OKC's Carpenter Square Theatre playing out 40th anniversary season in new downtown home

Playing a savvy art dealer named Sagot, Terry Veal doesn't appear on stage until halfway through Act 1 of Carpenter Square Theatre's new production of Steve Martin's uproarious comedy "Picasso at the Lapin Agile."

After two years of waiting, though, the longtime local actor and director is just happy to be performing at all in the venerable nonprofit theater's new home in downtown Oklahoma City — even if it means his entrance doesn't come right at the beginning of the absurdist show.

"I've performed or directed in something with Carpenter every season since the first season, so I'm pretty proud of that. So, I've been here with all the moves. I was directing 'Reefer Madness' when the flood hit Stage Center," Veal recalled.

"I was in the last show over on Main Street, and I think I directed the last show at the show-tel before we moved from there. ... It's been a pretty tough, long journey, but we've made it. So, It's been real important for me to be in this show just because of everything we've been through and how I've been with the theater all these years."

After more than four years of construction delays, cost overruns, supply chain challenges, labor shortages, fundraising holdups, a warehouse fire and a global pandemic, Carpenter Square Theatre is finally debuting its new home at 1009 W Reno with its July 7-29 performances of "Picasso at the Lapin Agile."

The converted warehouse is designed to be the long-running community theater's "forever home," said longtime Executive Artistic Director Rhonda Clark.

"We signed the lease for this building four years ago, and COVID struck. So, we were doing renovations — or trying to do renovations — during COVID, and sometimes we would have contractors and workers here. And sometimes they would say, 'I can't do anymore for you. I don't have enough workers anymore.' So, then we would find more," said Clark, who is directing Carpenter Square's long-awaited production of "Picasso at the Lapin Agile."

"Given all of those things, it's really remarkable that we are here and ready to open for the public. It's been a long time coming, and we appreciate our supporters so much. There are a lot of businesses that contributed supplies for us, and there are a lot of foundations and donors that contributed to our capital campaign that kept construction going for four years.

"So, it's really been a community response to our dream."

What is Carpenter Square Theatre's first show in its new home about?  

Before she shouted, "lights up," and signaled actor Ed Spinelli, who plays bar owner Freddy, to take the stage for the first scene of "Picasso at the Lapin Agile," Clark recited for the cast the procedures for putting on a show in the new space.

"I'll try not to cry when we open. This has been a long process with a lot of ups and downs over two years, when we did our last performance on Main Street, which was a Steve Martin play, as well, which I directed, 'Meteor Shower.' And we intended to open (the new space) that fall," Clark told The Oklahoman backstage at a June 29 rehearsal.

"We were very naive about the process of renovations and everything at the time. So, I'm going to be thrilled when we open and we can welcome people."

Martin’s first play, "Picasso at the Lapin Agile" puts Albert Einstein (Joshua Henry) and Pablo Picasso (David Burkhart) in a Paris cafe in 1904. The story also involves a time-traveling rock 'n' roll singer from the 1950s who wears blue suede shoes, Clark teased. 

"Having worked on this play for coming close to two years now, I've only got three of the original cast members — three out of 10," said Clark, who has been Carpenter Square’s artistic director since 1999. 

"I would imagine it's the longest rehearsal process for any show."

Carpenter Square's July 7-29 performances of "Picasso at the Lapin Agile" follow a successful June 24 open house and June 25 open house and ribbon-cutting ceremony at the new space.

"The feedback from people who attended our open houses was just fantastic. People were shocked. ... They were just like, 'This is so beautiful.' So, seeing those looks on their faces reenergized me," Clark said

"We're back to our roots of a warehouse, which is really exciting."

How many homes has Carpenter Square Theatre had leading up to the debut of its new OKC space?

The new space in downtown OKC's West Village District will be the community theater's sixth performance home in its almost four-decade history.   

"That's if you count the show-tel out on Reno and Martin Luther King ... after Stage Center flooded in 2010," Clark told The Oklahoma in 2022. "We were there for a season ... and it was rough. If I was ever going to run away, that would have been when I did."   

Started in the Carpenter Paper warehouse where the Oklahoma County jail now stands, Carpenter Square’s players also have performed in a converted department store, the Myriad Gardens and Kerr Park. After the flooding of Stage Center, which was demolished in 2014, the company put on shows for a year at the Bricktown Hotel & Convention Center before moving into a new space at 800 W Main.  

As development on Film Row boosted the value of its previous home, the theater was operating on a month-to-month lease that became untenable. So, Carpenter Square's board and staff searched for a year and a half for the new location, picking a newly burgeoning area of downtown near the historic OKC Farmers Public Market.   

"Of course, we hope people return often to enjoy the plays, but we also think they'll want to come back because the place is just so dang cool," Rick Allen Lippert, chairman of the Carpenter Square Theatre board of directors, told The Oklahoman by email. 

What can people expect from Carpenter Square Theatre's new downtown OKC home?  

Due to the March 2020 COVID-19 outbreak, Carpenter Square was forced to end its 2019-2020 season abruptly, with only intermittent performances in its 2020-2021 season. In April 2021, a downtown warehouse fire destroyed 35 years' worth of props, sets and costumes that were in storage. 

But the new space puts everything Carpenter Square needs in one place, Clark said.

"Everything is under one roof: our rehearsal studios, our box office, our amenities for our audience, our storage, our dressing rooms, our stage. ... That saves so much time and energy, not moving things in and out or traipsing to a storage facility," she said.

The theater boasts 120 plush seats with plenty of legroom, plus a drink rail and purse hooks on each of the seven seating tiers.  

"It's gonna allow us to grow our audience, since this house is bigger than what we've had for the last 11 years," Clark said. "We're going to have to rebuild our patron base. I've been through every move with the theater, and in the past, it has taken us three years to rebuild and for people to find us. Well, we don't want that: We want people to know about us now and be able to find us. So, it's really gonna stabilize us. We know we're gonna be here."

What's coming up for Carpenter Square's 40th anniversary season?

Clark made her Carpenter Square acting debut during the community theater's initial 1984-85 season, when she co-starred in the regional premiere of Harvey Fierstein’s “Torch Song Trilogy."

"I came on the board in 1988 and then came on as a part-time artistic director in the '90s. And then I came on full time in '99," she said.

"This will be the last move for me. But it's really been wonderful to have that history with the theater."

After its long-awaited production of Martin’s “Picasso at the Lapin Agile," Carpenter Square Theatre will prepare for its 40th season, which will begin Labor Day weekend. The first show of the anniversary season will be Stephen Adly Guirgis' Pulitzer Prize-winning drama “Between Riverside and Crazy," with performances Sept. 1-23.

The first full season in Carpenter Square's new home will continue with “Kodachrome,” a romantic comedy-drama by Adam Szymkowicz, Oct. 13-Nov. 4; “Clue: Onstage,” a farcical murder-mystery adapted from the screenplay by Jonathan Lynn, Nov. 24-Dec. 16; “Sheepdog,” a drama by Kevin Artigue, Jan. 12-Feb. 3; and “Ben Butler," a historical dramatic comedy by Richard Strand, Feb. 23-March 16.

The season will continue into 2024 with “Fireflies,” a romantic comedy by "Enchanted April" playwright Matthew Barber, April 5-27; “Hope and Gravity,” a comedy by Michael Hollinger, May 17-June 28; and “Lifespan of a Fact," a comedy by Jeremy Kareken, David Murrell and Gordon Farrell, June 28-July 20.

Veal made his Carpenter Square acting debut during the theater's inaugural season in Caryl Churchill’s time-shifting, gender-bending comedy “Cloud Nine.” So, the opportunity to perform in the first show in the nonprofit theater's new permanent home is particularly special.

Plus, Veal said he will direct the 40th anniversary season production of "Fireflies" next spring.

"It's a real sweet show ... but it's all sweet," he said. "To see this happen in my lifetime — although there were times when I wasn't sure I was gonna see it my lifetime, but we made it — it just blows my mind."

'Picasso at the Lapin Agile'

When: July 7-29.

Where: Carpenter Square Theatre's new home, 1009 W Reno, downtown Oklahoma City. 

Tickets and information: https://www.carpentersquare.com.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: An OKC theater company is celebrating its 40th season with a new venue