Two Charlotte theater troupes come back
By Lawrence Toppman, The Charlotte Observer | |
McClatchy-Tribune Information Services |
Both went into the mist in 2013, after many seasons of year-round production. Both re-emerged this summer to do two plays, with the second ones coming up this month:
The 9-year-old troupe has been a labor of love for co-founder
No other local company has a "pay what you can" policy all the time. Of course, that means some playgoers feel free to pay nothing. The company has usually raised its
She has imported
"Blaxploitation movies were about representatives of morality who weren't really moral and a rough kind of justice being served in the end," says Reel. "That happens in this play, too.
"Shakespeare writes a lot about 'bawds' in this play, and audiences may not get the full impact of that idea nowadays. So we're portraying the prostitute and pimp, Mistress Overdone and Pompey, in a 'Superfly' style to make that clear."
After "Measure,"
"His plays have big casts, and two full-scale shows are all we can manage right now. We've thought about doing a fall show the school system could see, because there's not a lot of Shakespeare in the schools.
"Insurance went up a thousand bucks this year. So did audiovisual costs. My goal is for us to be self-sustaining. But if in a couple of years the resources don't increase ... who knows?"
Co-founders
It opened "Things You Shouldn't Say Past Midnight" last month and sold out the first weekend, a rarity for QCTC. Now "The Performers,"
"There's a lot of innocence inside this dirty taboo world," says Griffin, who is directing. 'The New York Times (called it) 'an early
"Sometimes we judge people by what they do," says Wedolowski. "How can someone be intimate with another person when they have sex for a living?"
QCTC has continually done plays about stereotyping, whether by age, class, race or especially gender preference. This mini-season brought nothing as heavy as "Bent" -- "comedies work better in summer," notes Griffin -- but kept the company visible for an eighth go-round.
Now, says Wedolowski, he and Griffin have feelers out to two entrepreneurs who may be willing to partner with them. The financial strength of "Things You Shouldn't Say," Wedolowski believes, "shows an investment in this company will be a good one." He added that real estate agents are looking for spaces that could be converted to a 120-seat theater for which QCTC would be principal tenant.
Both Wilkinson and Wedolowski said Blumenthal Performing Arts has been supportive. Though Queen City doesn't want to spend a whole season again at
"We have done theater all our lives, regardless of careers and personal lives," says Wedolowski. "Our potential demographic is everyone -- old, young, gay, straight, all races -- and we can't walk away from that."
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