BY TERESE LOEB KREUZER | Whether it was because of the siren call of theater or as some jocularly suggested, the prospect of free food, around 17 people showed up on March 5 at the Downtown Community Center, 120 Warren St., for the first meeting of a group interested in forming a Downtown community theater.
At first, Matthew Fenton said it was the free food that brought him there, but then he said he was really there because he would like to support a community group downtown. He was also there to support his daughter, Katie Jo, who said she wanted to act in something and that she was already singing with Trinity Youth Chorus.
Nicole Teckchandani, 14, also sings with Trinity Youth Chorus and takes acting classes at the Stella Adler Studio. She said she was there because she wanted to act.
Most of the people in the room were three or four times older than Katie Jo or Nicole. They were about evenly divided between those who wanted to be on stage and those who wanted to work on sets and costumes and other aspects of putting on a production.
In addition to those at the meeting, Rosalie Joseph, one of the organizers of the event, said she had received emails from around 20 other people who would have liked to be there that night but who couldn’t make it.
Bob Townley, the other principal organizer and the executive director of Manhattan Youth, said that he didn’t see himself as having much of a role in the proposed theater group except to help get it going. “We can provide a place for rehearsals, stages and some funding,” he said.
Townley also provided the food for the evening (bagels, cheese, carrot sticks, hummus, coffee, tea and cider) as well as some some advice.
“I think it’s not easy to do a community theater group,” said Townley. “The project has to be focused. You have to get one production under your belt. This will probably need a staff member or an organizer.”
Theseus Roche, a member of the Manhattan Youth staff, who has directed “10 or 12 plays at middle schools,” said he was eager to “expand that mission to the community.” He envisioned the theater group doing both new and classical works, with two or three main performances in a calendar year. He also thought that the group could do workshops and a reading series of original, classical and contemporary plays.
The group agreed to meet on Mondays at 6:30 p.m. to work out how to proceed and what kind of show or shows to put on. Rosalie Joseph said that she hoped the first production or presentation could be staged in September.
Joseph and Roche asked people who wish to be a part of the theater group to email them with ideas of what they would like to work on. Their emails are Theseus@ManhattanYouth.org and RosalieBPC@gmail.com.
