Vermont theater companies announce changes and fresh productions for fall
Theater companies have taken a particular hit from the COVID-19 pandemic. Some have had to tighten belts as productions have been canceled or postponed and audiences have returned only sporadically since the virus struck in March 2020.
Burlington’s professional-theater company is taking a different approach. Instead of cutting, Vermont Stage is adding. The organization in its 28th season has hired its first-ever executive director, Vermont native Noah Blocker-Glynn, to help usher its longtime audience back into the theater and bring in new audiences.
“Right now our world is looking at the performing arts as a salve and social-conversation piece,” according to Blocker-Glynn, who joined Vermont Stage in early September. “I think we’re primed as a culture and society to begin some conversations that are only going to support our community and make it a better place.”
Other changes are coming to the Burlington theater scene as well. An underground favorite — the Off Center for the Dramatic Arts — is making a comeback.
Opening with ‘The Pitmen Painters’
Vermont Stage opens its 2022-23 season Wednesday, Sept. 28 with “The Pitmen Painters.” The company lost the end of the 2019-20 season and the 2020-21 season to the pandemic.
Vermont Stage returned for a full season in 2021-22 but reduced crowd sizes when it blocked off several seats in the Main Street Landing Performing Arts Center to create social distancing to guard against COVID-19. Theater audiences tend to skew toward an older demographic considered more at risk from the serious effects of COVID-19, which has kept some theater-goers away from indoor productions.
Theater companies will continue short-term to stagger out of the pandemic, according to Blocker-Glynn. The key, he said, is to look not just at the here-and-now but at the long view for theater companies and their audiences.
“The pandemic on many fronts opened the eyes of companies and other performing-arts organizations to really think of how we cultivate and develop audiences,” said Blocker-Glynn, who grew up in Wells River and most recently served as associate dean of The Hartt School for music, dance and theater at the University of Hartford.
Artistic director Cristina Alicea and her small staff who were busy organizing productions lacked the “bodies and bandwidth” to focus on the duties an executive director can take on, Blocker-Glynn said. He’ll seek grants and other sources of fundraising to help Vermont Stage rebuild audiences and better communicate that the company is not as “inaccessible or stuffy” as some in the community might envision.
Blocker-Glynn wants to look at programming and engagement with the community that “creates an onramp for new audiences” — including “under-resourced populations” — and demystifies what theater companies offer.
“Where Vermont Stage has an opportunity is to introduce new people to that art,” Blocker-Glynn said. “That in large part takes time and resources.”
Off Center for the Dramatic Arts returns
A theater organization in Burlington that shut down in 2020 is returning in a new location.
The Off Center for the Dramatic Arts, which hosted small, often avant-garde productions in a space in the Old North End, will resurface in November in a new venue in the Ethan Allen Shopping Center on North Avenue.
“For ten years dedicated Off Center community volunteers worked to make theater production accessible to Vermont performing artists at all levels of experience and funding,” board president Laura Roald said last week in a news release announcing the Off Center’s rebirth. “Closing our doors in July 2020 was heartbreaking, but that depressing COVID hibernation means we bring a fresh spirit of theatrical renewal to our new space and neighborhood.”
The Off Center location in the New North End will provide space for up to 80 audience members. The organization is booking shows, classes and rehearsals for dates starting in November, and will hold a grand-opening celebration coinciding with its 8th Fringe Festival running Dec. 8-11.
Vermont fall theater season
Vermont theater productions this fall include:
Through Sunday, Oct. 23, the Tony Award-winning rock musical “Spring Awakening” presented by Northern Stage keeps going from its Sept. 27 opening in the Byrne Theater, Barrett Center for the Arts, White River Junction. $10-$69. www.northernstage.org
Wednesday, Sept. 28-Sunday, Oct. 16, Vermont Stage finally presents its pandemic-delayed production “The Pitmen Painters,” Main Street Landing Performing Arts Center, Burlington. $31.05-$38.50. www.vermontstage.org
Wednesday, Sept. 28-Sunday, Oct. 23, “Woody Sez: The Life & Music of Woody Guthrie” continues its run that began Sept. 28 at the Weston Theater Company, Walker Farm Theater, Weston. $25-$74. www.westontheater.org
Thursday, Sept. 29-Saturday, Oct. 15, the Stowe Theatre Guild offers up the Stephen Sondheim production “A Little Night Music,” Town Hall Theatre, Stowe. $15-$20. www.stowetheatre.com
4:30 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 2 and 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 4, Very Merry Theater stages the family-friendly production “Pinocchio,” O.N.E. Community Center, Burlington. Free. www.verymerrytheatre.org
Thursday, Oct. 6-Sunday, Oct. 23, the musical revue “Side by Side by Sondheim” arrives at Lost Nation Theater, Montpelier City Hall Arts Center. $10-$35. www.lostnationtheater.org
7:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 6, the Broadway musical “Chicago” stops for one night only at the Flynn, Burlington. $36-$98. www.flynnvt.org
Friday, Oct. 7-Saturday, Oct. 15, the romantic comedy “Almost, Maine” is staged by The Shelburne Players, Shelburne Town Center. $15-$20. www.shelburneplayers.com
Friday, Oct. 7-Sunday, Oct. 16, the Middlebury Acting Company stages the Joshua Harmon drama “Admissions,” Town Hall Theater, Middlebury. $15-$30. www.townhalltheater.org
Friday, Oct. 7-Saturday, Oct. 22, the Essex Community Players tackle Neil Simon’s “Laughter on the 23rd Floor,” Memorial Hall, Essex. $14-$18. www.essexplayers.com
Friday, Oct. 7-Sunday, Oct. 23, the Valley Players perform a 1940s-radio-style script reading of a theatrical version of “The Great Gatsby,” Valley Players Theater, Waitsfield. $14-$18. www.valleyplayers.com
Thursday, Nov. 10-Sunday, Nov. 13, there’s more Stephen Sondheim to be seen and heard when Lyric Theatre presents his twist-on-a-fairy-tale musical “Into the Woods,” the Flynn, Burlington. $19-$45. www.lyrictheatrevt.org
Contact Brent Hallenbeck at bhallenbeck@freepressmedia.com. Follow Brent on Twitter at www.twitter.com/BrentHallenbeck.
This article originally appeared on Burlington Free Press: Fall 2022 theater: Vermont Stage's new leader, Off Center's return
