WESTPORT — An urgent $2 million fundraising campaign to “save” the Westport Country Playhouse has been launched, as the theater struggles to recover from the impact of the COVID pandemic, cuts in planned productions and staff, and a change of leadership.

The “Reimagined: Save Your Playhouse” campaign, announced Monday by the playhouse trustees, aims to raise an “immediate and necessary $2 million” by July 30, according to the bluntly worded statement.

In addition to the fundraising goal, the campaign aims to broaden the playhouse’s presentations beyond traditional live-theater productions to achieve “a more sustainable and efficient cost structure.”

The “transformation” project, as described in the trustees’ statement, will include a slate of presentations including not only plays, but “one-night-only shows” featuring personalities from the worlds of theater, comedy, music and dance; a continuation of the Script in Hand play-reading series; an “In Conversation with …” speaker series, and new children’s programming.

The playhouse, housed in a 19th-century structure on Powers Court, staged its first theatrical season in 1931.

In the “Save Your Playhouse” statement, it was announced that another of the initially planned five productions for the 2023 season has been axed, in addition to the two previously cut in January. The latest casualty, “School Girls; Or, the African Mean Girls Play,” had been scheduled for Oct. 24-Nov. 11.

There also have been deeper cuts in the theater’s staff, according to Athena T. Adamson, the board’s recently elected chairwoman, in keeping with the “tenuous financial position” she said it faces in a message posted shortly after her appointment. Adamson, a trustee since 2017, replaced Anna Czekaj-Farber, who no longer is a board member, according to the roster posted on the theater’s website.

Mark Lamos, the theater’s artistic director for 15 seasons, announced in May he plans to leave the post in January.

“Westport Country Playhouse has stood the test of time by staying true to its mission and continually evolving,” Adamson said in the theater’s statement.

“More than 20 years ago, Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman inspired the playhouse’s last, great, transformative campaign, chaired by Bob Wright, former head of NBC, and now there is another opportunity for our wonderful community to be part of shaping the playhouse for future generations,” she added.

To donate to the playhouse fundraising campaign, click here.

Adamson also suggested people can support the playhouse by purchasing tickets to see a new stage version of “Dial M for Murder,” which will be produced July 11-29 and is the final production that Lamos will direct as the theater’s artistic director.

For more information, visit the Westport Country Playhouse website or call the box office at 203-227-4177.