Makeshift Theater debuts with summer of rehearsed reading matinees, evening show 'Looped'
A new community theater will launch in Akron this weekend — Makeshift Theater.
The brain child of former Judge Jane Bond, the nonprofit organization will launch with a series of senior matinees starting Saturday and Sunday with a dramatic reading of "Symbol or Substance?" The play is adapted by a local cast from author Peter Kreeft's book presenting a fictional theological conversation among C.S. Lewis, Billy Graham and J.R.R. Tolkien about the Eucharist.
The reading, directed by James McGuire, will be at 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, as well as June 15 and 16 at 833 Carroll St. in Akron. Cost is $5. Randy Malick, Roland Moore, McGuire and Marc Dusini will perform.
The first reading kicks off senior matinees that will be held each weekend featuring themes and issues that are of special interest to seniors but intended for everyone. Each is a rehearsed reading by local actors.
"We really want to get we want to get people of all ages involved in productions," Bond said.
Senior matinees coming to Makeshift Theater this summer
Here are the other senior matinees that will run this summer:
The popular two-person play "Love Letters" by A.R. Gurney at 2 p.m. June 1-2 and June 8-9. The popular, two-person play has been a star vehicle for numerous actors since it premiered in 1989. Rose Gabriel and Bob Kenderes will star.
"Camping with Henry and Tom" at 2 p.m. June 22-23 and 29-30. The 1995 play by Mark St. Germain is inspired by an actual 1921 event when President Warren G. Harding took a camping trip in the Maryland woods with Henry Ford and Thomas Edison.
"The West Side Waltz" at 2 p.m. July 13-14 and 20-21. Ernest Thompson's drama, directed by Matthew Wilks, starred Katharine Hepburn on Broadway in 1981-1982. In this story, aging widowed pianist Margaret Mary Elderdice plays duets with prim neighbor Cara and hires a kooky actress as her live-in companion.
"The Ancient Mariner" at 2 p.m. Aug. 3-4 and Aug. 10-11. Directed by Geoffrey Darling.
"The Velocity of Autumn" at 2 p.m. Aug. 24-25 and Aug. 31-Sept. 1. Sarah Parr will direct Cleveland Heights playwright Eric Coble's drama, which has the elderly Alexandra raging as she barricades herself from her children in her Brooklyn brownstone. The dark comedy played on Broadway in 2014.
Evening shows also offered this summer
Makeshift Theater also will begin a second series of shows called Evening Innovations this summer, running at 8 p.m. Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. The first will be the comedy "Looped," starring local actress Dede Klein as the outrageous Talulah Bankhead. Directed by Wilks, the show will run at 8 p.m. June 14-16 and June 21-23 at the Carroll Street location.
Cost for the evening shows is $10. For more information as well as the summer calendar, see makeshiftakron.org.
Those who would like to volunteer to usher or sell concessions at the summer shows can email Bond at makeshiftakron@gmail.com.
Shows to run at temporary location
Makeshift Theater's shows are running temporarily at the Carroll Street location, a converted church in Akron's Middlebury neighborhood that's owned by Oriana House. The agency, which provides addiction, mental health and community corrections services, uses the building as a training facility.
The new Makeshift Theater will later move into its permanent home at 243 Furnace St. in Akron. The property, formerly owned by WhiteSpace Creative, has a theater space in its concrete-front warehouse addition where Rubber City Theatre formerly operated. Most of the rest of the warehouse building had not been renovated under previous ownership.
Correctional Health Services, a for-profit subsidiary of the nonprofit Oriana House whose purpose is to make investments on behalf of Oriana House, owns the Furnace Street property. Correctional Health Services is renovating the three-story, 1893 brick building as well as the attached, six-floor 1920s warehouse building to create 48 apartments called the Furnace Street Flats, said Bernie Rochford, who's overseeing the project.
The property is next to a 13-acre stretch of vacant property on Furnace Street between Summit Street and North Street that Oriana House owns and plans to develop.
After acquiring the property at 243 Furnace St., Oriana House CEO Jim Lawrence invited theater-lover Bond — who formerly ran the Summit StageFest and volunteered at Coach House Theater — to take over the Furnace Street theater space. She said she wanted to create a theater arts incubator there as well as senior programming and drama therapy programs.
Rochford, whose work with Oriana House goes back nearly 39 years, said the nonprofit's partnership with Bond is a natural one.
"We've worked with her for decades, back when she was general counsel for the county, on community corrections, and when she was a Common Pleas Court judge, obviously, we were a referral source for her," he said. "And her husband, Jim Wagner, is the chairman of the board of directors for Oriana House. So all that kind of came together."
Correctional Health Facilities also plans to have music concerts in the theater space, Rochford said.
Makeshift will be offering the theater to be used as a temporary space for community artists to do their own creative work. That can include readings of unpublished plays, monologue practice by actors and performances by improv groups. Existing theatrical groups that don't have a home and need space to perform also are welcome.
Makeshift Theater will sell tickets and provide the space, lighting and sound. Bond intends to keep production aspects lean, including simple sets that use a projector.
Furnace Street renovation details
Perspectus Architecture of Cleveland is developing plans to renovate both buildings, including the theater, Rochford said. That will include a renovated theater in roughly the same space as where Rubber City Theatre was on the first floor. Rochford said upgrades may involve seating configuration, sound and lighting.
Bond said the new theater will have a thrust stage. She also envisions a small cafe/cabaret space with hightop tables adjacent to the theater seating.
The brick building, which underwent a $2.5 million renovation by White House Properties, housed WhiteSpace Creative offices from 2017 to 2019 and White Hot Properties until 2021. The 1893 building, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, was formerly the Akron Soap Factory, Pioneer Cereal Co. and Pockrandt Paint Co.
The adjoining concrete-front building was called Federal Warehouse and Storage in the 1920s, Rochford said. That building's lower floor currently houses Akron Recording Co. and Wired Electric.
Correction Health Services' requests for construction bids went out last week. Construction is expected to take nine to 12 months, Rochford said.
Therapeutic theater partnership has started
Makeshift Theater also is doing a therapeutic theater pilot program in conjunction with the Turning Point addiction treatment program of Summit County Common Pleas Court's Felony Drug Court. The partnership includes the Second Act drama therapy organization and Oriana House.
The therapeutic theater instructors were trained in October and the current Turning Point class has been working on a play that it wrote and will perform for their graduation June 4. Michael Cranston of Makeshift Theater is directing the play.
The goal is to make the therapeutic theater pilot program one of Makeshift's regular programs.
Arts and restaurant writer Kerry Clawson may be reached at 330-996-3527 or kclawson@thebeaconjournal.com.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: New Makeshift Theater kicks off this weekend on east side of Akron
