Three Theatres - Three Times the Fun

Posted by John Steils

I'm just getting used to my new Barksdale and Theatre IV home. Or I guess I should say "homes." I arrived in September after a year-long internship with a single-theatre company in the mid-West, and I was glad to discover that I now had three theatres to explore.

My first exposure was to the historic Empire and it was love at first sight. What a magnificent performance facility. One step inside the door and you feel like you're in a Broadway house that's been transported to Broad Street. As Virginia's oldest theatre, the Empire is one of Richmond's greatest treasures. I loved Stuart Little (I've never seen an actor and puppet become "one" more than David Janeski and young Stuart), and I can't wait for A Christmas Story, Rumpelstiltskin's Daughter, Peter Pan and Guys and Dolls!

I'm reading all the hoopla in the Times-Dispatch about restoring the Carpenter Center. I won't pretend to understand it all, but apparently it's been a crazy ride. That makes me all the more impressed that throughout the last 20 years Theatre IV has owned, restored and maintained the landmark Empire without, I'm told, so much as a paragraph of controversy.

As much as the Empire is a treasure, Barksdale's Willow Lawn home is a jewel. Tom McGranahan--a treasure himself--told me that he used to work in that exact area when he was a Procter & Gamble sales rep and the vast second-floor space that is now an attractive theatre was then a storeroom for the five-and-dime.

The Barksdalians (Barksdalers?) who were responsible for the design and execution of this transformation did an amazing job. I went to see The Member of the Wedding and couldn't have loved it more. It's a perfect, intimate theatre. From the outside, you think it's going to be this tiny shoebox of a space. But then you go up the stairs and enter this huge lobby and fully equipped 204-seat theatre. It's an ideal home for those of us who like to see every expression and hear every word.

I was picking up some fliers from the development office two days ago, and walked into the theatre expecting to revisit the beautiful set for The Member of the Wedding. Instead, it was like entering a jungle. Bruce Rennie, Matt Landwehr, Derek Dumais and Joe Bock were in the middle of the new light hang for Moonlight and Magnolias, and they had disconnected all the lights so that they could re-position and re-connect them to match Lynne Hartman's light design for M & M. Light cables--I think they called them "pigtails"--were dangling down from hundreds of unconnected instruments, making it seem like a small battalion of carnivorous vines (or snakes, being the day before Halloween) was getting ready to attack from the ceiling above the stage.

My first visit to Hanover Tavern was for Deathtrap, so I think I'll always be a little frightened if I have to go out there by myself. When the lighting flashed at the end of Act II, revealing that freaky cigar store Indian that stood at the foot of the stairs, I thought I was seeing a ghost. Jeannie Kilgore told me that Muriel used to swear there was a ghost in the Tavern. Now that Halloween has come and gone, I'll be brave enough to find out more.

If you haven't purchased your tickets yet for A Christmas Story at the Empire (you remember that movie with the leg lamp?), Moonlight and Magnolias at Willow Lawn (a hilarious backstage story about the making of Gone with the Wind), or Swingtime Canteen at the Tavern (a recreation of an actual USO show from the early 40s), please call today.

Whichever show and whichever theatre you choose, you're sure to have a great time! And you'll be doing your part to keep professional theatre in Richmond alive and well.

--John Steils

Serving the Community Both Near and Far

Today we finished a wonderful few weeks of touring the 35-minute radio play version of Arsenic and Old Lace. I’m very proud of this production.

All of us in the cast enjoyed the privilege of performing the show in senior centers and retirement communities throughout Greater Richmond. Phil and I actually acted in this one—something we seldom do. How could we say “no” to the chance to share a stage with such amazing colleagues, most notably our memorable leading ladies, real-life sisters Mary Jane Board and Charlotte McCutcheon? They were terrific—very funny and completely professional. The play also featured the more familiar but equally enjoyable talents of Bob Albertia, Chase Kniffen and Tom McGranahan.

Barksdale’s Bifocals Theatre Project provides a chance for senior actors (55 and up) to perform for senior audiences both near and far (2 shows on our lobby stage at Willow Lawn and 10 performances in various senior enclaves around town). All performances are presented on a sliding scale, with each senior center paying only what it can afford. The Bifocals Theatre Project is another way in which Barksdale reaches out to the community, entertaining and invigorating hundreds of high-spirited Richmonders, many of whom are no longer able to attend our mainstage shows at Willow Lawn and/or Hanover Tavern.

My mother, Amy Miller, is a perfect example of the audience member whom the Bifocals Theatre Project is meant to serve—an audience member who otherwise would be all too easy to overlook. A native New Yorker, my mom was and always will be a true-blue theatre lover. But these days, even though her spirit is willing, her mind is no longer able to make it through a two-hour production, and physically it’s just too difficult for her to leave her safe and comfortable home at Westminster-Canterbury.

And so, through the Bifocals Theatre Project, Barksdale now comes to her—and to hundreds of others who regularly benefit from this exemplary service initiative.

My mom may be 91-years-old, dealing with Alzheimer’s and permanently confined to a wheelchair, but she lit up like a Christmas tree during our recent reading of the Arsenic radio script in Westminster’s beautiful Sara Belle November Theatre. Acting is always fun. Acting in a Bifocals production is not only fun, it’s also uniquely rewarding.

Many thanks to all those who make this and other Bifocals Theatre Project events possible. If you would like to learn more, or participate, or become a sponsor, please contact our Special Projects Manager, Chase Kniffen, at c.kniffen@barksdalerichmond.org . But whatever you do, don’t drink the elderberry wine.