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| The Happenings Feature - A new monthly story about a Brooklyn event that is extra special! |
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The Changing Face of South Brooklyn: The Gallery Players bring Broadway to Park Slope
by Mark D Phillips
Nestled in the basement of the Park Slope Family Neighborhood Center on 14th Street off 4th Avenue is a hidden South Brooklyn jewel.
The Gallery Players, Brooklyn's premiere off-off Broadway theater, is marked by a sign set by a side door of the building leading to their 99-seat space.
 "Local residents don't even know we are here," said Matt Schicker, a board member and heralded director of many of the Players' productions, including their newest, "Side Show," opening February 18, 2006.
With a reputation well beyond the boundaries of South Brooklyn, the Gallery Players have never had a problem filling seats. Their season consists of four plays, three musicals and the annual Black Box New Play Festival, World Premiere performances of works by tri-state area playwrights. And the fact that their alumni make leaps to Broadway hasn't hurt.
"The secret of our success is we treat every production as a professional show," said Schicker. "The Gallery Players have become a great first stop for many new drama graduates nationwide."
People like Harvey Fierstein (a founding member), director John Rando (Tony Award for "Urinetown"), Garrett Long (Drama Desk nominee for "The Spitfire Grill") have all graced the stage of the Gallery Players.
When Matt Schicker moved to south Park Slope in 1998, he went looking for a local theater company. He found the Gallery Players two blocks from his home.
"Back then, people told me this wasn't really Park Slope," he said. "No one on 7th Avenue ever walked down 14th Street to 4th Avenue." With the new restaurant row along Fifth Avenue moving toward their stage, the Players are rethinking their connection to the neighborhood.
With their 40th season approaching, the non-profit organization is looking to court new neighborhood theater-goers and build relationships with local businesses, schools and arts organizations.
"The changing neighborhood has made us reevaluate how we do certain things," said Schicker. "A general management company has been brought in, we have our first relationship with a local business, HasBeans, as our coffee provider at shows."
Last summer, the group began its first musical theater program for kids and hopes to expand the program. The Silas B. Dutcher School, P.S. 124, in Park Slope, is using the stage for school events and performances, and special performances of the shows have been staged for residents of local homeless shelters.
As an Equity Showcase, the Gallery Players have certain limits set by the actors union. Each production runs a total of 16 performances and budgets are tight. But in Matt Schicker's opinion, this is not a minus. Shows known for flashy staging are played in a different light without the flash. Even the playwrights have been impressed with some of the creative solutions used by the Gallery Players.
"It's a great chance to direct a big musical and work with great talent," said Schicker. "We are often granted rights for great plays that other companies our size cannot gain."
One example is "The Full Monty."
"Terrence McNally (author) is one of our regular audience members," said Schicker. "He makes a call to his rights company and said "Let them do it" and we had the first production of the show off-Broadway."
Schicker directed that play and one of the stars, Mitchell Jarvis, moved to Broadway as a cast member in "Fiddler on the Roof."
Since the founding of the group in 1967, over 200 plays and musicals have received their world premieres in Brooklyn. They have included a stage adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit (the prequel to Tolkien's epic The Lord of the Rings) and the East-coast premiere of Animal Fair, a play by Clark Gesner (author of You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown), a devoted friend and supporter of The Gallery Players.
 The annual Black Box New Play Festival, which takes place in June, is a four-weekend series showcasing previously unproduced new works by tri-state area playwrights.
"I got my start directing in the Black Box Festival in 2000," said Schicker. "And I joined the Board of Directors the next year."
The Black Box Festival attracts nationally known playwrights to a workshop environment to polish their works. The writers are forming ongoing relationships to debut and revise new plays. Last season, in a move that is indicative of the changes within their neighborhood, one weekend of the festival was dedicated to Brooklyn plays.
"Side Show," opening February 18 and running through March 12, has a unique Brooklyn touch. The play tells the story of Daisy and Violet Hilton, talented real-life conjoined twins who moved from a carnival side show to vaudeville. Their story was immortalized in the 1932 film, FREAKS. Following the Sunday matinees on Feb. 19th and Feb. 26th, Coney Island performers Amazon and Roc-It of the Disgraceland Family Freak Show will give the audience a special question and answer session.
Rupert Holmes, author of the musical "The Mystery of Edwin Drood," called The Gallery Players "One of New York's secret treasures." In 2000, OOBR (Off-Off-Broadway Review) presented the Gallery Players with its prestigious Award for Lifetime Achievement.
May it be a long, long life.
To learn more about the Gallery Players, visit their website at www.galleryplayers.com |
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Access our Story Archive:
William Wegman surprises and amuses
The Changing Face of South Brooklyn: Montague Street Roulette
Manufactured Landscapes: The Photographs of Edward Burtynsky
The Sopranos invade Brooklyn
150 years of tradition ends in Cobble Hill |
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| Visit our HAPPENINGS page to see more events taking place in South Brooklyn. |
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Produced by
SouthBrooklynInternet. All material ©2006. No reuse without permission.
All photographs ©Mark D Phillips - southbrooklyninternet.com |
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