Check out this great article on our new Second Space series on mlive.com! Our first show of the season opens July 18th, so be sure and pick up your tickets at the Actors’ Theatre website.
Actors’ Theatre moves to second space for two summer shows
By Sue Merrell | grentertainment@mlive.com
GRAND RAPIDS, MI — Summer is the time for new adventures, traveling to new places, tasting new foods, trying new activities.
Actors’ Theatre, which has offered a September to May season for 32 years, is venturing out for something new this summer, offering two shows in the contemporary black box space of Dog Story Theater. The first, “The Beauty Queen of Leenane,” opens Thursday, July 18, for nine performances. The second, “ Circle Mirror Transformation,” runs Aug. 22-Sept. 1.
“We always have some plays that don’t fit into the season,” said Chris Carnevale, director of operations. “These are shows we wanted to share with the community. And it is a way for people to enjoy Actors in the summer as well.”
Actors’ Theatre is built upon a partnership with Grand Rapids Community College and has always performed in the college’s Spectrum Theater. During the summers, however, Spectrum’s main stage is being used by Heritage Theatre Group and Jewish Theatre Grand Rapids. The theater has a black box space in an upstairs classroom, but it accommodates about half the audience of the 70-seat Dog Story space.
“This is another way to reach out to new audiences and to spotlight a new venue for our patrons,” Carnevale said. “We love our home at Spectrum but we like to work with all the theaters in the community.”
“It’s a different space with the audience on two sides,” said Fred Sebulske, who is directing “The Beauty Queen of Leenane.” “It takes me back to my early days in the old Circle Theatre.”
Sebulske said he has wanted to direct this dark Irish comedy for more than a decade but it never quite fit into the main stage schedule at Actors’ Theatre.
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Read the rest of the article, including information on our other Second Space series production, Circle Mirror Transformation on www.mlive.com. Tickets, show times and other information can be found at the Actors’ Theatre website: www.atgr.org
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