By the 1930s, Lawrence Langner and his wife, Armina Marshall, had already achieved remarkable success as theatre producers. The Theatre Guild, which they co-founded, had become perhaps the most prolific and influential producer on Broadway and the leading producer of touring productions throughout the country.

Residents of Weston, Connecticut, the Langners were anxious to have a place away from the spotlight of New York City in which to establish a resident acting company and experiment with new plays and reinterpretations of classics. In the winter of 1930 they purchased a red barn in an old apple orchard on what was then the fringes of Westport, a country town in Connecticut already popular with Broadway's theatrical community.

Cleon Throckmorton, a well-respected Broadway set designer who had also designed the Cape Playhouse in Dennis, Massachusetts, was engaged to transform the former 1835 cow barn and subsequent tannery, called the Kemper Leather Works, into a theatre. Langner wanted both to preserve a rural atmosphere and to use red and gold bunting such as he had seen in a toy Victorian theatre in his youth.