A read through for “The Man Who Came to Dinner.” Left to right are cast members Norman Metz, Gilana Chelimsky, Larry Picard and Taylor Raucher.
Photo credit: Michael Budnick
Now that we are a few years removed from the coronavirus pandemic, the theater scene in the area is persevering through challenges, and in a lot of cases, thriving thanks to a new crop of theater groups and established entities making their mark.
“We know that this area is really ripe for theater,” said Michael Budnick, the president of Easthampton Theater Company. “When we put the word out that we wanted to start a theater company in Easthampton, the response was great.”
Budnick, whose been a part of the region’s theater scene in many capacities for years, joined a group of other local residents in the area to officially begin Easthampton Theater Company in early 2023 after many people expressed interest in the idea while conversing through a Facebook group Budnick started a few years ago called the “Easthampton Theater Development Group.”
The company’s inception coincided with a time period where the Easthampton arts and cultural scene was on the rise, especially with the reopening of the Marigold Theater and seismic renovations of the CitySpace Blue Room in the Old Town Hall, the 1,600-square-foot, 100 seat/230 person standing performance space.
So far, the company has achieved what they have set out to do, and more, according to Budnick. The organization features six board members that all have a long history of involvement in the theater scene and consistently has a goal of producing “true, accessible community theater” that people can engage with on an emotional and cerebral level.
Since its beginning, the company has produced two sold out shows at the CitySpace Blue Room, “God of Carnage” and “Torch Song,” and as of press time, were in the middle of their third production at the Williston Northampton School Theater, which seats around 240: thereminder.com/local-news/easthampton-theater-company-partners-with-williston-northampton/, called “The Man Who Came to Dinner.”
“We’re doing really well, we have more volunteers than ever, we have set builders, we have technical folks that have come out for us, and we have put on very high quality productions,” Budnick said. “It’s also just been friendly and fun group to be a part of.”
While there are many established theater groups in the area, a few of whom Reminder Publishing talked to for this temperature check story, Easthampton Theater Company is part of a recent surge in community theater organizations in the area.
One of those, South Hadley Players, just had its first season, according to Cynthia Strycharz, the founder of the group.
“I just think people are thrilled to be back doing live theater,” Strycharz said, when asked why she thinks there has been such a hunger for theater over the past couple of years. “COVID really brought us inward, and now, I think people are really just wanting to express their emotions.”
The South Hadley Players is far from Strycharz’s first foray into the theater scene. She founded the South Hadley Community Theatre in the early 1980s, later renamed Black Cat Theatre, and she also currently serves as the artistic director for Starlight’s Youth Theatre. The latter is currently in its 18th year and works with children from grades 1-12.
Prior to that designation, Strycharz was also owner and director of Starlight’s Productions, which ran for 12 years before it was turned into a nonprofit.
South Hadley Players started immediately after Black Cat Theatre ended.
A lot of the people who are involved with the newly formed South Hadley Players were a part of the South Hadley Community Theatre, according to Strycharz.
“Even if its our first season, a lot of these people have been around for a while,” she said. “They’re thrilled to have a group back in South Hadley.”
According to Strycharz, people are a lot busier than they once were. A cast that in the past may have been as big as 60 is typically reduced to 30 because of that, but nonetheless, Strycharz said she has seen the hunger for live theater and expressed similar jubilation as Budnick about the future of the theater scene in the area.
In its first year, South Hadley Players already produced a rendition of Mary Poppins that garnered around 200 audience members each night at the South Hadley High School featuring generations of cast members that included children, parents and grandparents.
The Players are planning to produce a Wizard of Oz show later this year in November.
“The first year has been great,” said Strycharz. “Everyone involved is enthusiastic about it. They all need it, and the audiences have been great.”
Another reason why the theater scene is currently growing is because of a burgeoning organization focusing primarily on the developmental stages of a specific playwright’s work rather than the totality of a final production.
Play Incubation Collective technically started in 2019 by Co-founders Rachel Hirsch and Sarah Marcus, but Hirsch said the collective has really started to hit its stride over the past couple years.
“We’re really more of an incubation space and a convener,” Hirsch said. “We’re really bringing lots of folks and entities throughout the theater community in the region together.”
Through ongoing programming like its Plays in Progress Series, the collective brings audiences and playwrights together for a collaborative experience where a playwright will read an early draft of their original work, and then a conversation between the audience and the playwright will ensue to help develop and bolster the piece for the future.
The events usually draw playwrights, actors, directors and other community theatergoers, which Hirsch said helps because playwrights will get theater-informed responses and other civilian responses.
“Not only is that incredibly beneficial for the piece, but I think it’s beneficial to the future of theater when you allow an audience into a behind-the-scenes work,” Hirsch said. “If there’s greater appreciation for what it takes, then audiences will continue to support new work in the region.”
Hirsch said that turnout for the events could range from 30 to 80 people and Play Incubation Collective has been able to support eight works in progress so far through the program. They also host other programs for children as well as another running event called a “Roving Salon,” where creators of all sorts can present five to 10-minute excerpts of works-in-progress to audiences.
That event is running a lot this summer.
“We’re bringing audiences from all over, including artists and non-artists, and we have worked with actors and writers who are associated with other organizations in the area,” Hirsch said. “And also, by creating this partnership with the audience, we’re really creating this welcoming environment where people feel comfortable enough to interact.”
Hirsch said that the collective became particularly important during the coronavirus pandemic time because they were a lifeline for people who could not do in-person production work.
“Development work really lent itself well to a Zoom format,” Hirsch said. “We met weekly and read through plays that were submitted, and we built this really strong set of community that grew during the pandemic.”
Hirsch shared that it was tricky to get back into the swing of things post coronavirus pandemic, but she feels like things have revved up at this point and she feels the hunger of theater at the local level.
“I think that the local theaters who are doing production work are on the other side of the pandemic, are being bolder about the work that they’re putting up on the stages,” Hirsch said. “I think audiences are kind of just stomping at the bit for whatever they can find, and so they’re more open to newer work than they would have been previously.”
General optimism, but still some challenges remain
Everyone Reminder Publishing talked to for this story expressed general optimism for where the theater scene in the region is at and where it is going.
“I’m optimistic that theater will always be a part of Western Mass.,” said Eddie Zitka, the president and artistic director of K and E Theater, which is based in Easthampton and Northampton. “We have so many creative people here, not just actors, but lighting designers, directors, choreographers, makeup artists, musicians; I mean the list goes on.”
K and E Theater Group started in 2017 by Zitka and Vice President Ken Comia as a nonprofit entity that produces dramatic art entertainment at Northampton Center for the Arts. According to Zitka, the group likes to produce shows that typically are not as well-known and are part of a specific theme that they choose for a specific season.
Their most recent for example, “Zanna, Don’t,” is a vibrant, feel-good musical set in a parallel universe where homosexuality is the norm and heterosexuality is taboo. The play was part of their “Coming Out With Pride” series that they do annually each June to celebrate Pride Month.
Because the group is shining a light on these lesser-known works, Zitka said the audiences they garner will typically ebb and flow, but regardless, Zitka said he enjoys directing shows that push him to think and ones that will resonate with audiences.
“We have a lot of wonderful theater people who are wonderful patrons for us, but we sometimes have a hard time finding patrons that are not theater people who are just the avid theater lover to come to our shows because most of our productions are titles that are not known,” Zitka said. “It ebbs and flows depending on what our title is.”
Zitka also said that K and E always draws a plethora of actors to their auditions, and they have been able to bring a nice mix of returnees and newcomers to the stage.
“This is really a labor of love for us,” said Comia, who added that they pay a small stipend to everyone at the end of each production. “And the area has a chock full of talent and we’ve had the privilege of putting on our stages.”
Almost all of the people Reminder Publishing talked too, including K and E Theater, said that the dearth of rehearsal and set space in the region is one of the biggest challenges community theater groups currently face.
David Mullins, the chair of the Amherst Community Theater Board, said that the longtime theater group of over 30 years said they are always scrounging for spaces to build sets, which is a problem that persists for a lot of theater groups, he shared.
“All of these theater groups need a space to build sets, but we don’t have a place that we can call our own that is suitable to build sets,” Mullins said.
Zitka, meanwhile, said that K and E is lucky to have Northampton Center for the Arts as a “fantastic” space and an important haven for artists performers, students, educators and others to host events and classes, but the lack of rehearsal space continues to be an issue for theater groups.
In K and E’s case, Zitka said they will often have to build sets in his dad’s garage before transferring them to the venue where they are performing.
A lot of these groups are just trying to get by and a lot of them are trying to find places where they can rehearse and build sets,” Zitka said. “With how many theater companies in the area there are now, it’d be beneficial if more performance spaces and rehearsal spaces popped up.”
Budnick and Strycharz agreed that this is a pervasive issue in the area. Budnick in particular said that generous community centers in churches have donated their space for rehearsal in the past, but it is still something they have to think about.
“Rehearsal space and set building space is challenging for any community theater that does not have its own home, because you’ve got to do stuff outside, you’ve got to pay for it, you’ve got to build sets in one location, and they have to be mobile enough to be able to move them in,” said Budnick. “And you usually have a confined period of time to move everything in to where you’re performing.”
Hirsch said that finding a space like 33 Hawley St. in Northampton has been beneficial to them because it allows Play Incubation Collective to be as accessible and as welcoming as possible, and they are also able to focus more of their time on the programs they offer.
“There’s just not a lot of spaces at a price point that most organizations can afford around here,” Hirsch said. “And so, we’ve been really grateful to have an opportunity to be in a space that’s affordable for us for this year. I would love to see more and more spaces that are made available to artists in that way in our area.”
These issues are exacerbated by the fact that a lot of these groups are nonprofits, or soon-to-be nonprofits that rely heavily on community donations to support its artists and productions and finding spaces.
“I think some people are able to prioritize finding the perfect space,” Hirsch said. “But if you’re like us, you’re just really trying to retain that money. For the artists themselves it becomes really complicated finding, finding space.”
To try and alleviate some of the space concerns, Mullins said that Amherst Community Theater, which puts together one full-scale musical each year at Bowker Auditorium in the University of Massachusetts Amherst, has joined with other nonprofit groups in Amherst to work on a building that meets all the needs for production space.
“We want to create something under one roof for rehearsals, for set-building, costume building and costume storage,” Mullins said. “We’re hoping to get something done with this new group.”
Despite those space challenges, as well as the ebbs and flows of running a group as a nonprofit with a typically low budget, everyone is excited about where theater is at right now.
Sue Dziura, an associate producing director for Majestic Theater in West Springfield, said the staple initially struggled to bring back audiences to their venue and café initially after the worst of the coronavirus pandemic, but she said financially, they are “beyond that now.”
“I think we’re in great shape now,” Dziura said. “We really found our groove this season, our audience numbers are great, and I think the work that we did was really successful and really well-received.”
Every season, the Majestic typically consists of five productions, including one musical, featuring local actors. They also run children’s theater programs, concerts, plays, open mic nights and improvisational comedy shows.
Dziura said Majestic has sustained success for the last 27 years because they always keep the audience in mind when they pick their shows, and they are always able to draw a robust selection of actors during their auditions. She said this year, there were around 230 actors who came out to audition for the season.
“The mission of Majestic is to give local performers and technicians a professional place to work,” Dziura said. “We also know our audience and what they like. We spend a lot of time talking to them and we choose shows that we think will connect with them.”
Like others Reminder Publishing talked to, Dziura is very happy with where theater is now.
“There are so many university theaters, community theaters and smaller companies that are doing incredible work,” Dziura said. “I’m incredibly hopeful.”
Strycharz said she has seen some real growth in the theater scene since the coronavirus pandemic and she hopes the scene continues to grow on a grander level.
“I think theater is in a lot healthier of a place than it was four years ago,” Strycharz said. “I’m hoping it becomes something that is a must. I need this; it makes me happy.”
Mullins, who has been with Amherst Community Theater since their 1995 run of “Annie,” said that theater has gotten stronger in the Pioneer Valley since when he first got involved in this group.
“When we were getting started, there wasn’t much theater in the valley,” shared Mullins. “Now, there’s a lot of interest in it and it’s being developed broadly.”
Budnick thinks it will continue to strengthen, especially since their group marinates in a community like Easthampton where economic vitality is a major component of the city’s ecosystem.
“These types of theater art programs bring people to downtown Easthampton,” Budnick said. “They eat, shop and walk our streets … I think it’s part of the community’s vibrancy.
Hirsch is also optimistic about the future of the scene, especially since a lot of local organizations are branching out to find new actors to work with, which she said was not common when she moved to the area several years ago.
She also expressed excitement about the fact that there is more cross collaboration and efforts to support arts organizations at a grassroots level to see what their needs are in a more rural community.
She said she would love to see more of these collaborations as well as an effort to pay artists better, but she is starting to see the seeds planted.
“I think we have the ability to support a full theatrical economy in this area that like artists should be able to live here and be artists full time,” noted Hirsch. “And I think we can get there as a community. I just think it’s going to take a long time, but I’m seeing the baby steps in the greater community to start to try and reach toward that goal, which I’m excited about.”
Reminder Publishing reached out to other groups for this story but did not hear back as of press time.
