Firehouse Center for the Arts ready for big run

Jim Sullivan, The Daily News of Newburyport, Mass.
·5 min read

Sep. 15—NEWBURYPORT — The Firehouse Center for the Arts is ready to host a full fall and winter season with wizardry, fake blood and the blues.

Firehouse Executive Director John Moynihan said was able to make it through the shutdowns of the COVID-19 pandemic with a mix of outdoor and eventually indoor musical acts and live theater.

But Moynihan was happy to say the Firehouse will have something going on every weekend until the end of 2022.

"This is what we have always wanted and it is what we have been working for the past two years to get back to. It will be exhausting but we are just so lucky to be able to be here and to be able to support the community and have the community support us," he said.

The Firehouse will host the Newburyport Documentary Film Festival this weekend but the theater will shift to hosting live performances when it presents the new musical "Il Bastardo de Vinci" in partnership with The Actors Studio of Newburyport on Friday, Sept. 23.

"The show goes through The Actors Studio's process of workshopping and script rewriting," Moynihan said. "Together, we partner and produce this new show."

Accusations of wizardry and witches create hysteria in the 15th century during "Il Bastardo de Vinci," which features a book and lyrics by local playwright Camille Garro and is directed by local legend Anna Smulowitz.

A new play written and directed by Jack Neary, "Moonglow," tells the story of a single and sometimes mysterious music teacher and marching band leader who grabs the attention of his younger assistant and begins unraveling his mystery on Thursday, Oct. 6.

Moynihan said the show, which stars local actor John Budzyna as Ray and Ava Valiente as Dorothy, originally premiered in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in the spring and will make its second run at the Firehouse.

"We will be the second showing of this production and it has got some really great, local talent," he said.

Music will take center stage when Matt Lorenz's one-man band, The Suitcase Junket, appears with special guest Al Olender on Saturday, Oct. 15., and Roomful of Blues will play on Sunday, Oct 16.

"The Suitcase Junket is a show if, you haven't seen it, you need to and Roomful of Blues will make a really big sound in a small space," Moynihan said.

Moynihan promised plenty of fake blood, both on and off stage, when "Evil Dead the Musical" arrives for a two-week run at the Firehouse on Friday, Oct. 21.

"This takes the 'Evil Dead" movies, all three of them. It puts them all together in musical form and is as campy as you could want it to be," he said.

Moynihan did, however, go on to warn potential audience members that they may not want to wear their Sunday best to "Evil Dead the Musical."

"The first few rows are what we call 'the Splash Zone' because there is blood that comes out from the stage and there are people with squirt guns who will be squirting fake blood at people all over the stage. It's a really, really fun show," he said.

"The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time" is a play telling the story of a 15-year-old boy who has an extraordinary brain but an inability to interpret everyday life.

The show will begin a three-week run starting Friday, Nov. 4, and blues, soul and Americana singer Shemekia Copeland will close out the year on Friday, Dec. 30.

"She is a powerhouse singer and she is so good. We are super, super excited," Moynihan said.

Monahan also said he is working on bringing back Joppa Dance Company's "The Nutcracker" from Dec. 2-4, and the traditional Theater in the Open holiday panto is expected to run from Dec. 9-18.

"My goal is, when people are looking at what they can do for the weekend, the first thing they ask is, 'What is going on at the Firehouse?' We want people to recognize that we're not just a rest stop between Boston and Portland, and we have so much going on," he said.

Chris Johnston, president of the Firehouse Center for the Arts board of directors, said he echoed Moynihan's wishes.

"If people have one night to go out, we want them to go to the Firehouse" he said.

Johnston added that he has great pride in Newburyport and he wants to make sure it has plenty of arts and culture to offer.

"The fact that we are a Coast Guard city, as well as have a designated cultural district, is something that not many other towns and cities can say. When I look at the Firehouse, we are right at the heart of the action, literally and figuratively. We have a pretty strong responsibility to make sure that there is something for everyone on stage," he said.

For more information and showtimes, go to www.firehouse.org.

Staff writer Jim Sullivan covers Newburyport for The Daily News. He can be reached via email at jsullivan@newburyportnews.com or by phone at 978-961-3145. Follow him on Twitter @ndnsully.

Staff writer Jim Sullivan covers Newburyport for The Daily News. He can be reached via email at jsullivan@newburyportnews.com or by phone at 978-961-3145. Follow him on Twitter @ndnsully.