2534 NW 52nd Avenue
Gainesville, Florida 32605
Gainesville, Florida 32605
Chekhov used to say, I have my own theater, and people assumed he was talking about the Moscow Art Theatre, but then Chekhov would tap his forehead and say, . . . in here.
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2534 NW 52nd Avenue
Gainesville, Florida 32605 |
Chekhov used to say, I have my own theater, and people assumed he was talking about the Moscow Art Theatre, but then Chekhov would tap his forehead and say, . . . in here. |
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Parallel Universe 9/26/03, University of Florida – Constans Theatre, Civic Media Center Merry Xmas 12/2/02, Common Grounds, Gainesville FL Nocturne 10/3/02, Common Grounds Americaıs New War Strikes Back 12/27/01, Civic Media Center, Gainesville FL Fill My Cup, 12/9/01, Full Circle, Gainesville The Votive Pit, 11/25/01, St. Mark Theatre, NYC; 11/18/01, Crane Theatre, NYC Remembrance of Fancy Nancy Past, or In Search of Lost Tim, 8/10/01, Full Circle The Case of the Missing Numbers, 3/5/01, Limelight Theatre, St. Augustine FL Phone, Time, Infernal Bridegroom in Cheese
(with the Rapscallions of the Periphery) Agons to Homeless, (in collaboration with Arupa Chiarini) 11/6 –11/14/99, Merry Xmas Nocturne Americaıs New War Strikes Back! Production Chronology(1978 to present) The Canterville Ghost (freely adapted from Oscar Wildeıs short story) Chicago, 1978-80, The Truck, Inc. M&M Productions, Key West Marjorie Cordially and the Rhyming Machine Chicago, 1978-80, The Truck, Inc. M&M Productions, Key West, featuring Celeste Day, 1979-81 The Case of the Missing Numbers M&M Productions, Key West THE TRUE RE-OPENING OF THE RED BARN THEATER(See Key West Citizen Review, February 8, 1980!) Key Westıs Red Barn Theatre now claims in its Official History that the Red Barn Theatre was re-opened in November of 1980 after Director Richard Magesis "in the tradition of Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney declared, Letıs do a play.ı" Actually thatıs about all Magesis did besides drink coffee and smoke cigarettes with his crony Ruth Newton, whose name strangely has also been excised from the Official History even though she directed the bogus maiden production of Line in November 1980. The fact of the matter appears in the opening paragraph of Betty Williamsı review in The Key West Citizen entitled "Missing Numbers: A Play You Can Count On":
The Official History of the Red Barn Theatre paints the picture this way: ". . . The Barn fell into a state of dormancy during most of the 70ıs, but in 1979, a young director from New York named Richard Magesis looked at the long neglected little building and in the best tradition of Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney declared, Letıs do a play!ı So in the fall of 1980, Technical Director Gary McDonald and a spirited crew of artists and technicians renovated the Barn, installing old theatre seats from the Navy Base, risers, and a new stage." Actually what they did was ruin the theater. Hereıs how it really happened. By the fall of 1979, before Magesis ever arrived on the island, Ruth Newton had wormed her way into the Womenıs Club to get cheap rent on the space known as the Little Red Barn, originally the carriage house for "Key Westıs Oldest House," which is across Duval Street. The Key West Community Players made the carriage house into a theater in the 1940s and used it until the 60s, when they acquired the "magnificent" Waterfront Theatre in Mallory Square. In the 60s, the concert pianist Yehuda Guttman and his wife Joan performed concerts and puppet shows in the Barn. And, in the late 60s, Tennessee Williams is said to have staged (not premiered?) two of his one-acts there (which ones?), but thatıs according to the Barnıs Official History so who knows if itıs true? Part of Ruth Newtonıs pitch to the Womenıs Club, a real selling point, was that the Red Barn Theatre would of course include Childrenıs Theatre. The good women of the Womenıs Club made it clear to Ruthie: no Childrenıs Theatre, no Little Red Barn. And thatıs where M&M Prodcutions comes in, the foremost practitioners of childrenıs theater in the Keys, hot off three years in Chicago with The Truck, Inc., where Bub and I had honed our skills in front of thousands of kids. Ruthie cut a deal with us: help her put the theater together and we would be the official childrenıs theater of the Red Barn, and we could do midnight shows of other plays in and around her companyıs season. Perfect. Thatıs when Magesis showed up. The doors of the Red Barn hadnıt been opened in ten years. The place was full of junk and covered with layers of dust, but Ruthie and Richard wanted to go charging in there and throw paint on it. We told them (Bub had been building sets with Michael Merritt in Chicago for five years): you canıt paint dirt. And so they agreed to let us clean the place up and paint it – in preparation for the re-opening of the Red Barn Theatre in February, 1980. We did just that. And we opened The Red Barn Theater on February 8 of 1980 just the way Betty Willams and The Key West Citizen reported it. The Red Barn was a wonderful space that February night. Bub devised islands of modular seating, so that audience members found themselves within the cartoon world of Dan Man, Detective. That summer, the summer of 1980, before "Gary McDonald and a spirited crew of artists and technicians renovated the Barn, installing theatre seats from the Navy base, risers, and a new stage", The Red Barn Theatre was alive with kids putting together the premiere of Long, Long Ago, and Far, Far Away, on an Island in the Sea, a production of the Key West Kids Ensemble that opened at the Red Barn Theatre in July, 1980. That fall, yes, then it is true, McDonald and his cohorts showed up with the seats, and we begged them, pleaded with them, whatever you do: DONıT BOLT THE SEATS INTO THE FLOOR! Because what will happen then, which is of course exactly what did happen, is that the theater will forever be locked into a proscenium setting, locked into one way of seeing a play, making a play. The theater will be ruined as an experimental space. With modular seating, you can still do proscenium plays if you want to, but you donıt have to; a world of possibilities is open to you. But by the fall of 1980, the seats were bolted to the floor, and the rest is history. The Case of the Missing Numbers was also produced by M&M Productions . . . . . . at the Tennessee Williams Fine Arts Center, 1981 The Case of the Missing Numbers . . . was also produced by The Golden Apple Dinner Theater And at the Limelight Theatre in St. Augustine FL in the spring of 2001 The Mark Book Show Long Long Ago and Far Far Away on an Island in the Sea . . . The Invisible Guy, The Best Christmas You Ever Had The Crazy Warehouse The Misadventures of Doctor Sureback and His Time Machine Acrosstown Repertory Theatre, Gainesville FL, 1997 The Queen of Outer Space The Game Game Play Money President Lear Las Palabras del Mar Androcles and the Lion The Princess and the Pea Keys Boston Baked Bean Ball Scenes from the Cold War Every Tear from Every Eye Phone, Time, Every Tear, Mangrove Macbeth Sctochıd the Snake (adaptation) Dickensı Dilemma (adaptation) Weather or Not The Infernal Bridegroom & Phone The Votive Pit Boston Baked Bean Spoken Word at Full Circle and the Civic Media Center 2001-2002Why Donıt You Go...Yourself? Marvin the Marxist |