Photo Challenge #600

For decades, a rooster has served as the symbol of the Westport Country Playhouse.

It stands proudly atop the historic theater — as Dan Vener, Elaine Marino, Wendy Crowther, Susan Iseman, Lynn Untermeyer Miller, Rachel Sara Halperin, Bill Scheffler, Seth Schachter, Wendy Schaefer, Sal Liccione, Paul Cahill and Robin Friedson all knew, identifying last week’s Photo Challenge. (Click here to see.)

The rooster also perched for years on a sign above the Post Road entrance. After the 2005 renovation, it was unceremoniously dumped into a back corner of the parking lot. Eventually, the sign — and the rooster — disappeared.

But why a rooster?

I always figured it was had something to do with the Playhouse’s past life, as a barn.

To be sure, I asked ChatGPT.

I was right. The all-knowing (and usually correct) AI tool said: “The rooster is associated with the Westport Country Playhouse because of the building’s origins as a rural New England barn and its long identity as a ‘country playhouse.’

“The Playhouse occupies a historic structure that began life as an 1835 tannery, later became a cider mill, and eventually stood as an abandoned barn before being converted into a theater in 1931. The rooster weather vane atop the building became a natural emblem of that barn-and-farm heritage and has remained one of the Playhouse’s most recognizable visual symbols.

“While the Playhouse’s official history doesn’t appear to give a specific written explanation for why a rooster was chosen, the rooster itself is a classic New England weather-vane figure. Rooster weather vanes have traditionally adorned barns, farm buildings, and church steeples for centuries, making them an especially fitting symbol for a theater housed in a converted country barn.”

There you go. Generations of Westporters have known — and loved — both the Playhouse and its rooster.

If you’re new to Westport — or even been here a while — and have not yet checked out this historic and cultural gem: What are you waiting for? Click here to learn more.

Once you’ve done that, check out this week’s Photo Challenge. If you know where in Westport you’d see this, click “Comments” below.

(Photo/Seth Schachter)

(Every Sunday, “06880” hosts this Photo Challenge. We challenge you too to support your hyper-local blog. Please click here to make a tax-deductible contribution. Thank you!)