way we build. So that being the case, obviously we’re doing everything in our power to change things,” he says. “And what we’ve discovered is this is really global. All the ideas generated around the planet find their way around the planet. So there are a whole lot of good ideas out there. And we’ve come to realize, in a very short period of time, that without any magic or high tech we can build buildings that use a tiny fraction of energy compared to what is normally built today.”
Making Acoustic Music
“It started as a hobby that completely spiraled desperately out of control,” Leonard says of founding his Guilford shop nearly 20 years ago. “In 1995, I was involved with a number of local musicians, either playing background or helping with sound on various performances, ultimately helping them with recording their work. We all shared a kind of passion for guitars, banjos, mandolins—stringed instruments. And that’s where it started going a little crazy.”
Leonard notes the Connecticut shoreline is blessed with not only with a vibrant group of musicians, but also with a small cadre of instrument craftsmen he describes as “truly among the most talented and knowledgeable in the country at the moment.”
One of the most fascinating aspects, for Leonard, is that a musical instrument such as a guitar is a beautifully crafted form of art that’s made to create another art form: music. With a bit of laugh, Leonard says his admiration for these instruments led to a “giant mistake”—starting to acquire them.
“And that has a natural path to sharing those with others and making them available to others by selling,” he says. “And by God, if there are no adults in the room to stop it from happening, it becomes a musical instrument shop.”
Live Music Leads to YouTube
As a bricks and mortar business in Guilford, Acoustic Music has been the scene of some exceptional musicianship and live, invitation-only performances for very small audiences.
With connections to musicians in Nashville, California, and New York, “over the years, we had made friends with some of the world’s best guitarists,” says Leonard. “And usually, as a favor to us, they would come and give a very intimate concert in the shop—30 or 40 invited people, up close and personal, with some of these artists you wouldn’t possibly get to see in that sort of venue.”
With an eye toward helping others to become accomplished in their performance craft, Leonard also decided to open the floor of the shop up to local musicians for live performances.
“There are a whole lot of local musicians who are very good and who we think could really benefit from more people getting to hear them. So we came up with something we decided to call Thursday Night Music,” he says.
The informal Thursday night set up was also a way to give back to local musicians who have supported Acoustic Music. The series’ 2020 schedule was set and rolling along, “and then, novel coronavirus wandered in,” says Leonard.
Rather than just scrap the series for the year, Leonard offered to record the performances and post them on YouTube, linked through AcousticMusic.Org. Thus was born the brand-new “Acoustic Music Presents” series. The series launched four months ago and features about a dozen performances, to date.
“If it’s just one song they want to do, that’s fine; if it’s a whole set they want to do, that’s fine,” says Leonard of each performer. “Putting it on tape, so to speak, takes a little bit of the live edge off, but by the same token it allows them to show themselves in the best light. And if we are putting it on tape anyway, it doesn’t matter when we record these things, as long as we release them on Thursday nights. So we’ve been kind of having fun with that, and it certainly takes lot of pressure off the artist.”