My pal Jonathan Joy had some thoughts to add to our history of local theatre, and he was nice enough to send this terrific essay along for us to enjoy - it wraps up our Theatre History series (for now).
Thanks, Jon!
The history of Huntington's community theatre was captured so well by Chuck Minsker in his theatre blog. I enjoyed reading of the history of a variety of groups, as much of it brought back memories.
This is particularly the case with groups that I have been involved with: First Stage, First Church Dinner Theatre, Marshall, MAG, Free Spirit, and Community Players. But there are plenty of great memories associated with groups that I have never worked with as well. I thought back to the seven or eight HOT shows I enjoyed, numerous plays at City Hall, and more. Chuck's history is much more important, however, as it serves as a history of our great city.
I can think of three additional companies to add to Chuck's list, and I'm sure there are even more. My theatre history in this town only stretches back about 27 years. These three companies were all short-lived, but ambitious and successful artistically, if not financially. They also meant a lot to me.
1) Beyond Community Players (1992) Probably not a great name for a group, but I get where he was going. The he, in this case, was Fred Fout. Fred directed the first play I ever acted in, "A Christmas Carol" with Community Players, in the Fall of 1991. He was an excellent director and I learned a lot from him. I take it his experience with Community Players was fine, but that he longed for something a bit more unconventional... fringe theatre, if you will. I was a junior in high school and delighted to be cast in Hagar's Children by Ernest Joselovitz. The play was performed at the short-lived Artserve art gallery located across from the Keith-Albee in a building that has been empty since. The show was excellent, at least in my 17-year-old mind (maybe it really was) and I enjoyed getting to do something a bit out of the mainstream. The audiences were small, but enthusiastic. The show was probably not profitable. Fred often talked of following it up with Edward Albee's Zoo Story, which really excited me. Unfortunately, that never happened.
2) Theatre Mystique (1996-97) I still think it is a great loss that this company never took off. Theatre Mystique was around for only two seasons, and staged three shows at the Huntington Museum of Art. The group was founded by Lisa Ritter and Mike Fesenmiere. The first production was a very successful staging of Waiting for Godot in the Fall of 1996. I played Lucky, under Mike and Lisa's direction. We played three performances over one weekend and close to a hundred folks showed up for each show. A few months later, Theatre Mystique followed up that with a double bill of Pinter's The Dumb Waiter and Ionesco's The Bald Soprano. To this day, playing the Fireman in the latter is one of my favorite roles. The shows were performed in the Spring of '97. They were both very good and the audiences were fine, though not as large as "Godot." The ambitious plan for the following season was to stage Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey Into Night. The show was cast and rehearsals began, but it did not work out for a variety of reasons.
3) No Name Players (2000-...) This was a really fun one. To my knowledge the group still exists, though Pittsburgh is its home now. Still, the roots are in Huntington. In the Fall of 2000 I was contacted by a friend and then Marshall student Don Digulio about performing the role of Gaston in Steve Martin's Picasso at the Lapin Agile with a new theatre company he had just formed. I jumped on board, along with many Marshall Theatre students. Dave Hall, Randi Lasky, Jason Eldridge and Chris Chambers were just a few featured. The play was performed the first full weekend of January 2001. For all the shows I have done at the Museum (at least a dozen) none had bigger and more engaged audiences than this one. It was a terrific experience for all involved. A big hit artistically and financially, Don quickly planned a huge summer season (2001) that featured three shows on the Museum stage in just under two months. One of those was Neil Simon's Laughter on the 23rd Floor which I saw and enjoyed. I did not see and do not recall what the other two were. I don't think No Name Players staged any other shows in Huntington. After graduation, Don moved back to his hometown of Pittsburgh, and moved the theatre company there too. I have heard that the group is still active and that it has even won major awards in the city.
I am sure there are more out there. Many more will come and go. That is the nature of theatre. Hats off to anyone that endeavors to reach out to people in only the way that theatre can.
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