The Show Must Go On: A look at Hampton Roads’ community theaters
Friday, 18 September 2009 19:44 | 
The show must go on. That’s the long time motto of the theatre. But sometimes, a theatre - one facility, or one institution or both – cannot. That’s what’s happened to Norfolk’s 40th Street Stage. This five-year-old presenter of new and rarely seen plays, of improvised shows, bawdy comedy and of theatre for young people, will close its doors at the end of October. The rent is due, the rent must be paid, and the funds are just not there.
The 40th Street Stage, as a presenting organization, has provided a home to numerous producing groups. CORE Theatre, now in residence at ODU, started there. The peripatetic Elizabeth River Theatre Company was the founding entity of 40th Street, and spent two years in residence. Regularly scheduled productions by The Children’s Theatre of Hampton Roads, featuring adult staged plays for young audiences, along with a CTHR sub-set, the Bucket of Monkeys improvisational troupe for young audiences, were a mainstay of the venue. The forward looking Source Theatre group, plus our region’s only feminist theatre company, Bold Girls, were also residents. So too was the devotedly raunchy sketch comedy troupe The Pushers. Few of these really face homelessness, especially since CTHR and The Pushers were the top drawing elements of the 40th Street mix. What’s most worrisome is the possibility that 40th Street is just the first theatrical casualty of the recession. 40th Street stood apart from most local non-professional theatrical organizations in two ways. First, it was devoted to new, to rarely seen and to socially, thematically and theatrically difficult works. Secondly, it was a presenting, rather than a producing organization. Most of Hampton Roads’ community-based groups, which provide avocational theatre folk with a way to practice their hobby, have their own venues, or are regular tenants at schools, and all but a few are producing groups - they stage their shows themselves. Norfolk, Portsmouth and Virginia Beach each has its own eponymous Little Theatre. The Peninsula has the Peninsula Community Theatre, the Poquoson Island Players, and the Williamsburg Players. The Smithfield Little Theatre is not too far away. The Hurrah Players produce family oriented shows dominated by teen and pre-teen performers, and has launched quite a number of young actors on national careers. There are a host of church based drama groups, of course. Groups dedicated to particular genres – such as African-American theatre, women's themes, children’s theatre, experimental or non-traditional shows, and Shakespeare for example - come and go, though some like Summer Shakes/Hampton Roads Shakespeare Festival, have long histories. The Norfolk Player’s Guild was one of the oldest, perhaps the very oldest African-American community theatre group in the country before it fell dormant. Reassuringly, at least two of Hampton Roads’ most prominent community companies, and two small, young groups that bear resemblance to 40th Street, seem well set to “weather the storm.” That’s the exact phrase that Patty Wray, co-founder and -proprietor of The Venue on 35th, used when considering the future of “The Venue,” Norfolk’s other community presenter of new and different works. The Venue was born as a dedicated outlet for scripts from the local Playwrights Forum, self-described as “a loosely formed group of local writers who began meeting in a local library.” In just 2 ½ years this café-theatre, with its adjoining outdoor stage, has become a host to poetry readings and open mic nights, a presenter of local directorial efforts, and a place to hear acoustic music. Local musicians occupy The Venue this September and October. ”Shorts for all Seasons,” programs of very brief scripts from the Playwrights’ Forum, run the middle weekends of November. The Venue’s non-traditional nod to the Holidays is Wray’s comedy titled What If Everything You Knew About Santa Was Lie? The Venue is actually meeting its operating expenses from revenue. While Wray and investment partner Lucy White own the building and subsidized the conversion from a brick walled, concrete floored shell, it’s currently on its own. There’s a social component to The Venue that few local companies include in their stated purposes. “Giving back to the community” is a phrase that recurs in Wray’s conversations about The Venue. She and White are both retired physical therapists, and comment on their web site that The Venue intends to “[use] literary and performance arts to promote societal health and healing in these times of need.” These “times of need” are being felt at the oldest and most well established community theatres. Subscription sales at the Little Theatre of Norfolk - which has been in existence since 1926 - are slightly below where they were this time last year, though donations are up about 13%, according to board president Jeff Corriveau. It’s not just ticket sales that are affected by the economic downturn. According to Corriveau, “people want to get out and to escape.” So when theatres like LTN or the Little Theatre of Virginia Beach planned their programs this year, they stuck to conventional and accessible works not only because of their tried and true appeal in “hard times,” but because those shows themselves can be an antidote to those times - or at least provide symptomatic, palliative relief. Corriveau and S. Robin Martineau, the Recording Secretary and past President of Little Theatre of Virginia Beach, both speak of local theatres occupying individual niches. LTN’s is “to provide light family entertainment - mainstream - let’s admit it, you can only do one ‘Night Mother a year,” says Corriveau, referring to last November’s intensely emotional tragedy about mental illness and suicide that was singularly well acted, but not singularly well attended. Martineau says that “Our niche is . . . the older generation,” adding that LTVB also makes a point of doing shows like last year’s Zombie Prom “to try to draw younger crowds.” “The other thing we think about is our proximity to the ocean front – families and people from out of town looking for some entertainment.” She cites the choice of the musical Oklahoma, set for the late Fall slot at LTVB, as an example of the sort of play that “is well known – has been around,” and that which is also “uplifting.” Like Corriveau, she says that people are currently in the mood for diversion. This does not rule out seeing a heavy drama next spring - Arthur Miller’s award winning All My Sons is about as fiercely taut a tale as one can find - to go with the opening production of the classic comedy Twentieth Century, the suspense/mystery An Act of the Imagination, and the season closing romantic comedy Morning’s at Seven. Norfolk’s season has a similar light tone, though most of the scripts are less familiar. It opens with the historical fantasy Ladies First, about an imagined meeting between Jackie Kennedy, Eleanor Roosevelt, Bess Truman, Mamie Eisenhower, Pat Nixon and Lady Bird Johnson. The movie-turned-play A Christmas Story is followed by Neil Simon’s I Ought to be in Pictures. The redoubtable Twelve Angry Men precedes the final show of the season, the gospel musical-comedy Smoke on the Mountain: The Homecoming. LTN is also offering special family deals this season that will put young folks in the audience, thereby boosting attendance, letting folks forego the expense of kid-sitters, and building the audience of the future. The Peninsula has its own group that’s the rough equivalent of The Venue and 40th Street. That’s Iron Street Productions, which differs from those Southside groups in a couple of ways. For one thing, it’s a producing group, rather than a presenting organization, but like its esthetic cousins in Norfolk, its intent on doing new and different shows. ISP founder Le'Royce E. Bratsveen comments about choosing scripts, “If a community theatre can do it, I probably won’t!” She goes on to add that she wants to stage shows that are “A little more adult, a little more grown up.” Pirates of the Chemotherapy, an original dramatic comedy about women dealing with cancer, opens the season with two benefit performances, Sept. 25 & 27 at the Kimball Theater in Williamsburg, and then returns in late October to play Thomas Nelson Community College, where most of Iron Streets’ shows perform. Other shows in the 2009-2010 season include the musical Little Shop of Horrors, a Black bourgeoisie satire by Lynn Nottage titled Fabulation, a one-night “Improv War,” and Putlitzer Prize winning playwright August Wilson’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. Mrs. Bratsveen founded her company – named after the site of her family home in St. Louis, and interestingly, not a non-profit group – because, she says frankly, she could not find local roles suited for a young Black woman. She remembers moving to Hampton Roads several years ago as a military wife, and hearing from one community group that they did about one African-American play every five years. (That theatre did not return several calls requesting general information for this article.) Mrs. Bratsveen is a working actress, and has been reinvesting her earnings from that source into Iron Street. It’s not dedicated solely to African-American themed shows, but rather to “diversity of casting and . . . eclectic script selection,” with a specific emphasis on community outreach and involvement. Though groups might be watching closely what brings people to see plays, every group interviewed said the same thing about folk’s interest in being involved in shows – it’s up. Theatres report that auditions are bringing out as many as 8 performers for every role being cast, and all speak highly of the local talent pool. So no matter what happens – the show(s) will go on!40th Street Stage - www.40thstreetstage.com 757-423-4084
The Venue on 35th - www.venue-35.com 757-469-0334
Little Theatre of Norfolk - www.ltnonline.org 757-627-8551
Little Theatre of Virginia Beach - www.ltvb.com 757-428-9233
Iron Street Production - www.ironstreetproductions.com 757-224-8937
Last Updated ( Wednesday, 30 September 2009 14:49 )
